Index to Fairy Tales, 1987-1992: Including 310 Collections of Fairy Tales, Folktales, Myths, and Legends with Significant Pre-1987 Titles Not Previously Indexed FROM THE PUBLISHER
This new publication, the seventh in the series, includes fairy tales, folk tales, fables, myths, and legends. The major change in this edition is that each entry (author, title, or subject) gives the exact source; no longer is the location found only under the title entry. The descriptive part of an entry (formerly limited to the title as printed) is often made more informative by the title listing being extended, reworded, or even replaced. There are 310 collections included, 85% of them published from 1980 through 1991. All index entries for stories in collections suitable to children (preschool through middle school) are marked with an asterisk (*). Books were selected by referral to reviews and/or evidence of use in public libraries. The List of Titles Indexed includes full bibliographic citation, the review(s) consulted, the book's reading level, and the indexing level. The 310 titles can be classified: all levels, including children (25%); junior/senior high school (44%); adult public library or college (24%); graduate (7%). The book aims at being qualitatively comprehensive for children's collections.
Author Biography: Joseph Sprug (MA, Catholic University of America) has taught both philosophy and library science. Sprug has reviewed hundreds of books, made indexes for more than 500 books, edited a periodical index, published numerous books.
FROM THE CRITICS
Reference Reviews
The work is comprehensive and provides a useful service..
BookList
In this seventh supplement to a popular series begun by Mary Eastman in 1915 and continued by Norma Olin Ireland, author and subject, as well as title, entries note the book where a tale may be found. (In earlier volumes, this information was noted only under title entries.) Though the purpose of the book remains the same--providing access to collections of fairy tales with coverage "comprehensive for the children's area"--about 50 percent of the 310 titles indexed are aimed at the librarian, researcher, teacher, or student of folklore. Sprug, a librarian, compiled "Ireland's Index to Inspiration" (1990) and the previous volume (1989) of the work reviewed here
The detailed introduction notes the distribution of books indexed by date (only 46 percent were published between the years cited in the title) and includes an explanation of indexing level, reading level, and other information noted in entries
There are some reservations about this work. For example, entries for at least 43 professional reference tools, such as Betsy Hearne's "Choosing Books for Children: A Commonsense Guide" (1990), are interspersed with entries for tales. The previous volumes in this series indexed strictly collections of folk and fairy tales rather than critical material for researchers. It is confusing to find reference works intermingled with collections of tales. This often means that the user has to consult more than one source to locate the story desired. Why not create two categories in this work: (1) collections of fairy tales, and (2) reference and critical tools? This book, moreover, includes poetry, such as "Halloween ABC" (1990) by Eve Merriam, and folklore, such as Simon Bronner's "Piled Higher and Deeper: The Folklore of Campus Life" (1990). It is strange that Jane Yolen's masterful "Favorite Folktales from around the World" (1986), with its excellent bibliographies, is missing from the list of indexed sources. The increasing number of modern retellings and spoofs on older tales such as were done so well by James Marshall are also not indexed. Turning to the index itself, there is ambiguity about the headings used for Native Americans, with this term used as well as "American Indians" and "Indians", followed by geographic location or tribe. On the plus side, there seems to be a balance of tales from different ethnic groups
Since this seems to be a tool for the professional, with a heavy emphasis on research, libraries should purchase based on their use of earlier volumes in the series.
Booknews
The seventh continuation of the index, bringing it up to include collections and editions of fairy tales and their ilk published in 1992. The major change from previous editions is that the exact source is cited in all entries rather just in the main entries. The descriptions have also been spiffed up to be more informative. Cites the full bibliographic information and the suitable reading level from elementary to graduate school. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Home
