The Critical Handbook is directed toward the college classroom audience of mature students who expect to work with children-whether as parents or teachers-but it does not stand alone as a classroom text. Like other handbooks, it accompanies another project, in this case the reading of a great many children\’s books. Only by reading thoughtfully a variety of stories, poems, biographies, and informational books for children does a student come to be acquainted with children\’s literature, And by applying critical criteria to these works, the student comes to evaluate them.