Michelle AeiltsEnglish 401Critical Summary of Journals in Adolescent and Children’s LiteratureThe study of adolescent and children’s literature is a fairly new field in English studies. In fact, Illinois State University is one of the few universities across the United States that offers an extensive and widely respected children’s literature program for the advanced degree. While literature of all genres has been used in education for centuries (think back to Plato and Socrates), and while the genre of children’s literature has conceptually developed over the past century (from chapbooks to nursery rhymes to fairy tales), the academic field of children’s literature in education has been a more recent phenomenon. "In Britain, the rise of the 'quality' children's book in the 1950s and early 1960s had several consequences. One, an excellent one, was that many talented authors, some of them already established as writers for adults, were attracted into the field. Another was that people, notably educators, who had previously shown little interest in children's literature began to take notice of it" (Panaou 1). With the use of children’s literature, both in secondary school and university classrooms, “critical approaches to the study and teaching of children’s literature have proliferated in English departments in collegeand universities in the period since the early 1970s when journals such as Children’s Literature and Children’s Literature Association Quarterly were founded and the Children’s Literature Association, allied with the Modern Language Association came into being” (Stahl v). Along with these general children’s literature journals, the National Council of Teacher’s of English created journals that focused specifically on the use of children’s literature in the classroom.The following abstracts review many of the foremost journals in the field of children’s and adolescent literature, and focus on those that are specific to the educational use of children’s and adolescent literature in the classroom.Journals:School Library JournalSchool Library Journal is both a print and online resource, intended to assist school and public librarians. The print journal was established in 1954 and published under Reed Business Information. The journal contains a variety of information, including sections that cover news about new books and awards in publishing; “of the Week” sections for popular and noteworthy books, web sites, videos, and audio (a compilation of musical versions of nursery rhymes and fairy tales and books on tape or CD); ArtSpeak, which is a discussion of new mediums and techniques in picture books, along with helpful definitions for scholarly discussion of illustrations in picture books. The journal also features several academic sections that focus on issues in adolescent literature. In the October 2003 issues of the journal, the editorial section provided helpful information on choosing adolescent literature to supplement the textbooks used in the classroom and discussed the growing importance of collaboration between librarian and educator to resolve the growing dilution of school textbooks. The “Make Your Point” section voices opinions, validated by research and field expertise, concerning recent trends in children’s and adolescent literature. Past issues have covered violence in contemporary novels, fear depiction and picture books, verse as a form of narration in novels, and popular genres in young adult literature.Scholars should not be dissuaded from the journal title and dismiss the journal as only beneficial to librarians. This journal provides information for children (book reviews, author sites, and webreviews), parents (buyers guides, technology information, recent trends and issues), educators (book lists, teacher resources, innovators spotlights, and chat rooms), and librarians (editorials, building public influence, and periodical information). Most recently, the online version of the journal has created two journals to run as supplements. Learning Quarterly will be published four times a year and will seek to “equip school librarians with the resources and strategies they need to be leaders in an array of areas ringed by technology and the curriculum.” It will address issues in education and focus on the collaboration between librarians, educators, and school administrators. The second journal is Críticas, a journal to review current trends in Spanish-language publishing.While the online version of School Library Journal is a little daunting to navigate, it offers a breadth of valuable information that is condensed in the print version, for those who are not as comfortable with computer applications. The online version of the journal can be found at the following web site: http://slj.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?publication=slj.Reading OnlineIn May of 1997, the International Reading Association launched a peer-reviewed journal attempting to focus on the practice of literacy in the classroom. The IRA’s membership consists of classroom teachers, administrators, librarians, university faculty, parents, reading specialists, along with others, and according to the International Reading Association website, was designed to promote literacy by “improving the quality of reading instruction, disseminating research and information about reading, and encouraging the lifetime reading habit.” The journal is peer reviewed, but an editorial council, consisting of university professors from around the world, determines the submissions to be submitted for review. The most recent issue’s articles are “Searching Information Texts: Text and Task Characteristics That Affect Performance,” “Bilingual Books: Promoting Literacy and Biliteracy in the Second-Language and Mainstream Classroom,” “A Few Things Reading Educators Should Know About Instructional Experiments,”“Reading on the Internet: The Link Between Literacy and Technology,” “Pen-pal Letters: The Cross-Curricular Experience,” and “International Reports on Literacy Research: Canada.” All articles are included to demonstrate interest in the issue of worldwide literacy education, and can range in form from commentaries about recent practice, editorials, professional reviews, and general topics of interest concerning literacy.Of interest to this particular journal is that readers are expected to be familiar with