This has been compiled with a sure hand. John Gillespie is an old hand in the field, with other works to his credit (such as Best Books for Junior High Readers, Bowker, 1991; Junior plots4: A Book Talk Guide for Use with Readers Ages 12‐16, Bowker, 1993; and others) and with Folcarelli compiled Guides to Library Collection Development for Libraries Unlimited, 1994). Although clearly for a mainly US market, they are all sound, well‐selected, informative, up‐to‐date, and worth the money. The same can be said for the work under review, Guides to Collection Development for Children and Young Adults. It is based on parts of the 1994 guides (which reviewed works between 1986 and late 1993), and contents and annotations have been fully revised to take account of the new work: 300 new entries, reflecting recommended titles published between 1994 and the start of 1997 (a total of 633 entries). They are arranged in five major categories (periodicals, sources for both children and young adults, sources for pre‐school to grade 6, sources for young adults (grades 7‐12), and sources for professionals).
The scope consists of works likely to be found in professional collections in libraries and curriculum centres for use by educators and other adults, in other words a listing relevant for librarians and educationalists building up collections for such groups and wanting to get the right thing so that they can be used in their turn to buy more of the right thing. Entries include bibliographical citation and source, with a 100‐or‐so word annotation describing and evaluating the work, picking out criteria used for and in the work, how good it is (some are essential, others desirable, none a waste of time) in the form of coverage and arrangement, indexes and special features. ISBNs and prices (in dollars) are provided. Each entry is subject keyworded, and the author‐title and subject indexes at the back comprehensively cover entry‐points into the general list.
Key works keep turning up. Periodicals like Bookbird and Horn Book, Library Journal and School Library Journal. Sources for children include many from familiar stables like Bowker and Gale and the American Library Association, H.W. Wilson and Scarecrow and Libraries Unlimited, all well‐known US specialists, and pick up awards; computer software and Internet sources; generic materials like science fiction, books representing family values; information fields like environment and war and the USA itself. Other areas are reading therapy, multiculturalism, music, film and video, authors and biography, graphic novels, sequels, and multimedia. The choice is sure and well‐presented ‐ classics like Wilson’s Fiction Index and Short Story Index, the Reader’s Adviser series from Bowker, Grolier’s multimedia output, works on popular culture from the St James Press ‐ all these should be there, in such a book and ideally in libraries serving children and young people. Gillespie and Folcarelli, then, have put together a helpful work, value‐for‐money, American in origin and bias but of universal interest and application. Good for them! Worth getting and using until, hopefully, the next edition comes along.
