Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction is not a historical study or a survey of narrative plots, but takes a more conceptual approach that engages with the central ideas of posthumanism: the fragmented nature of posthuman identity, the concept of agency as distributed and collective and the role of embodiment in understandings of selfhood.

This book places children's literature at the forefront of early twentieth-century debates about national identity and class relations that were expressed through the pursuit of leisure. Focusing on stories about hiking, camping and sailing, this book offers a fresh insight into a popular period of modern British cultural and political history.

Since its inception in the 1970s, the Philosophy for Children movement (P4C) has affirmed children's literature as important philosophical work. Theory, meanwhile, has invested in children's classics, especially Lewis Carroll's Alice books, and has also developed a literature for beginners that resembles children's literature in significant ways. Offering a novel take on this phenomenon, Theory for Beginners explores how philosophy and theory draw on children's literature and have even come to resemble it in their strategies for cultivating the child and/or the beginner. Examining everything from the rise of French Theory in the United States to the crucial pedagogies offered in children's picture books, from Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Are You My Mother? and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events to studies of queer childhood, Kenneth B. Kidd deftly reveals the way in which children may learn from philosophy and vice versa.

Bringing together leading scholars and teacher educators from across the world, from Europe and the USA to Asia, this book presents the latest research and new perspectives into the uses of children's literature in second language teaching for children and young adults. Children's Literature in Second Language Education covers such topics as extensive reading, creative writing in the language classroom, the use of picturebooks and graphic novels in second language teaching and the potential of children's literature in promoting intercultural education. The focus throughout the book is on creative approaches to language teaching, from early years through to young adult learners, making this book an essential read for those studying or embarking on second language teaching at all levels.

nursing children read for pleasure and develop a life-long love of reading is a priority for all primary school teachers. The National Curriculum focuses heavily on promoting reading for pleasure and engaging pupils using a range of diverse and inclusive texts and materials. This text supports trainee teachers working towards primary QTS and Early Career Teachers to understand the importance of supporting children to become readers, enjoy reading for pleasure and develop higher level reading skills. It includes guidance, case studies and theoretical perspectives to show trainee teachers how they can develop children's reading.

This book focuses on girls and girlhoods, texts for and about girls, and the cultural contexts that shape girls' experience. It brings together scholars from girls' studies and children's literature, fields that have traditionally conducted their research separately, and the collaboration showcases the breadth and complexity of girl-related studies.

Contributors from disciplines such as sociology, literature, education, and gender studies combine these disciplinary approaches in novel ways with insights from international studies, postcolonial studies, game studies, and other fields. Several of the authors engage in activist and policy-development work around girls who experience poverty and marginalization. Each essay is concerned in one way or another with the politics of girlhood as they manifest in national and cultural contexts, in the everyday practices of girls, and in textual ideologies and agendas.

In contemporary Western societies girls and girlhood function to some degree as markers of cultural reproduction and change. The essays in this book proceed from the assumption that girls are active participants in the production of texts and cultural forms; they offer accounts of the diversity of girls' experience and complex significances of texts by, for, and about girls.

We are fascinated by text and we are fascinated by reading. Is this because we are in a time of textual change? Given that young people always seem to be in the vanguard of technological change, questions about what and how they read are the subject of intense debate. Children as Readers in Children's Literature explores these questions by looking at the literature that is written for children and young people to see what it tells us about them as readers. The contributors to this book are a group of distinguished children's literature scholars, literacy and media specialists who contemplate the multiple images of children as readers and how they reflect the power and purpose of texts and literacy. Contributors to this wide-ranging text consider: How books shape the readers we become Cognitive and affective responses to representation of books and reading The relationship between love-stories and reading as a cultural activity Reading as 'Protection and Enlightenment' Picturebooks as stage sets for acts of reading Readers' perceptions of a writer This portrayal of books and reading also reveals adults' beliefs about childhood and literacy and how they are changing. It is a theme of crucial significance in the shaping of future generations of readers given these beliefs influence not only ideas about the teaching of literature but also about the role of digital technologies. This text is a must-read for any individual interested in the importance of keeping literature alive through reading.

Das neue bildungspolitische Paradigma der Inklusion fordert die Literaturdidaktik heraus, ihre Theorien, Inhalte und Methoden einer Revision zu unterziehen. Es gilt, Grundlagen und Konzepte zu entwickeln, die Prozesse inklusiver Realisation fundieren und gestalten. Die Beitrage in diesem Band zielen auf einen interdisziplinaren Dialog zwischen der Fachdidaktik Deutsch und der Foerderpadagogik sowie zwischen der Literatur- und Sprachdidaktik und loten die Herausforderungen und Moeglichkeiten einer 'inklusiv denkenden und agierenden' Literatur- bzw. Deutschdidaktik mehrperspektivisch und facherubergreifend aus.

