Frame of
Reference

Jane Goldstein

2004 was an exciting year for The Looking Glass. Reader response was up and we got praise, thanks, and some constructive suggestions from a new group of participants. More submissions were received. We were thrilled with the quality of so many of the papers that were sent. The biggest pleasure came from seeing that the journal has not only grown in readership and participation but that the audience is more diverse professionally and internationally. This issue reflects that diversity with contributions from a poet, the publishing world, teachers and students.

Elizabeth Pandolfo Briggs and I looked at ways to be more structured and yet open to a variety of articles. In this issue our refereed column, Alice's Academy, was set aside to explore the topic of international mysteries for children. Louise Salstad has contributed "Juan Anguera alias Flanagan: Ironic Hard-boiled Hero" and explores the novella negra, or detective novel, as she compares the characters of Catalan writers Andreau Martin and Jaume Ribera with Raymond Chandler's hero, Philip Marlowe.

This is the last time Judith Saltman serves as column editor of Picture Window. Judi has consistently sent articles in on time and often long before the deadline! She has been a sounding board for my thoughts and questions and has never failed to send a quick and intuitive answer for me to ponder. She is off to new adventures and I wish her only the best. She has promised to continue to be an advisor. Not surprisingly she helped locate a new replacement and is already helping behind the scene in quiet ways. In this issue Brian Hornberg looks at the various considerations in analyzing the visual message accompanying a familiar story in "Transcending Boundaries in David Wiesner's The Three Pigs".

The Mentor features a student of Judith Saltman's, Maryn Brown. Brown does a parallel study of the fantastic way children struggle to adjust to educational strategies imposed by adults in her article "Making Sense of Nonsense: An Examination of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth as Allegories of Children's Learning".

J.T. Barbarese displays a mastery of word use in Illuminating Texts. "Charlotte's 'Text': A Note on the Etymology of Web" is a complex and provocative analysis of a three-letter word.

In Curiouser and Curiouser Evelyn Perry concludes her study of magical realism and Robin McKinley's Spindle's End. Do note that if you have read the first part in the previous issue, a link is provided so that you may skip to the new section of this article.

"Book Bytes--Exploring the Computer Connection" is by Rebecca Giles and appears in My Own Invention. Giles explains how computers can make books more accessible to young readers. She also provides a helpful list of resources for further personal investigation. Debra Angel continues the topic of accessibility in The Print Shop. "Digitizing Books for Kids" discusses how computers are making literature more available to those children around the world who do not have local libraries.

Caucus Race announces a new program at Hollins University and The Monitor gives specific guidelines for special topics in future issues of The Looking Glass.

The next issue will focus on the child who is displaced. It has been interesting to see the variety of ways people have interpreted this topic in the submissions we have received. The absolute deadline for any article to be considered is February 15, 2005. All submissions for Alice's Academy have been selected. In this April issue we will also introduce Kathryn Shoemaker, the new column editor for Picture Window. She is a Canadian illustrator and academic with resources in several areas to pull from. Future issues will look at magic realism and the literature of Japan. September is a totally general issue and is open to any topic in any column. January will continue to be available to any topic except for Alice's Academy. We have already begun editing articles for all of these issues. Don't procrastinate and send us that article you have been considering!

As 2005 begins, I am sure we all share the wish for peace and security for children everywhere in the coming year.

Editorially yours,

Jane Goldstein

Volume 9, Issue 1, The Looking Glass, 2 January, 2005

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