This collection gives sustained attention to the literary dimensions of children's poetry from the eighteenth century to the present. While reasserting the importance of well-known voices, such as those of Isaac Watts, William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Christina Rossetti, A. A. Milne, and Carol Ann Duffy, the contributors also reflect on the aesthetic significance of landmark works by less frequently celebrated figures such as Richard Johnson, Ann and Jane Taylor, Cecil Frances Alexander and Michael Rosen. Scholarly treatment of children's poetry has tended to focus on its publication history rather than to explore what comprises - and why we delight in - its idiosyncratic pleasures. And yet arguments about how and why poetic language might appeal to the child are embroiled in the history of children's poetry, whether in Isaac Watts emphasising the didactic efficacy of "like sounds," William Blake and the Taylor sisters revelling in the beauty of semantic ambiguity, or the authors of nonsense verse jettisoning sense to thrill their readers with the sheer music of poetry. Alive to the ways in which recent debates both echo and repudiate those conducted in earlier periods, The Aesthetics of Children's Poetry investigates the stylistic and formal means through which children's poetry, in theory and in practice, negotiates the complicated demands we have made of it through the ages.

This book looks at the changing shape of children's literature in English from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. In particular it examines the dialect between 'enclosure' and 'exposure', control and freedom of both fictional child and child reader, how the balance of these forces has altered over time, and the possible reasons for these changes. It also looks at the representation of the child in the English novel from the 1830s to the 1860s - the period preceding the publication of Alice in Wonderland , the first major work of literature for children - and the influence of such representation in later children's books. Writers as well known as Lewis Carroll, Louisa M. Alcott, Rudyard Kipling and Charlotte Bronte are examined in the course of this work, but this study also considers works which have been (unfairly) neglected till now and which deserve to be better known; this list includes the Marlow series by Antonia Forest, Jane Gardam's Bilgewater and Henry Handel Richardson's The Getting of Wisdom .

Being literate increases a person's chances of enjoying good mental health, but many of today's teenagers come from backgrounds or circumstances that interfere with their literacy development. This unique resource for teachers, librarians, counselors and parents combines the expertise of two professionals: literacy experts and therapists. Together they provide guidance, through the examination and analysis of characters in young adult literature, to those working with troubled teens. Thereby helping professionals and parents gain insight into the inner workings of teenagers and encourage them to deal with their family issues and emotional problems while improving their reading and writing skills.

A young adult literature expert and a therapist, including such authors as Chris Crutcher and Anne LeMieux, team up for each chapter. They provide possible treatment options for young adult protagonists in popular novels that address issues associated with families. These issues include divorce, parental illness, alcoholism, foster care, eating disorders, gay and lesbian teenagers, and suicide. Readers are provided with the insight into helping teenagers with similar problems, and with the tools to get teenagers reading and addressing their problems. Extensive annotated bibliographies in each chapter help the reader choose the best sources for each particular case.

Celebrating 100 years of Peter Pan, this fourth volume in the Centennial Studies series explores the cultural contents of Barrie's creation and the continuing impact of Peter Pan on children's literature and popular culture today, especially focusing on the fluctuations of time and narrative strategies. This collection of essays on Peter Pan is separated into four parts. The first section is comprised of essays placing Barrie's in its own time period, and tackles issues such as the relationship between Hook and Peter in terms of child hatred, the similarities between Peter and Oscar Wilde, Peter Pan's position as an exemplar of the Cult of the Boy Child is challenged, and the influence of pirate lore and fairy lore are also examined. Part two features an essay on Derrida's concept of the grapheme, and uses it to argue that Barrie is attempting to undermine racial stereotypes. The third section explores Peter Pan's timelessness and timeliness in essays that examine the binary of print literacy and orality; Peter Pan's modular structure and how it is ideally suited to video game narratives; the indeterminacy of gender that was common to Victorian audiences, but also threatening and progressive; Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling, who publicly claim to dislike Peter Pan and the concept of never growing up, but who are nevertheless indebted to Barrie; and a Lacanian reading of Peter Pan arguing that Peter acts as "the maternal phallus" in his pre-Symbolic state. The final section looks at the various roles of the female in Peter Pan, whether against the backdrop of British colonialism or Victorian England. Students and enthusiasts of children's literature will find their understanding of Peter Pan immensely broadened after reading this volume.

