More than 240 entries representing folk medical practices used in North America, Britain, Ireland, and Scotland were gleaned from extensive research. Articles are followed by no less than a dozen scholarly references related to the study of superstition and folklore. Ranging from a concise paragraph to several pages in length, entries include the treating of ailments and conditions such as Insect bites and stings (applying spit, urine, soda, vinegar, or well-chewed tobacco); Palsy (ingesting cowslip, applying leeches, or holding a dying chicken); and wrinkles (drinking elderflower water, goat's milk, or an infusion of butterwort) and the supporting of contraception (using birch bark diaphragms, impotence-inducing Rhus trilobata, or eating heart ventricles). Other entries discuss the various uses of remedies such as dandelion and Holly. See also references follow each article, and an index completes the volume.

This supplement has entries for cultures not included in the 10-volume Encyclopedia of World Cultures (Macmillan, 1991-96) as well as entries that have been updated and expanded.

The Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Literature is a reference book, with entries arranged in A–Z format. To go directly to a particular entry, click on the link in the table of contents. There are also links between entries – click on any underlined word to jump to the related entry.

With the abundance of children's literature available, librarians and teachers need to be able to identify the finest works. This reference book contains more than 500 entries on titles, authors, characters, settings, and other elements from 189 award-winning children's books by 136 twentieth-century authors. It is the second five-year supplement to the authors' Dictionary of American Children's Fiction, 1960-1984 (Greenwood, 1986) and a companion to their similar reference works on British children's fiction and children's literature from around the world. Included are alphabetically arranged entries for those works that critics have singled out to receive awards or have placed on citation lists during the five years covered by the volume. The reference also contains biographical entries for leading authors of children's fiction, with entries focusing on how the author's life relates to children's literature and to particular works in this dictionary. The volume provides a list of awards, along with an appendix classifying individual works by the awards they have won. An extensive index provides full access to the wealth of information in this book.

The second edition of this fascinating collection of traditional metaphors includes over 1500 new entries, as well as more information on first known usages and more ways to find entries. It will appeal to cultural historians, dialectologists, folklorists and language enthusiasts alike.
Metaphors are taken to include a variety of figurative meanings such as similes, proverbs, idioms, slang and catchphrases, though literary metaphors are avoided. The author draws particularly on his extensive contact with the rural cultures of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Dorset and Cornwall. Expressions from Scotland, North America and Australia and other parts of the English-speaking world are also included. The book thus provides an overview of folklore and folk wisdom as reflected in figurative expressions.
Entries are arranged under a highly original scheme following the old cherrystone rhyme 'Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief' with the additional categories 'at home' 'at school and 'at play'. Entries can be found using either the Index of Themes or the Index of Keywords.