Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2020 -

Meisel is a distinguished scholar of bilingualism, and he has made the additional commitment of making his expertise available to parents who are considering raising their children bilingually. After many years of running a web counseling service, writing for the general press, and lecturing on the topic, Meisel has written a book that distills his knowledge and long experience. He introduces some of the science that underlies current understanding of bilingualism, and he addresses some key questions: Is it possible for a child to acquire two languages simultaneously? If so, how can one facilitate this acquisition? Will the child mix the languages and end up not speaking either language well? What if the child is exposed to three or more languages? Though the writing is not technical, it does presuppose a well-educated reader. This study will be valuable to all who are interested in or curious about bilingualism.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

In this erudite study, Cecire (Bard College) demonstrates the pervasive and revolutionary impact of the Oxford School, originated by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, on genre conventions and reader expectations regarding modern children's fantasy literature. In the first chapter, the author situates these conventions in the Anglo-Saxon and medieval curriculum championed by--and utilized in the fiction of--Lewis and Tolkien at Oxford, a persistence that retained the foundational texts other institutions eschewed. Cecire goes on to examine the popular children's fantasy fiction that arose from this curriculum's students (Susan Cooper, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Diana Wynne Jones, and Philip Pullman) and compares it to Cambridge alumnus T. H. White's version of the medieval. The third chapter examines the Oxford School's primary genre conventions of belief in magic, wonder, and the triumph of good over evil via the trope of Christmas; the fourth confronts the Anglocentric and Caucasian biases of these texts. Cecire concludes by noting contemporary revisioning of children's fantasy literature to emphasize inclusivity and diversity. Effectively, Cecire proves that in terms of modern children's fantasy literature, all roads lead to the Oxford School.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

Just when one despairs of the future of literary studies (of their death-by-politicization), a book like this appears. Few readers will learn much from, or disagree with, Mack's overarching argument, which is that literary writers imitate their forebears and contemporaries in myriad ways, for myriad purposes--in other words, that there exists an empowering literary tradition. But Mack (English, Univ. of Warwick, UK) presents a series of luminously instructive, close readings of specific works. Not surprisingly for a specialist in the Renaissance, these include works by Petrarch, Chaucer, Boccaccio, Ariosto, Tasso, and Spenser. But very surprisingly, the book's two best chapters discuss much more recent novels: Mrs. Gaskell's 1848 tale of urban industrial poverty Mary Barton and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's 2006 story of love and postcolonial political intrigue Wizard of the Crow (the latter draws on biblical, English literary, and African traditions). All Mack's readings are historically and biographically informed, and all are attentive to rhetoric, description, and characterization. Mack treats complicated matters with an easy clarity that makes the book a delight to read. His discussions are at once enthusiastic and well reasoned--focused on exactly what makes each of the texts so effective.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through facultly; general readers.