This is the first full-length study of South African English youth literature to cover the entire period of its publication, from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Jenkins' book focuses on what made the subsequent literature essentially South African and what aspects of the country and its society authors concentrated on. What gives this book particular strength is its coverage of literature up to the 1960s, which has until now received almost no scholarly attention. Not only is this earlier literature a rewarding subject for study in itself, but it also throws light on subsequent literary developments. Another exceptional feature is that the book follows the author's previous work in placing children's literature in the context of adult South African literature and South African cultural history (e.g. cinema). He also makes enlightening comparisons with American, Canadian and Australian children's literature.

Was hat Harry Potter, was andere nicht haben? Und wie ist es zum internationalen Erfolg gekommen? Das phanomenale Erstlingswerk der britischen Autorin Joanne K. Rowling beruht nur scheinbar auf Zufall und Gluck, das richtige Buch zur richtigen Zeit geschrieben zu haben. Vielmehr verdankt die Romanserie ihre Beliebtheit einem perfekten Zusammenspiel dreier Faktoren: Literarische Qualitat, Legendenbildung um die Autorin und Einsatz gezielter Presse- und Marketingstrategien. Der Genre-Mix, d.h. phantastische Erzahlung, Abenteuerroman, Kriminalgeschichte, British Schoolstory, Adoleszenzroman, findet ebenso Eingang in die Betrachtung wie der Ruckgriff auf literarische Traditionen und die immer wiederkehrenden Grundstrukturen der Reihe. Der anfangs verbreitete Aschenputtelmythos um die Autorin wird analysiert, die Vermarktung des Zauberlehrlings gibt einen Einblick in die gigantische Welt der Potter-Werbung.

Internationalism in Children's Series brings together international children's literature scholars who interpret 'internationalism' through various cultural, historical and theoretical lenses. From imperialism to transnationalism, from Tom Swift to Harry Potter, this book addresses the unique ability of series to introduce children to the world.

This book explores the phenomenon of the story paper, the meanings and values children took from their reading, and the responses of adults to their reading choices. It argues for the revaluing of the story paper in the inter-war years, giving the genre a pivotal role in the development of children's literature.

Fairy Tales, Natural History and Victorian Culture examines how literary fairy tales were informed by natural historical knowledge in the Victorian period, as well as how popular science books used fairies to explain natural history at a time when 'nature' became a much debated word.

Harry Potter and Beyond explores J. K. Rowling's beloved best-selling series and its virtuoso reimagining of British literary traditions. Weaving together elements of fantasy, the school-story novel, detective fiction, allegory, and bildungsroman, the Harry Potter novels evade simplistic categorization as children's or fantasy literature. Because the Potter series both breaks new ground and adheres to longstanding narrative formulas, readers can enhance their enjoyment of these epic adventures by better understanding their place in literary history. Along with the seven foundational novels of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and Beyond assesses the extraordinary range of supplementary material concerning the young wizard and his allies, including the films of the books, the subsequent film series of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the theatrical spectacle Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and a range of other Potter-inspired narratives. Beyond the world of Potter, Pugh surveys Rowling's literary fiction The Casual Vacancy and her detective series featuring Cormoran Strike, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Through this comprehensive overview of Rowling's body of work, Pugh reveals the vast web of connections between yesteryear's stories and Rowling's vivid creations.

Serial Memoir chronicles the phenomenon of seriality in memoir, a transition in life writing toward repeated acts of self-representation in the later twentieth century. Such a shift demonstrates a new way to understand and represent constantly-shifting subjectivities and their ambivalent relationship to the concept and structure of the archive.

This book explores the ideas of children and childhood, and the construct of the 'ideal' Victorian child, that developed rapidly over the Victorian era along with literacy and reading material for the emerging mass reading public. Children's Literature was one of the developing areas for publishers and readers alike, yet this did not stop the reading public from bringing home works not expressly intended for children and reading to their family. Within the idealized middle class family circle, authors such as Charles Dickens were read and appreciated by members of all ages. By examining some of Dickens's works that contain the imperfect child, and placing them alongside works by Kingsley, MacDonald, Stretton, Rossetti, and Nesbit, Malkovich considers the construction, romanticization, and socialization of the Victorian child within work read by and for children during the Victorian Era and early Edwardian period. These authors use elements of religion, death, irony, fairy worlds, gender, and class to illustrate the need for the ideal child and yet the impossibility of such a construct. Malkovich contends that the 'imperfect' child more readily reflects reality, whereas the 'ideal' child reflects an unattainable fantasy and while debates rage over how to define children's literature, such children, though somewhat changed, can still be found in the most popular of literatures read by children contemporarily.

