Whether a secularized morality, biblical worldview, or unstated set of mores, the Victorian period can and always will be distinguished from those before and after for its pervasive sense of the "proper way" of thinking, speaking, doing, and acting. Animals in literature taught Victorian children how to be behave. If you are a postmodern posthumanist, you might argue, "But the animals in literature did not write their own accounts." Animal characters may be the creations of writers' imagination, but animals did and do exist in their own right, as did and do humans. The original essays in Animals and Their Children in Victorian explore the representation of animals in children's literature by resisting an anthropomorphized perception of them. Instead of focusing on the domestication of animals, this book analyzes how animals in literature "civilize" children, teaching them how to get along with fellow creatures-both human and nonhuman.

A concise, engaging, practical overview of children's literature that keeps the focus on the books children read. This brief introduction to children's literature genres leaves time to actually read children's books. Written on the assumption that the focus of a children's literature course should be on the actual books that children read, the authors first wrote this book in 1996 as a "textbook for people who don't like children's literature textbooks." Today it serves as an overview to shed light on the essentials of children's literature and how to use it effectively with young readers, from PreK to 8th grade. The authors use an enjoyable, conversational style to achieve their goal of providing a practical overview of children's books that offers a framework and background information, while keeping the spotlight on the books themselves.

Out of Reach: The Ideal Girl in American Girls' Serial Literature traces the journey of the ideal girl through American girls' series in the twentieth century. Who is the ideal girl? In what ways does the trope of the ideal girl rely on the exclusion and erasure of Othered girls? How does the trope retain its power through cultural shifts? Drawing from six popular girls' series that span the twentieth century, Kate G. Harper explores the role of girls' series in constructing a narrow ideal of girlhood, one that is out of reach for the average American girl reader. Girls' series reveal how, over time, the ideal girl trope strengthens and becomes naturalized through constant reiteration. From the transitional girl at the turn of the century in Dorothy Dale to the "liberated" romantic of Sweet Valley High, these texts provide girls with an appealing model of girlhood, urging all girls to aspire to the unattainable ideal. Out of Reach illuminates the ways in which the ideal girl trope accommodates social changes, taking in that which makes it stronger and further solidifying its core.

Needed now more than ever: a guide that includes 500 diverse contemporary fiction and memoir recommendations for preteens and teens with the goal of inspiring greater empathy for themselves, their peers, and the world around them. As young people are diagnosed with anxiety and depression in increasing numbers, or dealing with other issues that can isolate them from family and friends-such as bullying, learning disabilities, racism, or homophobia-characters in books can help them feel less alone. And just as important, reading books that feature a diverse range of real-life topics helps generate openness, empathy, and compassion in all kids. Better with Books is a valuable resource for parents, teachers, librarians, therapists, and all caregivers who recognize the power of literature to improve young readers' lives. Each chapter explores a particular issue affecting preteens and teens today and includes a list of recommended related books-all published within the last decade. Recommendations are grouped by age: those appropriate for middle-grade readers and those for teens. Reading lists are organized around: Adoption and foster care Body image Immigration Learning challenges LGBTQIA+ youth Mental health Nature and environmentalism Physical disability Poverty and homelessness Race and ethnicity Religion and spirituality

The modern fantasy novel might hardly seem to need a defence, but its position in contemporary literature in the 1980s was still rather ambivalent. Many post-war writers had produced highly successful fantasy novels, some phenomenal publishing successes had occurred in the field, and an increasing number of universities throughout the English-speaking world now included the literary criticism of fantasy as part of their English Literature courses. None the less some critics and academics condemned the whole genre with a passion that seemed less than objectively critical. In this book, originally published in 1984, Dr Ann Swinfen presents a wide-ranging and comprehensive view of fantasy: what it is, what it tries to achieve, what fundamental differences distinguish it from mainstream realist fiction. She concentrates on the three decades from 1945, when a new generation of writers found that Tolkein had made fantasy 'respectable'. Her approach is thematic, rather than by individual author, and she brings out the profound moral purpose that underlies much modern fantasy, in a wide range of works, both British and American, such as Russell Hoban's The Mouse and His Child, C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy.