Children's literature is a rapidly expanding field of research which presents students and researchers with a number of practical and intellectual challenges. This research handbook is the first devoted to the specialist skills and complexities of studying children's literature at university level. Bringing together the expertise of leading international scholars, it combines practical advice with in-depth discussion of critical approaches. Wide- ranging in approach, "Children's Literature Studies: A Research Handbook: " * Considers 'children's literature' in its fullest sense, examining visual texts (such as picturebooks), films, computer games and other 'transformed' texts, as well as more traditional modes of writing for children* Offers a step-by-step guide to devising, starting and carrying out a research project (such as a dissertation or thesis), and advice on what kinds of research it is possible and profitable to undertake* Surveys the different methodologies and theoretical approaches used by children's literature scholars* Includes case studies, questions and exercises to reinforce ideas discussed in each chapter* Provides lists of further reading and a specialist glossary that will remain a useful reference resource. This handbook will be an essential companion for those studying children's literature, whether as undergraduates, postgraduates, or beyond.

First published in 1980. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Young adult readers have special needs and concerns, and librarians have become increasingly interested in selecting books suitable for them. This reference provides information about 290 books for young adults. These books received major awards between 1997 and 2001, reflect the voices of 242 different authors, and range from new to familiar themes. Included are nearly 750 alphabetically arranged entries for individual works, authors, characters, and settings. Many of these books were originally written for adults but have become popular among younger readers. Entries for works provide plot summaries and critical assessments, while author entries focus on those aspects of the writers' lives most relevant to literature for young people. The reference is a valuable selection tool for librarians and teachers and a useful guide for students.

Reissuing works originally published between 1981 and 2000 this set offers an outstanding small collection of scholarship. It includes volumes on Victorian fiction for children, boys' school stories, heroes in children's literature, boyhood and children's literature as art and how criticism developed for the genre.

The search for one's identity is an ancient quest reflected throughout history in stories where human glory and conquest are often layered with great pain and self doubt, meant to help people discover themselves and who they are. Today, this quest is found prevalently in young adult novels, where characters wrestle with modern dilemmas in order to find themselves. This reference resource provides a link for teachers, media specialists, parents, and other adults to those novels and how to use them effectively. Educators and therapists explore the literature where common identity issues are addressed in ways intriguing to teens. Using fictional characters, these experts provide guidance on how to encourage adolescents to cope while improving their reading and writing skills.

Twelve novels are examined from both a literary and psychological perspective, allowing the readers to meet the central figures as if they were living human beings. Each chapter is written by a literature specialist who has teamed up with a therapist and confronts a different identity issue, examining such dilemmas as body image, the father/son relationship, bigotry, and peer relations. This pair of experts tries to define the central character's struggle in each novel to discover who they are and to become self-actualized individuals. Each chapter also provides an annotated bibliography of other works, both fiction and nonfiction, that explore these same issues to give readers not only the insight into helping teenagers with similar problems, but also the tools with which to get teenagers reading and addressing these problems. This innovative approach is meant to provide the opportunity for adults and adolescents to better understand each other.

'Internationalism in Children's Series' investigates 'internationalism' through various cultural, historical and theoretical lenses in series created for a child readership. Using the familiarity of the series character and format to form a bridge to the wider world, authors from the 19th century to contemporary times have expanded the definition of internationalism. This volume examines these definitions as they vary from series to series and even book to book in a rapidly changing, ever-shrinking world.

J. K. Rowling's popular series of books about the boy wizard Harry Potter has captivated readers of all ages around the world. Selling more than 400 million copies, and adapted into highly successful feature films, the stories have attracted both critical acclaim and controversy. In this collection of brand new essays, an international team of contributors examines the complete Harry Potter series from a variety of critical angles and approaches. There are discussions on topics ranging from fairytale, race and gender, through to food, medicine, queer theory and the occult. The volume also includes coverage of the films and the afterlife of the series with the opening of Rowling's 'Pottermore' website. Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the Harry Potter phenomenon, this exciting resource provides thoughtful new ways of exploring the issues and concepts found within Rowling's world.

Today, traditional illnesses and high risk behaviors of adolescents have become interrelated through the multitude of physical, social and emotional changes young people experience. Good literature which gives adolescents the truth has incredible power to heal and to renew. This reference resource provides a link for teachers, media specialists, parents, and other adults to those novels that can help adolescents struggling with health issues. Educators and therapists explore novels where common health issues are addressed in ways to captivate teens. Using fictional characters, these experts provide guidance on encouraging adolescents to cope while improving their reading and writing skills.

