Academic literature on the topic 'Magicians – Biography – Juvenile literature'

Recent biographers of Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) have begun the job of attempting to differentiate the man from the ‘myth.’ A necessary stage in the assessment of any historical figure is the identification of the legendary aspects that make up that figure's reputation. The tale of the young Nelson engaging a huge polar bear on an ice floe off Spitsbergen in 1773 has been met with varying degrees of delight and dismissal through the years, and is one of the events an examination of which could improve an understanding of Nelson and his reputation. This paper draws upon a study of primary and secondary materials: original manuscripts and correspondence, early nineteenth-century popular biographies, souvenirs and pamphlets, periodical reviews, and a wide selection of adult and juvenile literature. This paper examines the developments of Nelsonian biography and hagiography. In a broader sense, an extended examination of the literary and visual manifestations of Nelson's encounter with the bear becomes a useful historiographical exercise into the genesis of a myth.

محمد حسن بريغش هو أديب وناقد دمشقي، من المثقفين المهتمين بقضايا المسلمين، وكان واحداً من أعظم المنظرين للأدب الإسلامي بمؤلفات متعددة، وللأديب بريغش مئات من المقالات التي نشرت في الصحف والمجلات العربية والإسلامية. وهو من الأدباء الكبار الذين يعتنون بالأدب الإسلامي ويعلون راية الإسلام في أدبهم، وله مصنفات عديدة في النقد الأدبي والتراجم والفكر الإسلامي كما أنه يهتم بتربية الأمة والمرأة المسلمة، وكانت كتابة القصة آخر أعماله قبل رحيله، ونشر المجموعة القصصية (الشيخ والزعيم)، وبفضل ثراء هذه الإسهامات، عد بريغش رائداً من رواد الأدب الإسلامي، وهو يتميز بالحس الإسلامي الفريد الذي جعله يقدم كثيراً من التناولات النقدية في الشعر والقصة وأدب الأطفال في ضوء التصور الإسلامي. وعلى الرغم من غزارة إنتاجه، قلّت الدراسات التي تتناول بشكل عميق حياته وثقافته وآثاره الأدبية وتوجهاته الفكرية. لذا، تأتي هذه الدراسة لتسلط الضوء على هذه الأمور كلها. وتهدف هذه الدراسة إلى إبراز خلفية بريغش العلمية والعملية مع عرض مؤلفاته الوافرة. وانطلاقاً من هذا الأمر، تقوم الباحثة بوصف المعلومات الموجودة وأقوال الأدباء حوله مع القيام بتحليلها. توصّلت الدراسة إلى أن شخصية بريغش، قد شكّلتها عوامل عديدة: تشجيع أبيه المستمر له تجاه المطالعة، وغرس أمه له بالصفات المحمودة، وأسلوب أستاذه الفعّال في زيادة حبه للعلم. أما بالنسبة إلى المحيط الجاد الذي يعيش فيه فهو عامل جانبي له تأثير في شخصيته. اكتسب منه الدأب والمثابرة بشكل غير مباشر من خلال ملاحظته ن ومن ناحية أخرى، وجدت الدراسة أن بريغش قدّم إسهامات كبرى أفادت المجتمع العربي خاصةً والناس عامةً بمؤلفاته العديدة القيمة التي كان يهدف منها نشر الدعوة الإسلامية. الكلمات المفتاحيّة: محمد حسن بريغش، الأديب السوري، الأدب الإسلامي، النقد الأدبي. Abstract Muhammad Hasan Burayghish is one of Damascus’s writers and critics who was concerned about Muslim issues. He was also one of the prominent theorists of Islamic literature who have great number of writings, including literary criticism, biographical studies and Islamic thought as well as education of the Muslim nation and women, published in Arabic newspapers and journals. Apart from that, he was also interested in short story writing and managed to publish his collection of stories entitled (al-Shaikh wa al-Za’im – The sheikh and the leader) before his demise. With all these great contributions, he was deemed as one of the salient pioneers of Islamic literature who played great role in poetry and prose critics as well as juvenile literature especially in the light of Islamic concept. Although he has abundance of writings, there is lack of deep studies on his personal life, educational and working background and his literary career. Therefore, this study is aimed to highlight these matters as well as his numerous writings in detail. The researcher has analyzed critically the information related to Burayghish and the statements of writers upon him. This study found that there are several factors which have set up his high character. Those factors are, continuous encouragement by his father towards reading, instilling of praiseworthy qualities by his mother and effective styles of his teacher in increasing his love towards knowledge. As for the tough place that surrounds him, it was side factors which have influenced his character and personality. He gained diligence and perseverance indirectly through his observation. This study also found that he has given huge contribution towards Arabic people especially, when he left them with hundreds of his Islamic remarkable books and writings. Keywords: Muhammad Hasan Burayghish, Syrian writer, Islamic literature, Literary criticism.

