Self Publish
Children's Book
Identifying the presses and
gathering the books was difficult, due to the ephemeral nature
of some of the presses and because no comprehensive listing of
alternative publishers of children's books presently exists.
The identification process incorporated information from
directories such as Alternatives in Print (Neal-Schuman) and
The International Directory of Little Magazines and Smalt
Presses (Dust-books), visits to independently-owned bookstores,
and conversations with colleagues. Some publishers sent
information after reading a press release appearing in library
and education journals and alternative press media about self
publish children's book. Others responded to the same
information distributed as a flier at the American
- Library Association 1981 Midwinter meeting and the
Great Midwestern Bookshow in Minneapolis in March 1981. The
identification of alternative or small presses was the
primary focus of the project during its first few months
and is still a staff function. By September 15, 1981. the
Center's alternative press collection included 263 titles
from 100 alternative press publishers. Sixty-seven presses
publish works by several authors. Within this group, 29
currently publish only children's books, while the other 38
publish books for both children and adults. Thirty-three of
these presses publish one author's works only. A typical
one-author press may be a self-publisher, or a press in the
early stages of development. Correspondence between the
project staff and the presses most often did not include
enough information to determine whether or not a press
considers self publish childrens book. Publishers are
located in 32 states in the United States and three
provinces of Canada; the highest concentration is found in
California and New York.
- The 263 titles acquired by the Center since 1980
include fiction and nonfic-tion published as novels,
beginning readers, wordless books, anthologies, and
how-to-do-il books. The largest number of books is intended
for a very young audience; 42 percent are picture books.
Fiction, folklore, and information books are evenly
distributed to comprise 41 percent of the titles. Poetry,
fantasy, and activity books make up the balance (17
percent) of the titles collected.
Feminist presses are among the better
established in the world of children's alternative press
publishing. Most have outlived the generally-accepted,
three-to-seven-year life expectancy of alternative presses.
These titles comprise 27 percent of the total acquired by the
CCBC Alternative Press Project. Books published by feminist
presses include stories featuring strong female characters as
well as stories about nontraditional families, poetry
reflecting varieties of daily life, and books designed to
enhance preschoolers' self-concepts.
- Bilingual self publish children's book in several
formats are available in the collection.
Parallel texts may alternate on the same page or in
opposite columns so that the reader sees both languages
concurrently, or the texts may be back-to-back. Some
bilingual books intermix two languages in a single text.
The majority of the bilingual stories collected are written
in Spanish and English. Other languages represented include
French. Swahili, Korean, Vietnamese, Hungarian, and
Ojibway.
- Children's writing, published as
single volumes and in collections, offers a tribute to
whales in words and drawings, a look at the darker feelings
experienced during a hospital stay, and a story abut a
turtle who can't find its home. Poetry includes an
illustrated poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, a collection of poems
written by a black South African adolescent, and a parody
of Clement Clark Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas. A
natural-foods cookbook, song books, a photographic essay
about a shopping-bag lady, and introductions to sex and
sexuality are some of the subjects found in information
books.
- Multicultural stories of contemporary life in America
include books about blacks, Asian-Americans, Native
Americans, and Hispanics. Typical stories center on working
and living collectively, emigrating from one culture to
another, living in single-parent families, and becoming a
sister or a brother, either biologically or through
adoption.
The collection of alternative press children's books
assembled by the CCBC Alternative Press Project is as rich
and diverse a collection as can be found for children. The
quality of writing, excellence of illustration, clarity of
language and thought vary from book to book as they do in
all books published for children.
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