Keith O'Sullivan is Lecturer in English at the Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Ireland. He recently co-edited Children's Literature and New York City (2014) and Irish Children's Literature and Culture: New Perspectives on Contemporary Writing (2011). In 2013, he was co-recipient of a major Government of Ireland/Irish Research Council award to establish a National Collection of Children's Books.

Pádraic Whyte is Assistant Professor of English and a director of the master's programme in Children's Literature at the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. He is author of Irish Childhoods (2011) and co-editor of Children's Literature and New York City (2014). He was co-recipient of a major Irish Research Council/Government of Ireland award to establish a National Collection of Children's Book.

Presents the culmination of a two-year project on children's books in Ireland, bringing together books published across five centuries

Contributes to the critical resources available on children's literature in collections, and specifically, in terms of collecting, librarianship, education, and children's literature studies

Offers a complex view of children's literature collections by showing the varied approaches to researching collections.

Introduction; Pádraic Whyte and Keith O'Sullivan.- Chapter 1. Instruction with Delight; Máire Kennedy.- Chapter 2. Irish Children's Books 1696¿1810; Anne Markey.- Chapter 3. The Great Famine in Irish History Textbooks, 1900-1971; Ciara Boylan.- Chapter 4. The Development of the Irish Immigrant Experience in Irish-American Children's Literature 1850¿1900; Ciara Gallagher.- Chapter 5. Time and the Child; Aileen Douglas.- Chapter 6. Picking Grandmamma's Pockets; Jarlath Killeen and Marion Durnin.- Chapter 7. From Superstition to Enchantment; Ciara Ní Bhroin.- Chapter 8. 'Firing for the Hearth'; Pádraic Whyte.- Chapter 9. Kildare Place Society and the Beginnings of Formal Education in Ireland; Susan M. Parkes.- Chapter 10. Homespun Books; Julie Anne Stevens.- Chapter 11. The Puffin Story Books Phenomenon; Keith O'Sullivan.- Chapter 12. Picturing Possibilities in Children's Book Collections; Valerie Coghlan.