This book introduces the study of children's literature, addressing theoretical questions as well as the most relevant critical approaches to the field.
The fourteen chapters draw on insights from academic disciplines ranging from cultural and literary studies to education and psychology, and include an essay on what writers for children think about their craft. This results in a fascinating range of perspectives on key topics in children's literature and an introduction to such diverse concerns as literacy, ideology, stylistics, feminism, history and culture, and bibliotherapy. An extensive general bibliography is complemented by lists of further reading for every chapter and a glossary defines critical and technical terms, making the book accessible to those coming to the field or to a particular approach for the first time.
In this second edition there are four entirely new chapters; contributors have revisited and revised or rewritten seven of the chapters to reflect new thinking, while the remaining three are classic essays, widely acknowledged to be definitive. The glossary, further reading lists and general bibliography have also been thoroughly updated.
Understanding Children's Literature is an invaluable guide for students of literature or education and it will also inform and enrich the practice of teachers and librarians.

This book introduces the study of children's literature, addressing theoretical questions as well as the most relevant critical approaches to the field.
The fourteen chapters draw on insights from academic disciplines ranging from cultural and literary studies to education and psychology, and include an essay on what writers for children think about their craft. This results in a fascinating range of perspectives on key topics in children's literature and an introduction to such diverse concerns as literacy, ideology, stylistics, feminism, history and culture, and bibliotherapy. An extensive general bibliography is complemented by lists of further reading for every chapter and a glossary defines critical and technical terms, making the book accessible to those coming to the field or to a particular approach for the first time.
In this second edition there are four entirely new chapters; contributors have revisited and revised or rewritten seven of the chapters to reflect new thinking, while the remaining three are classic essays, widely acknowledged to be definitive. The glossary, further reading lists and general bibliography have also been thoroughly updated.
Understanding Children's Literature is an invaluable guide for students of literature or education and it will also inform and enrich the practice of teachers and librarians.

Saints are currently undergoing a resurrection in middle grade and young adult fiction, as recent prominent novels by Socorro Acioli, Julie Berry, Adam Gidwitz, Rachel Hartman, Merrie Haskell, Gene Luen Yang, and others demonstrate. Cyborg Saints: Religion and Posthumanism in Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction makes the radical claim that these holy medieval figures are actually the new cyborgs in that they dethrone the autonomous subject of humanist modernity. While young people navigate political and personal forces, as well as technologies, that threaten to fragment and thingify them, saints show that agency is still possible outside of the humanist construct of subjectivity. The saints of these neomedievalist novels, through living a life vulnerable to the other, attain a distributed agency that accomplishes miracles through bodies and places and things (relics, icons, pilgrimage sites, and ultimately the hagiographic text and its reader) spread across time. Cyborg Saints analyzes MG and YA fiction through the triple lens of posthumanism, neomedievalism, and postsecularism. Cyborg Saints charts new ground in joining religion and posthumanism to represent the creativity and diversity of young people's fiction.

Professional development activities have proven adequate to facilitate mastery of new content, inform teachers of best practice, and for dissemination of information, however, such efforts fail to address the emotional and personal aspects of the teaching profession. Here is a hands-on activities book that provides school leaders an easy-to-use format for the delivery of professional development sessions for K-12 personnel. It details three major topics: social realities (e.g. societal trauma), diversity (e.g. Disabilities), and community conundrums (e.g. economic uncertainties). The uniqueness of this book is the activity design using children's literature to provide a neutral framework for discussion of often-difficult issues. The authors provide an opportunity for teachers to explore their underlying assumptions, unacknowledged biases, or often unspoken feelings about issues that are central to student success. They seek to regain professional responsibility to solve problems and improve education in our ever-changing world. For administrators or teacher leaders who are on the cutting edge of facilitating professional development for problem solving issues in our schools.

Gulliver's Travels, published first in 1726 and again in 1735, is the most well-known work of Irish satirist Jonathan Swift. It is the story of Lemuel Gulliver, who captains a ship and sails the world, stopping in odd locations (such as Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Glubbdubdrib) and getting into all sorts of trouble. During his adventures, he is held captive by a tiny race of people no taller than six inches, becomes an exhibition for giants, and meets a race of horses (Houyhnhnms) who rule humans (Yahoos). The entire work is a parody of the "travel" genre of literature (which was immensely popular at the time) and a satire on human nature in general. This classic, which includes all four of Gulliver's adventures, is a delight for readers young and old. JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745) was an Irish poet, essayist, satirist, political pamphleteer (for both Whigs and Tories), and cleric. Swift is the most well-known prose satirist in the English language, renowned for his works Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub, and An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, among others. He was a master of two styles of satire: Horatian and Juvenalian, and originally published all his works under pseudonyms.

