Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction , and: Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People , and: Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching , and: The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction , and: Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction, and: Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People, and: Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching, and: The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction, and: Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist Margaret Esmonde Barron, Neil , ed. Anatomy of Wonder: An Historical Survey and Critical Guide to the Best of Science Fiction. 2nd ed.New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1981. Wehmeyer, Lillian Biermann . Images in a Crystal Ball: World Futures in Novels for Young People. Littleton, Co: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1981. Parrinder, Patrick . Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching. New York: Methuen & Co., 1980. Schlobin, Roger C. The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Fiction. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979. Lynn, Ruth Nadelman . Fantasy for Children: An Annotated Checklist. New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1979. Science fiction and fantasy, long the stepchildren of literary criticism, have received ever increasing scholarly attention in the last ten years. From sophisticated analyses such as Darko Suvin's The Metamorphosis of Science Fictionand W. R. Irwin's The Game of the Impossibleto practical bibliographies and teaching aids, volumes devoted to SF/F scholarship continue to be published with some frequency. If you can buy only one SF reference work, the one to buy, without doubt, is Neil Barron's Anatomy of Wonder, now in an updated and revised second edition. Divided into two main sections, "The literature" and "Research," it first preseents three essays covering the history of SF from its inception to 1980. Chapter 4, "Children's Science Fiction" by Francis Molson, and Chapter 5, "Foreign language Science Fiction" by six different foreign scholars, offer a special focus within the larger area of interest. A bibliography accompanies each essay. The research section includes bibliographies related to "Selection, Acquisition and Cataloging of Science Fiction," "Indexes and Bibliographies," "History and Criticism," and "Autobiography, Biography and Author Studies." Each entry in these various bibliographies is annotated with a paragraph averaging about 10 lines, which presents a balanced evaluation of the work in question. The last six chapters of the section offer comprehensive bibliographies of "Science Fiction on Film and Television," "Science Fiction Illustration," "Science Fiction Magazines" (both scholarly and popular), and "Classroom Aids." The volume concludes with a chapter indicating the location and summarizing the contents of library and private collections of SF/F, and, finally, a core collection checklist. A wonderfully complete work. Of particular interest to ChLAQ readers is Francis Molson's excellent essay on children's SF. He has greatly expanded the essay which appeared in the first edition with material discussing pre-Heinlein SF written for young people, an area almost totally ignored in most histories of children's literature because it appeared, for the most part, in boys' story papers in the nineteenth century and the Grosset & Dunlap/Stratemeyer Syndicate series which librarians and teachers have traditionally considered subliterature. He has likewise added new titles to his original bibliography, deleting such works of pure fantasy as LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea, which were included in the first editions. I heartily agree with Analogmagazine's comment that Anatomy of Wonderis ". . . probably the most significant and valuable bibliographical tool in the history of the field to date." Lillian Wehmeyer's Images n a Crystal Ballis a less ambitious "resource book" which focuses on what she calls "futuristic fiction." Its text was developed from her 1978 dissertation (UCal, Berkeley), and her opening chapters have not entirely escaped the blight of dissertation style. Once past the discussion of futuristics, she competently annotates 154 science fiction novels, giving publication data, and a two-to-five-paragraph plot summary followed by a short paragraph in which she offers a brief evaluation and suggestions for teaching. An index arranges the novels according to sub-genre, theme, and topic. As an aid to teachers, a dagger symbol identifies each novel which contains sufficient material on a specific topic to lend itself to classroom teaching. The books selected for inclusion were required to meet four criteria, the third of which was rather limiting...