Through the Eyes of a Child : An Introduction to Children's Literature

Donna Norton. Following the completion of her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Donna E. Norton joined the College of Education faculty at Texas A&M University where she now holds the rank of professor. She teaches courses in children's literature, language arts, and reading. Dr. Norton is the recipient of the Texas A&M Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching. This award is given "in recognition and appreciation of ability, personality, and methods which have resulted in distinguished achievements in the teaching and the inspiration of students:" She is also the recipient of the Virginia Hamilton Essay Award, presented by the Virginia Hamilton Conference Advisory Board at Kent State University. This annual award recognizes an article that "makes a significant contribution to the professional literature concerning multicultural literature experiences for youth." She is listed in Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World. Several of her articles and chapters from books have been translated into Chinese and are used in Chinese universities.

Dr. Norton is the author of four books in addition to this volume: The Effective Teaching of Language Arts, 6th edition, Language Arts Activities for Children, 5th edition, Multicultural Children's Literature: Through the Eyes o f Many Children, and The Impact o f Literature-Based Reading. Her publications include 20 textbooks and over 100 journal articles. At the international level, she has been on the International Reading Association's Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Committee, President of the International Society of Educational Biography, on numerous editorial boards for professional journals, and presenter at international conferences including the Conference on Children's Literature at Providence University in Taiwan. The focus of her current research is on the authentication of biographical literature, historical fiction, and multicultural literature. She is also researching the literature and writing connection. Funded research has supported institutes in children's literature and the literacy connection as well as graduate courses that enable students to study children's literature and reading instruction in England and Scotland. She is currently the Grant Writing Chair for the Bush Museum Storytellers Guild. Her work with the Texas A&M University Evans Library and the Bush Library has resulted in several Storytelling Festivals that highlight the work of distinguished storytellers and provide training for university students in the art of storytelling.

Prior to her college teaching experience, Dr. Norton was an elementary teacher in River Falls, Wisconsin and in Madison, Wisconsin. She was a Language Arts/Reading Consultant for federally funded kindergarten through adult basic education programs. In this capacity she developed, provided in-service instruction, and evaluated kindergarten programs, summer reading and library programs, remedial reading programs, learning disability programs for middle school children, elementary and secondary literature programs for the gifted, and diagnostic and intervention programs for reading-disabled adults. Dr. Norton's continuing concern for literature results in frequent consultations with educators from various disciplines, librarians, and school administrators and teachers.

Saundra Norton completed her master's degree at Texas A&M University where she majored in American literature with an emphasis in children's literature and textual bibliography. Under the sponsorship of a Jordan Fellowship she studied German language, culture, and folklore at the Goethe Institute in Germany. Her current academic concentration is in I 9th century American literature and biographical studies. She is a frequent participant at national and international conferences. Her paper presented at the 15th International Ezra Pound Conference in Italy was presented the Bates Award for the best essay written by a graduate student while in the doctoral program at the University of South Carolina. Saundra has won numerous competitions for her writing including being selected for the Prague Summer Seminars, the Paris Writers Workshop, Bread Loaf Writers Conference at Middlebury College, in Middlebury-Vermont, and Sewanee Writer's Conference at the University of the South. Her poetry has been published in several scholarly journals and she has given poetry readings in Prague, Key West, Paris, and at Wesleyan College. She is listed in Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Saundra is the coauthor of Language Arts Activities for Children, 5th edition.

Amy McClure. Dr. Amy McClure is Rodefer Professor of Education and Director of the Early Childhood program at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she teaches courses in children's literature and early literacy and supervises student teachers. She also coordinates the University's Honors Program. Dr. McClure is the author and editor of several books including Sunrises and Songs: Reading and Writing Poetry in on Elementary Classroom, Booktalk: Books That Invite Talk, Wonder and Ploy with Literature, Inviting Children's Responses to Literature, and Adventuring with Books. She is also the author of numerous book chapters and articles and has presented at conferences throughout the United States and the world. She is the Past-President of the Children's Literature Assembly of NCTE, IRA's Children's Literature SIG and the Ohio International Reading Association. Dr. McClure was selected NCTE's Promising Young Researcher and her dissertation won Kappa Delti Pi's Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award. She also received Ohio Wesleyan's Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award. She lives in Dublin, Ohio, with her husband and two teen-aged daughters.