In this collection the multidimensional story of children's literature in the formative period of the long nineteenth century is illuminated, questioned, and, in some respects, rewritten. Children's literature might be characterised as the love-child of the Enlightenment and the Romantic movements, and much of its history over the long nineteenth century shows it being defined, shaped, and co-opted by a variety of agents, each of whom has their own ambitions for it and for its child readership. Is children's literature primarily a way of educating children in the principles of reason and morality? A celebration of the Rousseauesque child? A source of pleasure and entertainment? Women, both as writers and as nurturers involved at an intimate and daily level with the raising of children, recognised early and often very explicitly the multiple capacities of literature to provide entertainment, useful information, moral education and social training, and the occasionally conflicting nature of these functions. This book was originally published as a special issue of Women's Writing.

Youth of Darkest England examines the representation of English working-class children-the youthful inhabitants of the poor urban neighborhoods that a number of writers dubbed "darkest England"-in Victorian and Edwardian imperialist literature. In particular, the book focuses on how the writings for and about youth undertook an ideological project to enlist working class children into the British imperial enterprise.
It is generally assumed that the dominant middle-classes succeeded in recruiting the working-class youth and thus easily manipulating these young people for nationalist purposes. However, Boone demonstrates convincingly that this was not the case and that the British working-class youth resisted a nationalist identification process that tended to eradicate or obfuscate class differences.
In the first chapter he explores the contradictory aspect of imperialist writings through a careful study of Henry Mayhew's "London Labour and the London Poor." In the next two chapters he examines the "penny bloods," cheap adventure stories, which contained subversive tendencies and were condemned by the middle class but appreciated and grasped by working class youth. As a counter to the "penny hoods," new more conservative magazines were developed. In the chapters that follow Boone carefully analyzes the middle-class representations of working-class culture such as William Booth's "In Darkest England and the Way Out" to show how this culture was linked to degeneration and needed to be regenerated by middle-class visionaries. Most of the schemes or organizations for "reforming" or "co-opting" working class youth such as the scout organizations involved an instrumentalization ofthe working-class young which resisted this process through World War I.
Lucidly written and thoroughly researched, Youth of Darkest England is a major contribution to our understanding of youth culture and children's literature in the nineteenth century.

"Patterns of sublimation begin in childhood. So does binary and hierarchical thinking. The child must be trained to see in oppositions and on a scale of order. So the story of nation and people, race and culture begins as the bedtime story." (The author) How else, asks Rashna Singh, do we explain the uncanny physical resemblance between Osama bin Laden and the evil Jaffar (of Disney's motion picture Aladdin)? Singh provides a most persuasive argument for why these sentiments are both insidious and compelling, and how they resonate to this day. While she includes such classic examples as The Secret Garden, Robinson Crusoe, and the Babar series, it is her inclusion of genuinely neglected fictions that lends her analyses a special richness. In an engaging narrative style, Singh demonstrates how constructions of character evolve into cultural imprints which encourage their young readers to choose the "goodly" side, with little thought of "badly" repercussions.

"Picturebook," spelled as a single word to identify its unique qualities and to differentiate the genre from other books with illustrations, is one that tells a story either in pictures alone or in almost equal partnership with text. The picturebook has great potential for bridging the differences among us; the concept of a story is one common to all, a shared experience that sets the stage for communication. And the goal of multiculturalism is to emphasize the positive attributes of human society, the outstanding, rather than the stereotype. Because children born today will interact with people from different cultures much more than previous generations, it is important that they are taught about other cultures, starting at a young age. Multicultural picturebooks are, therefore, an excellent teaching tool for meeting this educational challenge. The picturebooks profiled are appropriate for children in grades K - 4 but can be used with older children, depending on the curriculum and the students' comprehension level. Books covering Asia and the Pacific, The Middle East, Africa, South America, North America (Native Americas, Inuit, etc.), and books specific to the immigrant experience are profiled. Each book is described in one paragraph that includes an engaging review of the story line, special features of the content, the look and style of the artwork, interior design, and layout of the book. The authors emphasize that the visual qualities of picturebooks affect their ability to tell stories about people whose values and behaviors are different from those of the reader. The analyses, therefore, used in selecting the books include not only the informational content, but also the emotional content-the feelings generated by the text and art. In choosing books for this volume, the authors have used the following criteria: Does the book tell an engaging story? Do the illustrations convincingly portray and represent humans, animals, and objects? Is the use of the media consistent? Do the text and the pi

