Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992                   TAG: 9203160151
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOOD BOOKS

Also in conjunction with the festival is publication of an anthology of new works from that program, including pieces by such acclaimed authors as Henry Taylor, Annie Dillard, Lee Smith and Jeanne Larsen.

But as past connections are celebrated, so too are future ones: Making the '92 festival even more special is the announcement today that Hollins will be a pre-eminent center for the study and writing of children's literature.

Beginning this summer, the college and its writing program will offer the first complete graduate program in the humanities devoted exclusively to children's literature. Graduate students can work toward and complete an M.A. degree in the field over a period of four or five summers.

Lending credibility to the venture is the college's longtime support of children's literature as a serious field of writing and study. So is the move to Hollins, also announced today, of the editorship of the journal Children's Literature, official journal of the Children's Literature Association and of the children's-literature division of the Modern Language Association.

Since 1973, a course in the study of children's literature, begun by poet William Jay Smith, has been part of the Hollins curriculum. Irv Broughton, John Hay, Jane Jacobsen, Katie Letcher Lyle and Sylvia Wilkinson are among the many Hollins graduates who have written for children. Perhaps the best-known is Margaret Wise Brown, a 1932 alumna, whose books include the famous "Goodnight Moon" - one of the best volumes ever produced, period.

Responsible for the move of the editorship of Children's Literature is the journal's editor-in-chief, Francelia Butler. President of the Children's Literature Foundation and an English professor at the University of Connecticut, Butler also has offered Hollins her 4,000-volume research library in children's literature.

The new editor-in-chief is Richard Dillard, the English professor who chairs the Hollins writing program. Elizabeth Keyser, an assistant professor of English at Hollins, will be editor. (Butler will remain associated with the journal as founding editor.)

All this is good for Hollins, and for many in the outside world. The program will be a success if it furthers the dissemination of quality children's literature and advances recognition of its importance.

In too many respects these days, America as a society treats its children shabbily. Widening their exposure to compelling, delightful literature is one step on the road back.