This "New York Times" bestseller is the dramatic, inspiring story of three inner-city youths--Samson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt--whose strong friendship gave them the strength to continue their education and become doctors. Photos.

Many children learn from a young age to tell the truth. They also learn that some lies are necessary in order to survive in a world that paradoxically values truth-telling, but practises deception. This book examines this paradox by considering how deception is often a necessary means of survival for individuals, families, governments, and animals.

Recent works of young adult fantastic fiction such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga have been excoriated for glamorizing feminine subordination. However, young adult horror fiction with female protagonists who have paranormal abilities suggests to female readers the possibility of resisting restrictive gender roles that are presented to them as natural and therefore immutable. In this type of fiction, the ""monstrous Other"" is a double with a difference, a metaphor of the adolescent girl in Western culture who is pressured to embody a doll-like feminine ideal which is untenable because it deprives them of agency. This book examines three types of female monstrous Others in young adult fiction - the haunted girl, the female werewolf and the witch - and considers what each has to tell us about feminine subordination in a supposedly post-feminist world, where girls continue to be pressured to silence their voices and stifle their desires in conformity with contemporary ideas about what it means to be a good woman.

Offers new insights into the continuing influence of postmodernism on a wide range of international picture books for children published between 1963 and 2008. Its chapters include metafiction; disruption to narrative conventions; interrogation of 'truths'; historiographic metafiction; difference and ex-centricity; globalisation and media.

From Puritan tracts and chapbooks to fairy tales and Victorian poems, from zombies and werewolves to ghosts and vampires, the gothic has become an important part of children's literature. This book explores how Gothicism is crucial in helping children progress through different stages of growth and development. Michael Howarth examines five famous texts - namely Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Neil Gaiman's Coraline, three versions of Little Red Riding Hood, and J.M. Barrie's play and then novel Peter and Wendy - incorporating renowned psychologist Erik Erikson's landmark theories on psychosocial stages of development. By linking a particular stage to each of the aforementioned texts, it becomes clearer how anxiety and terror are just as important as happiness and wonder in fostering maturity, achieving a sense of independence and fulfilling one's self-identity. Gothic elements give shape to children's fears, which is precisely how children are able to defeat them, and through their interactions with the ghosts and goblins that inhabit fantasy worlds, children come to better understand their own world, as well as their own lives.

While white racism has global dimensions, it has an unshakeable lease on life in South African political organizations and its educational system. Donnarae MacCann and Yulisa Maddy here provide a thorough and provocative analysis of South African children's literature during the key decade around Nelson Mandela's release from prison. Their research demonstrates that the literature of this period was derived from the same milieu -- intellectual, educational, religious, political, and economic -- that brought white supremacy to South Africa during colonial times. This volume is a signal contribution to the study of children's literature and its relation to racism and social conditions.

This pioneering study is the first full-length treatment of feminism and the environment in children's literature. Drawing on the history, philosophy and ethics of ecofeminism, it examines the ways in which post-apocalyptic landscapes in young adult fiction reflect contemporary attitudes towards environmental crisis and human responsibility.

Reading Contemporary Picturebooks takes a look at one of the most vibrant branches of children's literature - the modern picturebook. This exciting new book takes a sample of contemporary picturebooks and closely examines the features that make them distinctive and then suggests a way of characterising the 'interanimation' of words and pictures that is the essence of the form. The reasons for the picturebook's vitality and flexibility are also explored and the close bond between the picturebook and its readers is analysed. Advances in our understanding of how visual images are organised are examined and the book concludes with an attempt to redescribe the picturebook in such a way that pictures, readers and text may be drawn together. Picturing Text will be of interest to students, teachers and researchers interested in reading, children's literature and media studies.

Offers new insights into the continuing influence of postmodernism on a wide range of international picture books for children published between 1963 and 2008. Its chapters include metafiction; disruption to narrative conventions; interrogation of 'truths'; historiographic metafiction; difference and ex-centricity; globalisation and media.