With the advancement in medicine, traditional types of health issues such as birth defects, cancer, and sensory impairment have shifted to more behavior related problems such as depression, alcoholism, and eating disorders. All of these issues and others are examined from both a literary and psychological perspective in thirteen chapters that explore health issues through fiction. Each chapter confronts a different health issue and is written by a literature specialist who has teamed up with a therapist. In each novel, these experts define the central character's struggle in coming to terms with an issue and growing in response to their difficulties. Annotated bibliographies of other works, both fiction and nonfiction, explore these same issues give readers insight into helping teenagers with similar problems, and provide the tools with which to get teenagers reading and addressing these problems.

Must a folktale be connected to its culture? Can a tale with universal applications be transmitted from one culture to another without loss? Does a teller from one culture have the ability--or even the right--to relate a tale from another culture? What happens to a tale when it leaves the oral and adult arenas and appears in print for children? Is it legitimate for a reteller to create variants to suit a child audience? Children's literature is today the major conduit for folklore, and professionals in the field must consider these questions. Editors Gary Schmidt and Donald Hettinga have brought together twenty-three writers of children's literature, illustrators, storytellers, and literary critics, who explore the issues and offer their experiences and views. The scope of the volume is the North American folktale, a rich amalgam of four major distinct traditions: the Native American folktale, the African American folktale, the retold Western European folktale, and the American tall tale. Each tradition is separately presented with an introductory survey and a selection of essays by the writers and critics. This focused collection will be valuable to scholars and professions in folklore, anthropology, American literature, and children's literature and useful also as a text in courses on children's literature and folklore.

In this visually captivating volume, a vibrant selection of loved and revered children's book illustrators reveals the secrets of their narrative techniques. Divided into a series of enchanting sections each created by individual illustrators, this unique and gift-worthy book tells the story of how to successfully depict narrative and compel an audience through visual art. Marvel at how composition and environment can create suspense, and how color, visual hierarchy, and symbolism can tell a story beyond just the action. Learn how to inject dynamism and emotion into your illustrations to tell a tale that isn't just engaging, but is memorable and one that transcends generations. Lavishly illustrated and with a luxurious finish, How to Be a Children's Book Illustrator is ideal for book lovers in general as well as anyone looking to unlock the secrets of children's book illustration.

Since the late 1970s, scholarly interest in the translation of children’s books has increased at a rapid pace. Research across a number of disciplines has contributed to a developing knowledge and understanding of the cross-cultural transformation and reception of children’s literature. The purpose of this Reader is to reflect the diversity and originality of approaches to the subject by gathering together, for the first time, a range of journal articles and chapters on translation for children published during the last thirty years. From an investigation of linguistic features specific to translation for children, to accounts of the travels of international classics such as the Grimm Brothers’ Household Tales or Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio, to a model of narrative communication with the child reader in translated texts and, not least, the long-neglected comments of professional translators, these essays offer new insights into the challenges and difference of translating for the young.

Applying a range of critical approaches to works by authors including Susan Cooper, Catherine Fisher, Geraldine McCaughrean, Anthony Horowitz and Philip Pullman, this book looks at the formative and interrogative relationship between recent children's literature and fashionable but controversial aspects of modern Paganism.

Bringing together the voices of leading and emerging scholars, this book provides an innovative and accessible guide to using theory to study children's literature and film. Integrating key theoretical approaches and thinkers from across feminism, ecocriticism, postcolonialism and poststructuralism, the book shows how these can be used as tools to analyse a range of contemporary children's literature and film texts. The book will be at the cutting-edge of scholarship, combining new approaches to not only locate children's texts within changing social, cultural and political contexts, but also to help navigate a changing 'post-theory' era.

Are the Kids All Right? by B.J. Epstein is the first survey of English-language children's literature that features lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or otherwise queer characters. It explores how LGBTQ characters are portrayed and what this says about contemporary society and it covers picture books, middle-grade books, and young adult fiction. Epstein explores why sex, sexuality and gender non-conformity is something that many writers and publishers of children's and young adult lit appear to shy away from. She passionately demonstrates that the information children get from literature matters, and that so called 'difficult' topics can be communicated in entertaining and informative ways. Are the Kids All Right? uses ideas from queer theory and other research to interrogate the ways LGBTQ characters are portrayed in books for children and young people, and to analyse what messages readers of such books might receive. This book brings together literary studies, sociology, queer studies, and other academic fields in an accessible manner, where the research supports the detailed analyses of over fifty books for children and young adults. In Are the Kids All Right?, Epstein looks at a range of topics, such as the lack of diversity in many of these works, how same-sex marriage is portrayed, the relative absence of bisexual and transgender characters, the way that many of these books are marketed and intended as "issue books," and more. Are the Kids All Right? is a practical and informative book that will inspire writers and publishers to produce better LGBTQ literature for young readers. About the author: B.J. Epstein is the author of over 150 articles, book reviews, personal essays, and short stories. She is lecturer in Literature and Public Engagement at the University of East Anglia, and she is also a translator from the Scandinavian languages to English.