In 2003 Jack Zipes translated "Beautiful Angiola," the first half of Laura Gonzenbach's astonishing treasury of folk and fairy tales, told and retold by generations of Sicilian peasants. Now the Gonzenbach collection is complete in English: "The Robber with the" "Witch's Head" presents almost fifty new stories about demons and clever maidens and princes. Bursting with life, "The Robber with the Witch's Head "is a storyteller's dream, full of adventure and magic, expertly rendered by the translator of the Brothers Grimm.
what critics have said about "Beautiful Angiola":
"The Sicilian tales in Beautiful Angiola are a revelation; not in their originality, because like all great collected folk and fairy tales they are universal. But they have a uniqueness because the flavor of that island off the toe of the boot of Italy is so concentrated, so lusty, so full of sun, lemons and herbs that when reading them, I could taste them. I see a series of paintings inspired by them forming in my head. What a wonderful collection
for any folklorist, Italian and especially Sicilian! Strega Nona (who is Calabrese) approves!." -- Tomie dePaola
"Ostensibly collected for younger readers, the anthology is just as appropriate for an adult audience." - "Library Journal
"
"An extraordinary collection." -- "Ruminator Review
"
"Stories with a feminist slant, strange, quirky and tart. Sometimes shocking, often superb."
--Jacqueline Wilson, author of "Girls in Tears" and "The Lottie Project"

St. Nicholas is acknowledged to be the best children's magazine published, particularly during the reign of its founding editor, Mary Mapes Dodge. From 1873 to 1905, Dodge worked to create what she called a ""pleasure ground"" for children - a magazine that would have great impact on several generations of children. The list of authors who wrote for her includes Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Roosevelt, and Mark Twain. The quality of the magazine's illustration was equally high. The magazine was also the launching pad for a new generation of authors and artists, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, Jack London, and Eudora Welty. This anthology of critical writing on St. Nicholas includes the most influential articles already published and newly commissioned essays on a variety of subjects, including the impact of the St. Nicholas league, the utopian thrust of the magazine's fiction, and how Dodge persuaded Kipling to become a children's writer. Essays also analyze Dodge's relationship with her readers, her editorial practice, the illustrations, American family life as seen by young British readers, war and military life, advertising, and the middle class preoccupation with ""change of fortune"" tales. The work places St. Nicholas in American cultural history, and analyzes how it both influenced and was influenced over thirty years. Essential documentary material presently unpublished or inaccessible and illustrations from the magazine are also included.

This 'little history' takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter. John Sutherland is perfectly suited to the task. He has researched, taught, and written on virtually every area of literature, and his infectious passion for books and reading has defined his own life. Now he guides young readers and the grown-ups in their lives on an entertaining journey 'through the wardrobe' to a greater awareness of how literature from across the world can transport us and help us to make sense of what it means to be human. Sutherland introduces great classics in his own irresistible way, enlivening his offerings with humor as well as learning: Beowulf, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, the Romantics, Dickens, Moby Dick, The Waste Land, Woolf, 1984, and dozens of others. He adds to these a less-expected, personal selection of authors and works, including literature usually considered well below 'serious attention' - from the rude jests of Anglo-Saxon runes to The Da Vinci Code. With masterful digressions into various themes - censorship, narrative tricks, self-publishing, taste, creativity, and madness - Sutherland demonstrates the full depth and intrigue of reading. For younger readers, he offers a proper introduction to literature, promising to interest as much as instruct. For more experienced readers, he promises just the same.