News and AnnouncementsAs we move into the so-called “summer reading” mode (although reading is obviously not a seasonal thing for many people), here is a “summery” (pardon the pun) of some recent Canadian book awards and shortlists.To see the plethora of Forest of Reading ® tree awards from the Ontario Library Association, go to https://www.accessola.org/WEB/OLAWEB/Forest_of_Reading/About_the_Forest.aspx. IBBY Canada (the Canadian national section of the International Board on Books for Young People) announced that the Claude Aubry Award for distinguished service in the field of children’s literature will be presented to Judith Saltman and Jacques Payette. Both winners will receive their awards in conjunction with a special event for children's literature in the coming year. http://www.ibby-canada.org/ibby-canadas-aubry-award-presented-2015/IBBY Canada also awarded the 2015 Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Picture Book Award to Pierre Pratt, illustrator of Stop, Thief!. http://www.ibby-canada.org/awards/elizabeth-mrazik-cleaver-award/The annual reading programme known as First Nation Communities Read (FNCR) and the Periodical Marketers of Canada (PMC) jointly announced Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth about Lies about Indians by Darrell Dennis (Douglas & McIntyre) as the FNCR 2015-2016 title as well as winner of PMC’s $5000 Aboriginal Literature Award. A jury of librarians from First Nations public libraries in Ontario, with coordination support from Southern Ontario Library Service, selected Peace Pipe Dreams from more than 19 titles submitted by Canadian publishers. “In arriving at its selection decision, the jury agreed that the book is an important one that dispels myths and untruths about Aboriginal people in Canada today and sets the record straight. The author tackles such complicated issues such as religion, treaties, and residential schools with knowledge, tact and humour, leaving readers with a greater understanding of our complex Canadian history.” http://www.sols.org/index.php/links/fn-communities-readCharis Cotter, author of The Swallow: A Ghost Story, has been awarded The National Chapter of Canada IODE Violet Downey Book Award for 2015. Published by Tundra Books, the novel is suggested for children ages nine to 12. http://www.iode.ca/2015-iode-violet-downey-book-award.htmlThe 2015 winners of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards were selected by two juries of young readers from Toronto’s Alexander Muir / Gladstone Avenue Junior and Senior Public School. A jury of grade 3 and 4 students selected the recipient of the Children’s Picture Book Award, and a jury of grade 7 and 8 students selected the recipient of the Young Adult / Middle Reader Award. Each student read the books individually and then worked together with their group to reach consensus and decide on a winner. This process makes it a unique literary award in Canada.The Magician of Auschwitz by Kathy Kacer and illustrated by Gillian Newland (Second Story Press) won the Children’s Picture Book Category.The winner for the Young Adult/Middle Reader Category was The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins Publishers).http://www.ontarioartsfoundation.on.ca/pages/ruth-sylvia-schwartz-awardsFrom the Canadian Library Association:The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier (Penguin Canada) was awarded CLA’s 2015 Book of the Year for Children Award.Any Questions?, written and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books) won the 2015 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award.This One Summer by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood) was awarded the 2015 Young Adult Book Award.http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Book_Awards&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=16132The 2015 Winner of the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Awards for Best Juvenile/YA Book was Sigmund Brouwer’s Dead Man's Switch (Harvest House). http://crimewriterscanada.com/Regional awards:Alberta’s Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature 2015:Little You by Richard Van Camp (Orca Book Publishers) http://www.bookcentre.ca/awards/r_ross_annett_award_childrens_literatureRocky Mountain Book Award 2015:Last Train: A Holocaust Story by Rona Arato. (Owl Kids, 2013) http://www.rmba.info/last-train-holocaust-storyAtlantic Book Awards 2015 from the Atlantic Book Awards SocietyAnn Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature: The End of the Line by Sharon E. McKay (Annick Press).Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration: Music is for Everyone illustrated by Sydney Smith and written by Jill Barber (Nimbus Publishing) http://atlanticbookawards.ca/awards/Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award 2015:English fiction: Scare Scape by Sam Fisher.English non-fiction: WeirdZone: Sports by Maria Birmingham.French fiction: Toxique by Amy Lachapelle.French non-fiction: Au labo, les Débrouillards! by Yannick Bergeron. http://hackmatack.ca/en/index.htmlFrom the 2015 BC Book Prizes for authors and/or illustrators living in British Columbia or the Yukon:The Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize was awarded to Dolphin SOS by Roy Miki and Slavia Miki with illustrations by Julie Flett (Tradewind).The Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize for “novels, including chapter books, and non-fiction books, including biography, aimed at juveniles and young adults, which have not been highly illustrated” went to Maggie de Vries for Rabbit Ears (HarperCollins). http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2015The 2015 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (MYRCA) was awarded to Ultra by David Carroll. http://www.myrca.ca/Camp Outlook by Brenda Baker (Second Story Press) was the 2015 winner of the SaskEnergy Young Adult Literature Award. http://www.bookawards.sk.ca/awards/awards-nominees/2015-awards-and-nominees/category/saskenergy-young-adult-literature-awardFor more information on Canadian children’s book awards check out http://www.canadianauthors.net/awards/. Please note that not all regional awards are included in this list; if you are so inclined, perhaps send their webmaster a note regarding an award that you think should be included.Happy reading and exploring.Yours in stories (in all seasons and shapes and sizes)Gail de VosGail de Vos is an adjunct professor who teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, young adult literature, and commic books and graphic novels at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) at the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades.