Multicultural fiction is an essential part of the American literary landscape. This reference helps scholars, teachers, and librarians choose significant texts from both the past and present, and provides guidance in approaching multicultural issues as they are discussed in fiction for young adults. Included are entries for 51 writers, some of whom have nearly been forgotten, others who are just emerging. Each entry provides biographical, critical, and bibliographical information, while a general bibliography of works on multicultural literature concludes the book.

Authors included range from the nearly forgotten, such as Laura Adams Armer, to the newly discovered, such as Graham Salisbury, winner of the 1994 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. The breadth of authors covered ensures an historical context for the issues raised by multiculturalism, and the sections on the critical reception of each author address such important issues as the authority and authenticity of the writer to comment on a different culture. Contributors are of many different ethnicities and include important scholars of children's literature, lending authenticity and authority to the volume itself.

Contributions by Megan De Roover, Jennifer Harrison, Sarah Jackson, Zoe Jaques, Nada Kujund?Yi?c, Ivana Milkovi?c, Niall Nance-Carroll, Perry Nodelman, David Rudd, Jonathan Chun Ngai Tsang, Nicholas Tucker, Donna Varga, and Tim Wadham One hundred years ago, disparate events culminated in one of the most momentous happenings in the history of children's literature. Christopher Robin Milne was born to A. A. Milne and his wife; Edward Bear, a lovable stuffed toy, arrived on the market; and a living, young bear named Winnie settled in at the London Zoo. The collaboration originally begun by the Milnes, the Shepards, Winnie herself, and the many toys and personalities who fed into the Pooh legend continued to evolve throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to become a global phenomenon. Yet even a brief examination of this sensation reveals that Pooh and his adventures were from the onset marked by a rich complexity behind a seeming simplicity and innocence. This volume, after a decades-long lull in concentrated Pooh scholarship, seeks to highlight the plurality of perspectives, modes, and interpretations these tales afford, especially after the Disney Corporation scooped its paws into the honeypot in the 1950s. Positioning Pooh: Edward Bear after One Hundred Years argues the doings of Pooh remain relevant for readers in a posthuman, information-centric, media-saturated, globalized age. Pooh's forays destabilize social certainties on all levels-linguistic, ontological, legal, narrative, political, and so on. Through essays that focus on geography, language, narrative, characterization, history, politics, economics, and a host of other social and cultural phenomena, contributors to this volume explore how the stories open up discourses about identity, ethics, social relations, and notions of belonging. This first volume to offer multiple perspectives from multiple authors on the Winnie-the-Pooh books in a single collection focuses on and develops approaches that bring this classic of children's literature into the current era. Essays included not only are of relevance to scholars with an interest in Pooh, Milne, and the ""golden age"" of children's literature, but also showcase the development of children's literature scholarship in step with exciting modern developments in literary theory.

In this pioneering historical study, Anne Lundin argues that schools, libraries, professional organizations, and the media together create and influence the constantly changing canon of children's literature. Lundin examines the circumstances out of which the canon emerges, and its effect on the production of children's literature. The volume includes a comprehensive list of canonical titles for reference.

Monsters Under the Bed is an essential text focussing on critical and contemporary issues surrounding writing for early years children. Containing a critically creative and a creatively critical investigation of the cult and culture of the child and childhood in fiction and non-fictional writing, it also contains a wealth of ideas and critical advice.

This text dynamically explores the issue of picture books, literacy and writing for early years children with a wider view on child-centred culture, communication and media. Internationally recognised as an expert in the field, Andrew Melrose encourages academics, researchers and students to examine the fundamental questions in writing for and addressing early years children, through an exploration of text and images. Accessibly written and lively in its approach, this book includes:

• an accessible and critically important challenge to the latest international academic research and debates in the field of children 's literature and creative writing;
• an extensive investigation of early years writing and reading;
• a pathway to developing critical awareness of children 's literature, allowing students to develop their own critical ability and writing skills;
• constant checkpoints throughout, in which the reader is encouraged to reflect on critically creative and creatively critical development.

Providing a coherent and pedagogical approach, this compelling text will be an indispensable resource for critics, writers and students interested in children's writing, as well as those on Creative Writing, Children's Literature and English BA and MA programmes. It will also be of great interest to those in teacher training, PGCE students and for those studying at Doctoral and Post-Doctoral level.