Innocence and Experience by Walter McVitty

Innocence and Experience

Essays on contemporary Australian children’s writers

by Walter McVitty

Thomas Nelson Australia, 1981, [First Edition], ISBN 0170051870, lightly illustrated with black and white photographs and illustrations, hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, ex-library with stickers and stamps to front and back endpaper, stamp to bottom fore-edge, tape to covers, dustjacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, creasing, sticker to spine  (see photographs)

“Australia’s children’s authors have won world-wide admiration and respect for the quality and an consistency of their writing.  Their considerable achievements – which include such prestigious honours as the Carnegie medal – are widely acknowledged.  Innocence and Experience offers, for the first time, an in-depth appraisal of the work of eight contemporary authors who have made major contributions to this genre: Mavis Thorpe Clarke, Joan Phipson, Eleanor Spence, Patricia Wrightson, Hesba Fay Brinsmead, David Martin, Ivan Southall and Colin Thiele.
Walter McVitty is Australia’s leading teacher and critic of children’s literature.  In this long-awaited book, he describes and evaluates the work of these writers in eight separate, self-contained essays.  His thoughtful and perceptive scrutiny is expressed with a directedness and clarity which will be appreciated by librarians, teachers, students, and all who choose books for children.”