Amazon.com description: Product Description: A look at the last 15 years of publishing and selecting children's books in the United States - titles originating in this country and others made available as translations or republication from abroad - reveals a reduction in the quantity published annually from above 3000 (a peak when government funding was available for institutional purchasing) to something over 2000. Using the same general criteria each year for selection, the advisory committee for the compilation of a Library of Congress annual list, without having in mind a specific annual numerical aim, found, however, that they chose each year, about 200 titles. Here, from the accumulation of some 3000 books from those years, is a listing of top choices. It is to be noted that certain desirable titles could not be listed because they had gone out of print - a situation worsening to the point of about 8000 titles reported disappearing in one unusual year. Happily, the paperback explosion has kept many important works are alive when a sales/cost formula used by publishers show reason for dropping their hardback editions.