Caroline Jones, editor

In this exciting time of transition for The Looking Glass, I want take a moment for Alice's Academy, to reflect, to explore, and to extend an invitation.

First, the reflection: The Looking Glass as a whole, and Alice's Academy, in particular, actively seek to move both within and beyond the realms of traditional children's literature scholarship. We plan to continue to explore international and multinational issues and traditions within and surrounding children's literature, children's and international cultures, and children's literacy: in Alice alone we have published on special topics as diverse as international mystery (January 2005), Magical Realism (January 2006), Harry Potter (also January 2006), Japanese children's literature (April 2006), and depictions of the adolescent in media texts (January 2007). We are proud of this diversity of interests, and, with your help, we expect to cultivate equally intriguing and unusual topics in future.

Which leads to exploration: where to go next? Consider a few of the topics proposed in a recent brainstorming session: censorship, landscape, international libraries and access to texts, the dark side of children's literature; consider also this codicil on each TLG paper call: "submissions on children's book publishing and technology and children's literature are also desired." We want to consider and peruse and share as many aspects of the processes of writing, publishing, reading, and understanding children's literature as we possibly can. You will see some of these ideas, and many more, carefully, radically, and ingeniously explored in future issues of Alice and TLG.

And this brings me to the invitation--two invitations, in fact. I invite you to share your ideas for special topics for Alice and special issues of The Looking Glass. What issues in the many worlds of children's literature do you not see addressed elsewhere? What ideas or theories or practices bear further analysis or exploration? Please, let us know--you will find email links to the Editor and the Alice Editor on our "Contribute!" page.

The second invitation is, more traditionally, a call for papers: I invite you to submit to Alice's Academy articles exploring the dark side of children's literature for a special topic in January 2008. From dark themes and shadow selves, unhappy endings or series that focus on death and despair in children's texts, to the dark sides of publishing and bookselling, to the dark reality of illiteracy or the inaccessibility of books to children, this special issue of Alice's Academy will not shrink from the seamy underbelly of the world of children's literature. Deadline for submission on this special topic is 1 September 2007. For additional submission guidelines for Alice, and for our other columns, please see the final paragraph of this editorial, or click on the "Contribute!" button from TLG 's home page. Additionally, please check the Monitor (at the bottom of the table of contents in each issue of TLG ) for upcoming special topics for TLG (the April issue of each year, deadline 1 October of the preceding year) and for Alice's Academy (the January issue of each year, deadline 1 September of the preceding year).

I thank you for your readership, your interest, your engagement with children's literature scholarship, and your ideas. I look forward to continuing to build a vital relationship with all of our readers and contributors.

Please send submissions to Alice's Academy to byrdstarr@austin.rr.com; send all other submissions to editor@the-looking-glass.net and state for which column submissions are intended. Submissions to Alice's Academy, Jabberwocky, and Emerging Scholars and New Voices must be between 2500 and 4000 words and conform to current MLA citation standards. Submissions to all other columns must be between 1000 and 3000 words. The Looking Glass cannot accept simultaneous submissions or previously published articles. Published articles will be posted on the journal's website for at least three months, after which time they will be archived online. For more information, please see http://www.the-looking-glass.net/contribute.html.

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"Alice's Academy"
© Caroline Jones, 2007.
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