Abstract The anti-Catullan and anti-elegiac perspective characterizing Horace's erotic Odes builds on elements of the biography of his persona found in his juvenile collections, the Satires and the Epodes, where the construction of Horace's poetic autobiography as a lover brings together matters of didactics, ethics and literary criticism.

This chapter discusses the children’s books written by political philosopher and literary figure William Godwin, which he produced for his London-based publishing-cum-bookselling enterprise “Juvenile Library” (1805–1825). According to Godwin, he used to “consult” his own five children in the process of producing these books—a claim whose import has been overlooked in the growing body of critical studies of these books. The “Juvenile Library” books earned State surveillance and public attention in a historical era marked by State repression of free speech during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). Criticism has, justifiably, appreciated these books as a development of Godwin’s radical political thought and liberal pedagogies in the 1790s. However, by analyzing Godwin’s children’s biography Life of Lady Jane Grey (1806), this chapter asserts that the provocative nature of these books derives from Godwin’s pioneering initiation of processes of intergenerational dialogue. The chapter shows that Godwin initiates such dialogue by demonstrating to child readers that texts can be read productively in multiple and dissonant ways.

A shared interest in the practice of colonization as a form of predation and capture provides a surprising link between Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s writings about systematic colonization and Charlotte Brontë’s whimsical juvenile writings. Both present their ideas in fictional form, and their colonies as imaginative constructs. Wakefield’s theory, which was influential in shaping British colonial policy, involved transporting working-class families to Australia to establish a labour force within new settlements. To reinforce the difference between his scheme and that of chattel slavery, he emphasized the freedom of his workers. Yet his scheme entailed significant restraints of their personal liberties: their freedom of movement, association, and right to own property, as well as the requirement to marry and have children. Similar preoccupations are evident in an earlier episode in Wakefield’s biography, in which he kidnapped a young woman in order to marry her for her family’s wealth and prestige. Brontë, who was roughly the same age as Wakefield’s young victim, explores these themes explicitly in her own teenage accounts of a colony in Africa, Glass Town. Co-authored with her siblings, this intricate saga of conquest and settlement by a group of European explorers presents a juvenile commentary on contemporary colonial practices. It reveals the coercive violence within the colony, as well as the submerged erotic elements within it. It also shows the ways this same violence underpins fictional narratives, especially the marriage plots that Brontë develops in her mature works.