This book visits contemporary British children's and young adult (YA) fiction alongside cosmopolitanism, exploring the notion of the nation within the context of globalization, transnationalism and citizenship. By resisting globalization's dehumanizing conflation, cosmopolitanism offers an ethical, humanitarian, and political outlook of convivial planetary community. In its pedagogical responsibility towards readers who will become future citizens, contemporary children's and YA fiction seeks to interrogate and dismantle modes of difference and instead provide aspirational models of empathetic world citizenship. McCulloch discusses texts such as J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Jackie Kay's Strawgirl, Theresa Breslin's Divided City, Gillian Cross's Where I Belong, Kerry Drewery's A Brighter Fear, Saci Lloyd's Momentum, and Julie Bertagna's Exodus trilogy. This book addresses ways in which children's and YA fiction imagines not only the nation but the world beyond, seeking to disrupt binary divisions through a cosmopolitical outlook. The writers discussed envision British society's position and role within a global arena of wide-ranging topical issues, including global conflicts, gender, racial politics, ecology, and climate change. Contemporary children's fiction has matured by depicting characters who face uncertainty just as the world itself experiences an uncertain future of global risks, such as environmental threats and terrorism. The volume will be of significant interest to the fields of children's literature, YA fiction, contemporary fiction, cosmopolitanism, ecofeminism, gender theory, and British and Scottish literature.

This book offers insights into the translation and adaptation of illustrated texts in an era in which visual texts are perceived as a dominant perceptual frame for interpreting social and cultural phenomena. Using source texts including illustrated books, comics, graphic novels and animated films, the authors analyze their translations and adaptations to address the works as multimodal entities, in which even the replacement of one component affects the entire whole. Interviews with the artists - writers, illustrators and animators - will shed more light on the observations. This volume's unique focus on the visual mode and the impact of its replacement on the multimodal whole is a topic that has not attracted as much attention as the translation of the verbal component, and will appeal to students and researchers of translation and adaptation, popular culture, media and communication, and children's literature alike.

This basic textbook on the classifications and uses of children's literature in the elementary school is designed for pre-service teachers and undergraduate students in elementary education. Each chapter provides a fresh approach to familiar literary landscapes by examining each principle in turn, as it relates to classics old and new. Unlike other children's literature texts that are strictly genre-based, Literacy and Learning is founded on Outward Bound's ten design principles of Expeditionary Learning: Primacy of self discovery, Having of wonderful ideas, Responsibility for learning, Intimacy and caring, Success and failure, Collaboration and competition,

This volume is a critical anthology of primary texts whose main audiences were children and/or adolescents in the medieval period. The texts include theoretical and interpretive introductions and commentary.

This volume examines utopian writing for children from the eighteenth century to the present day, defining and exploring this new genre in the field of children's literature. The original essays discuss thematic conventions and present case studies of individual works. It includes interviews with creative writers and the first bibliography of utopian fiction for children.

The award-winning fiction of Katherine Paterson has, for decades, warmed the hearts of children and adults alike. From Bridge to Terabithia and Come Sing, Jimmy Jo to Jacob Have I Loved and The Great Gilly Hopkins, her stories are taught in classrooms and read by librarians eager to share her moral-driven fiction to inspire young minds. Bridges for the Young is a book of essays written by reputable critics of children's literature, including many established Paterson scholars, who examine the various themes of hope, peace, and story, as well as other important issues that grow out of her work. In addition to the assortment of perspectives on her writing, Paterson herself offers a detailed essay written specifically for this collection that discusses the allegorical bridges that she builds for her readers.

The Poetics of Childhood investigates the sensibility of childhood and the way writers try to recapture it. It explores the earliest conceptions of innocence and the development of literature about children to the present day. It encompasses the pastoral, the dark pastoral, the anti-pastoral; it addresses picture books, fantasy and realism. It looks with originality at the literature of childhood, so that the child and adult can be seen reflectively - the child in the adult and the various stages of childhood as they are remembered and retained in adulthood. It confronts issues of primal and socially constructed desire and the issue of childhood to talk about desire. It is a poetic way of imagining the experience of childhood and explores childhood as a particularly fluid and porous time, it also addresses issues of creativity. This is an essential reference for teacher, parents, artists and writers.

The Feminine Subject in Children's Literature builds upon and contributes to the growing academic interest in feminism within the field of children's literature studies. Christie Wilkie-Stibbs draws upon the work of Luce Irigaray, Helen Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan in her analysis of particular children's literature texts to demonstrate how a feminist analysis opens up textual possibilities that may be applied to works of children's fiction in general. Her goal is to extend the range of textual engagements in children's literature through the application of a new post-structural critical apparati.