This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults

This resource contains annotated bibliographies for books of fiction, oral tradition and poetry for these major groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native-Americans. As stated in the preface, the resources are limited to those published 1985 through 1993 for individuals of preschool age through high school. Resources focus on the American experience, and do not include content or stories that occur in other locations. A total of 570 resources are listed in this title. Resources were reviewed by an Advisory Board for suitability. Advisors are clearly identified and include librarians, professors and a teacher of various ethnic backgrounds. Resource annotations are listed by type (fiction, oral tradition, poetry) and ethnic group. Also, resources are indexed by title, writer, illustrator, grade level and subject. Annotated citations are substantial and provide appropriate detail on the resource's content, quality, format, illustrations, interpretation of subject and suitability for intended audience. Through a quick reading of the citation, a teacher, librarian, parent or other user can easily determine whether the book might interest the reader, be topical for a lesson or plan, and serve well for individual reading, storytelling or other uses. At first glance, I would include this item in my collection of multi-ethnic resources as it provides a relatively recent, comprehensive list of print materials with quality, objective and complete annotated citations. This book is limited only by its scope of ethnic groups. For example, I could not answer patron questions or provide resources about their European ethnic background. Before making a final decision to buy this book, I would select and read a representative sampling of several listed resources. I could then compare and contrast the accuracy, completeness and objectivity of the resource's citation with my own independent read.