Once Upon a Time in a Different World

Neal A. Lester is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Arizona State University; he specializes in African American literary and cultural studies. He is the author of Ntozake Shange: A Critical Study of the Plays (1995) and Understanding Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (1999), and he has published on and taught courses in African American children's literature, African American drama, African American folklore, African American images in American cinema, and black/white interracial intimacies in American culture.

• Series Editor's Foreword, Jack Zipes. Foreword, C.W. Sullivan III. Acknowledgments. Introduction: Moistening the Desert Landscapes. Part 1: A "Call-and-Response" Conversation 1. (Un)Happily Ever After: Fairy Tale Morals, Moralities, and Heterosexism in Children's Texts. Response: Stacy Augustine. 2. "Life for Me Ain't Been No Crystal Stair": Readin', Writin', and Parental (Il)literacy in African American Children's Books. Response: Olga Idriss Davis. 3. "Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones": Airbrushing and the Ugliest of Ugly in African American Children's Picture Books. Response: Joseph L. Graves, Jr. 4. Nappy Edges and Goldy Locks: African American Daughters and the Politics of Hair. Response: Vincenza Mangiolino. 5. Roots That Go Beyond Big Hair and a Bad Hair Day: Nappy Hair Pieces. Response: C. A. Hammons. 6. Don't Condemn White Teacher Over Nappy Hair (An Editorial) . Response: Kim-Curry Evans. 7. Angels of Color: Divinely Inspired or Socially Constructed? Response: ben clark. 8. "Do You See What I See? Do You Hear What I Hear?": Becoming Better Adults through Toni Morrison's The Big Box and The Book of Mean People. Response: Nathan Stamey Winesett. Part 2. Dialoguing Reviews 9. Reviews of Anne Schraff's Lost and Found 10. Reviews of Anne Schraff's A Matter of Trust 11. Reviews of Anne Schraff's Until We Meet Again 12. Review of Eliza A. Comodromo's Teacher's Guide to the Bluford Series 13. Review of Walter Dean Myer's The Beast 14. Review of Angela Johnson's The First Part Last 15. Review of Kelly McWilliams's Doormat 16. Response to "Dialoguing Reviews": Parent's, It's 10:00--Do You Know What Your Children Are Reading, James Blasingame, Jr. Part 3. Extending Discourses 17. Unlocking the Beauty of Hair: A Review of Joyce Carol Thomas's Crowning Glory 18. Nappy Happy: A Review of bell hooks's Happy to Be Nappy 19. "Shake it to the One You Love the Best": A Review of Juba This & Juba That 20. Response to "Extending Discourses," Elizabeth McNeil Notes About the Contributors Works Cited Index