The AFS Children's Folklore section publishes the annual Children’s Folklore Review, awards several prizes for outstanding work in children’s folklore, and sponsors sessions on children’s folklore at the AFS annual meeting. For more information, please contact section convener Jared Rife at Pennsylvania State University.

Children’s Folklore Newsletter

Children's Folklore eNewsletter Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2011

Children’s Folklore eNewsletter Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2010

W.W. Newell Prize

The section annually offers the W. W. Newell Prize, which includes a cash award, for the best student essay on a topic in children's folklore. Students must submit their own papers, and published papers are not eligible. We ainvite instructors to encourage students with eligible papers to enter the competition. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, and on white paper. On the first page, include the author's name, academic address, home address, e-mail address, and telephone numbers. The deadline for each year's competition is September 1. Submit papers, or write for more information, to Dr. C. W. Sullivan, III, English Department, East Carolina University, Greenville NC 27858-4353.

The 2007 Newell Prize, given for the best student essay on a topic in children’s folklore, went to Kristiana Willsey for her paper, "The Shoebox Museum: The Aesthetics and Organizational Concepts of Children.” The committee remarked on both the originality the topic and the interesting way Ms. Willsey presented her analysis of the materials children keep in shoeboxes, cookie tins, and other personal spaces. Kristiana Willsey is a student of John McDowell’s at Indiana University, and her paper will be published in volume 30, 2007-2008, of Children’s Folklore Review.

Opie Prize

The Iona and Peter Opie Prize is awarded approximately every two years to the author of the best recently published scholarly book on children's folklore. Because the Opie Prize has not been given for a while, there will be a five-year window (2007-2012) for eligible books in 2012. The chairs of the Opie Prize Committee are John McDowell at Indiana University and Julia Bishop at the University of Sheffield. The winner of the 2012 Opie Prize, an award of $200, will be announced at the American Folklore Society's annual meeting in New Orleans. 

Aesop Prize and Aesop Accolades

The Aesop Prize and Aesop Accolades are conferred annually by the Children’s Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society upon English language books for children and young adults, both fiction and nonfiction. Books published in 2011 and 2012 are eligible for these awards. Nominated books must be received by committee members no later than August 15, 2012. The winning books are announced at the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society each October.

See The Folklore Commons for information about past Aesop Award recipients.

Prize Review Criteria 

• Folklore should be central to the book’s content and, if appropriate, to its illustrations.
• The folklore presented in the book should accurately reflect the culture and worldview of the people whose folklore is the focus of the book.
• The reader’s understanding of folklore should be enhanced by the book, as should the book be enhanced by the presence of folklore.
• The book should reflect the high artistic standards of the best of children’s literature and have strong appeal to the child reader.
• Folklore sources must be fully acknowledged and annotations referenced within the bound contents of the publication.

Please submit a copy of each nominated title to each committee member. Aesop Prize Committee members for 2012 are:

• Catherine Baer (Chair), 108 North Grove Street, Mt. Horeb WI 53572 US
• Kevin Cordi, 643 Nashoba Ave., Columbus, OH 43223
• Anne Marie Kraus, 1716 Gleason Avenue, Iowa City, IA 52240