Sequels (and prequels) are examples of one of a series of books “with the same characters and/or following a similar theme”. In fact, many of the 7,357 titles included here are in series, and series, paradoxically, are usually very popular in libraries but get very little critical attention from reviewers. Anderson follows other reference works in the children’s field (like Fiction Sequels for Readers 10 to 16, now in its second edition) with the work under review. It covers works, mainly fiction and with US imprints, published (or republished) in the last 30 or so years in the English language. The intended age range/reading ages are indicated by US grades, pre‐school to sixth grade: picture books (k‐3), easy readers (2‐5), novels (4‐6) and works for more challenged readers (2‐5). A typical entry is as follows:
7350. Zion, Gene. Harry the Dirty Dog (Harper, 1956/1976) k‐3. Harry hates baths, but one day he gets so dirty that even his owners don’t recognize him.
Also under Zion come other works like No Roses for Harry, Harry and the Lady Next Door, and Harry by the Sea.
Reference works like this are useful, and there are a number of American examples (such as the earlier Anderson, first edition 1990; Susan Roman’s Sequences, ALA, 1985; and Judith Rosenberg’s Young People’s Books in Series, Libraries Unlimited, 1992). They help identify works in series, particularly for librarians buying them and users reading them (answers to the question “What can I read now?”). They can help selection, providing a good specialised survey of what is and has been published. At the same time, and in this case, many of the sequels are in fact series which are or have been very popular and might arguably need no promotion (for example, Adamson’s Topsy and Tim, Awdry’s Thomas the Tank Engine, Blyton’s Secret Seven, Dick Bruna’s Miffy, de Brunhoff’s Babar, and Hargreaves’ Little Miss). There is a wealth of series about animals and adventure where recording them in this way is a matter of bibliographical perfectionism, although there might be times when a reader wants them (like the many Three Investigators books by numerous authors, mysteries and “the case of” books from writers as famous or obscure as Murphy and Levy, Newman and Paulsen, Quackenbush and Razzi [his Sherlock Bones series!], Warner and Wright). Works may be in or out of print, since coverage extends back to the 1960s and beyond: Hans Andreus and “BB”, Duvoisin and Fatio, Hildick and Kerr, Minarik and Parish [her Amelia Bedelia books], Postgate and Steig, H.E. Todd of Bobby Brewster fame and Alison Uttley. Some are good, many are ordinary, some are worth having on library shelves, others will have found more modern counterparts (like the many fluffy bunny books). There are the greats like Graham Oakley’s Church Mice, Byars and Cresswell, the eternal Orlando cat from Kathleen Hale, Susan Coolidge’s What Katy Did (although Biggles and Ant and Bee and Pugwash and Milly‐Molly‐Mandy also appear).
So it is a work full of sequels there but not all worth getting, opening the reader’s eyes to the range of books published in recent decades, making no obvious qualitative judgement, providing no reading order (if it is different from the date order of publication), and offering some cross‐referencing but not much. Some editing is needed too (for example, why Bland rather than Nesbit, Padding instead of Paddington?), and no appendix on grades as implied in the Introduction. Useful, full of good things some of which are obvious, more a portrait of sequel/series publishing over the last three decades than a direct guide to selection, as much a guide to popular reading culture as a list of children’s reading. For the money it is reasonable value for an academic environment where children’s literature is studied and for a working library where series and sequels play any significant part.
