Anita Silvey

Anita Silvey is a well-known editor and literary critic in the genre of children’s literature. Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Silvey has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine and as vice-president at Houghton Mifflin where she oversaw children’s and young adult book publishing. She has also authored a number of critical books about children's literature, including 500 Great Books for Teens and The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators. Publishers Weekly said that with regards to children's literature, "It would be hard to find a more authoritative voice than Anita Silvey." In October 2010, she began publishing the Children's Book-A-Day Almanac on line, a daily essay on classic and contemporary children's books. <http://childrensbookalmanac.com>

Work

In 1975, Silvey was a co-founder of the publication that became the Boston Review. She served from 1985 to 1995 as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine. She also created the spin-off magazine The Horn Book Guide to Children's and Young Adult Books.

Between 1995 and 2001, Silvey worked as vice-president at Houghton Mifflin where she oversaw children's and young adult book publishing for both the Houghton and Clarion divisions. Among illustrators and authors she promoted were David Wiesner, Chris Van Allsburg, Virginia Lee Burton, and Lois Lowry.

In 2002, Silvey published The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators, 100 Best Books for Children and 500 Great Books for Teens. She also penned a young adult book on women soldiers in the American Civil War, I'll Pass for Your Comrade. In 2008, she wrote an influential article in School Library Journal in which she "criticized the Newbery selections as too difficult for most children."[1] A series of interviews with people from all walks of life was published in Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book in 2009.

Silvey is a member of the Editorial Board of Cricket magazine and the Board of Directors for the Vermont Center for the Book. At Simmons College Graduate School of Library Science in Boston, Massachusetts she teaches "Modern Book Publishing" and at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, she teaches "Children's Book Author Studies".

Plagiarism Issues

Serious questions have been raised about Silvey's use of other reviewers' phrases and ideas in 500 Great Books for Teens. Silvey's guide consists of one- or two-paragraph annotations of books. The blog Reviewer Integrity by Ray Gordon compares many of Silvey's annotations to earlier reviews of the same books, showing similar or verbatim wording. The review quotes can be verified online; most have the reviewer's name listed. For example, Silvey drew from three different reviews to create her entry in 500 Great Books for Teens for the book Blood and Chocolate (p. 115).

Kirkus Reviews 1997: "at times he looks so delicious she wants to 'bite the buttons off his shirt.' "

Silvey 2006: "at times he looks so delicious she wants to 'bite the buttons off his shirt.' "

Publishers Weekly 1997: "Sixteen-year-old Vivian isn't fiction's most likable heroine"

Silvey 2006: "Sixteen-year-old Vivian may not be one of fiction's most likeable heroines"

School Library Journal 1997: "readers...struggle between fascination, empathy, and revulsion with 'werewolf culture' "

Silvey 2006: "readers struggle between fascination, empathy, and revulsion toward her werewolf culture."

School Library Journal 1999: "gripping, thrilling, and original"

Silvey 2006: "gripping, thrilling, and original"

(Verify reviews at Barnes & Noble.)


Another example is the book Sabriel (p. 59).

Amazon 1996: "Desperate to find her father, and grimly determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction"

Silvey 2006: "Desperate to find her father, determined to help save the Old Kingdom from destruction"

Amazon.com: "Sabriel endures almost impossible exhaustion, violent confrontations, and terrifying challenges to her supernatural abilities"

Silvey 2006: "Sabriel endures violent confrontations, extreme exhaustion, and challenges to her supernatural abilities"

Children's Literature 1996: "Sabriel is an apprentice necromancer who must enter the realm of dead to save her trapped father and defeat the evil spirit who entrapped him"

Silvey 2006: "apprentice necromancer at Waverly College, Sabriel must enter the realm of dead to save her trapped father and defeat the evil spirit who took him there"

Children's Literature 1996: "magically medieval worlds"

Silvey 2006: "magical medieval world"

Children's Literature 1996: "this book has many of the traditional fantasy qualities--swords, royalty, magical creatures, mythical and ancient lands, and magic spells."

Silvey 2006: "Using made of the traditional fantasy elements--necromancy, magical creatures, swords, ancient lands, and magic spells.

Children's Literature 1996: "Nix adds his own flavor to the fantasy novel and tells a unique tale of the female hero quest."

Silvey 2006: "Nix has added his own inventions and created a compelling female hero quest."

(Review quotes can be verified at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.)

Many more examples are given at the Reviewer Integrity blog.

Awards

Her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana honored her with an official award during the town's bicentennial celebration in 1994. In addition, Vermont College bestowed an honorary Master in Fine Arts in Children's Book Writing on Silvey in 2000. She is also the winner of the Women's National Book Association Book Women Award in 1987 and, in 2008, the Ludington Award of the Educational Paperback Association for her lifetime of dedication to children and books.

Partial bibliography

References

  1. ↑ "The Graveyard Book Wins Newbery Medal" by Motoko Rich, The New York Times, January 26, 2009.

External links