I am editing A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Poetry (for Facts on
File, Inc., a publisher that enjoys very wide distribution in libraries,
colleges and high schools, as well as bookstores). The project has been
ongoing for about a year, and the volume is scheduled to appear in 2004.
There are still a number of essays (including some major authors, poems and
topics) to be assigned.

The volume will be peer reviewed. Payment for essays will be in
presentational offprints and, too, for the large topic essays, a copy of the
book. All essays will carry the author's name, and a list of contributors
will appear in the back of the book.

Perhaps more than other children's literature and film, preschool books
and television programs tend to be rooted in teaching the very young
something or other -- letters, numbers, colours, music, sports, values.

What is not clear is just what sort of research on cognitive and emotional
development supports these pedagogic efforts.

Are some books and television shows better than others at promoting
development and acuity in small children, and, if so, why?

What does research in developmental and behavioural paediatrics and in
social learning tell us about optimizng infant development, about the role
of observational learning, about how to promote moral reasoning and
language development?

Canadian Children's Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse,
a refereed journal founded in 1975, invites papers on the subject of
Design/Designing for Children. We welcome papers that examine the
design of children's books and posters, toys and games, television and
videos, theatre and performances, newspapers and magazines,
museums and libraries, parks and playworlds. We hope to highlight the
designer's crucial role in conceiving of and shaping our ideas about what
we think expresses a child's imagination, meets a child's needs, and
defines what is special about their province and perspective. Some of the
questions we hope to address are as follows: