Harry Potter Series Featured in New “Oxford Companion”

In news that might make even Madam Pince crack a smile, the Harry Potter series has been featured in the new edition of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, published this past March in the UK, and June 1 in the US.  This leading encyclopedia of children’s literature of all types now includes entries on J.K. Rowling, Hogwarts, Muggles, Quidditch, and the Dursleys, with the Harry Potter series getting the longest entry in the entire book.

According to a review published in The Guardian, the 2nd edition of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, by Daniel Hahn, finally includes more than 900 new entries relating to developments in British and American children’s literature since its original publication in 1984.  Other authors added to the book include Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, Eion Colfer and Stephenie Meyer, but, of course, nothing has changed the landscape of children’s literature in the last thirty years like Harry Potter has. The Guardian reports:

In the last 30 years – during which The Companion became the major source of guidance and information for anyone with a personal or professional interest in the subject – the world of children’s literature has changed again. Hahn has introduced more than 900 new entries covering modern phenomena such as crossover books, graphic novels, YA literature and books in translation…as well, of course, as individual books and writers who have emerged since the mid 80s. He has wrestled with his conscience (to paraphrase slightly from the preface) and included such items as Stephenie Meyer’s infamously awful but undeniably influential and significant Twilight series, as well as all the writers we are, occasional supercontrarians apart, glad exist: JK Rowling…

Amazon describes The Companion:

The last thirty years have witnessed one of the most fertile periods in the history of children’s books: the flowering of imaginative illustration and writing, the Harry Potter phenomenon, the rise of young adult and crossover fiction, and books that tackle extraordinarily difficult subjects. The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature provides an indispensable and fascinating reference guide to the world of children’s literature. Its 3,500 entries cover every genre from fairy tales to chapbooks; school stories to science fiction; comics to children’s hymns…

More information, and the opportunity to purchase The Companion, is available on Amazon (here), Barnes and Noble (here), and the Guardian Bookstore (here); or learn more at your local library.