Winner of the 2013 AATE Distinguished Book Award
There is a complex relationship between performance, youth, and the shifting material circumstances under which theatre for children and youth - birth through twenties - is generated and perceived. Offering multiple, intersecting narratives, this book explores different aspect of theatre for young audiences (TYA) using examples from theatrical events in different geographical regions. The discussion of the history, theory, and practice of TYA indicates the wide variety of hitherto under-researched topics in the growing field of professional theatre for young people.

An extremely complex and highly contested concept, 'childhood' refers to a life phase, to the age-group defined as children, as well as to a cultural construction that is part of the social and economic structure of communities. Reflecting this complexity, these comprehensive volumes introduce the reader to the wide variety of interpretations placed on childhood both today and in the past. Illustrating the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary study of the area, the collection includes contributions from the fields of sociology, anthropology, psychology, social geography, history, philosophy, and socio-legal theory - undoubtedly making it an ideal resource for a range of students and scholars interested in this fascinating subject.

"Thinking Children" investigates the concept of 'child' from a philosophical perspective. Its aim is to come to an acceptable definition of 'child', and it is anticipated that such a definition will impact on how those seen as children are perceived in society.The author first explores the notions of personhood, self and identity, before reflecting on historical perspectives on childhood and the inclusion of children as active, participative, political and philosophical agents within society today.Children and adults are placed differently society, and through coming to an acceptable definition of 'child', this book seeks to determine whether such differential status is merited. "Thinking Children" proposes that we might consider children as beings and not becomings, and empower them to be active and participative citizens, since they are able and adept reasoners.

Media and the Make-Believe Worlds of Children offers new insights into children's descriptions of their invented or "make-believe" worlds, and the role that the children's experience with media plays in creating these worlds. Based on the results of a cross-cultural study conducted in the United States, Germany, Israel, and South Korea, it offers an innovative look at media's role on children's creative lives. This distinctive volume: *outlines the central debates and research findings in the area of children, fantasy worlds, and the media; *provides a descriptive account of children's make-believe worlds and their wishes for actions they would like to take in these worlds; *highlights the centrality of media in children's make believe worlds; *emphasizes the multiple creative ways in which children use media as resources in their environment to express their own inner worlds; and *suggests the various ways in which the tension between traditional gender portrayals that continue to dominate media texts and children's wishes to act are presented in their fantasies. The work also demonstrates the value of research in unveiling the complicated ways in which media are woven into the fabric of children's everyday lives, examining the creative and sophisticated uses they make of their contents, and highlighting the responsibility that producers of media texts for children have in offering young viewers a wide array of role models and narratives to use in their fantasies. The downloadable resources provide full-color images of the artwork produced during the study. This book will appeal to scholars and graduate students in children and media, early childhood education, and developmental psychology. It can be used in graduate level courses in these areas.

Continuing his ongoing social critique, Henry Giroux looks at the way corporate culture is encroaching on the lives of children by exploring three myths prevalent in our society: that the triumph of democracy is related to the triumph of the market; that children are unaffected by power and politics; and that teaching and learning are no longer linked to improving the world. Looking at childhood beauty pageants, school shootings, and the omnipresent nihilistic chic of advertising, Giroux paints a disturbing picture of the world surrounding our children. Ultimately, he turns to the work of Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire, and Stuart Hall for lessons on how we can reinstitute a realistic childhood for our children.

This volume explores the variety of ways in which childhood was experienced, lived and remembered in the late Ottoman Empire and its successor states. The period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a time of rapid change, and the history of childhood reflects the impact of new expectations, lived realities and national responsibilities on the youngest members of societies undergoing monumental change because of ideological, wartime and demographic shifts. Drawing on comparisons both within the Balkans, Turkey and the Arab lands and with Western Europe and beyond, the chapters investigate the many ways in which upheaval and change affected the youth. Particular attention is paid to changing conceptions of childhood, gender roles and newly dominant national imperatives. Contributors include: Elif Aksit, Laurence Brockliss, Nazan Cicek, Alex Drace-Francis, Benjamin C. Fortna, Naoum Kaytchev, Duygu Koeksal, Kathryn Libal, Nazan Maksudyan, Heidi Morrison, and Philipp Wirtz. This title, in its entirety, is available online in Open Access.

This book is the result of a four-year, in-depth study using social science methodology of those refugees who came as children or youths from Central Europe to the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, fleeing persecution from the National Socialist regime. This study examines their fates in their new country, their successes and tribulations.

This book offers an integrative view on children and television from the accumulated global literature in this field of the last 50 years, drawing on a diverse spectrum of research. combining both the American and European traditions. "Children and Television" features an international approach, balancing the need to contextualize television in children's lives in their unique cultural spaces, as well as searching for universal understandings that hold true for children around the world.
Presents an inclusive view on children and television, examining the accumulated global literature in this field of the last 50 years
Combines both the European tradition, characterized by a more sociological and cultural studies perspective to the field, with the American tradition, influenced heavily by the developmental psychological studies
Draws together a methodological diversity from both the quantitative (experimental and survey) and qualitative (ethnographic and interview) research on children and television
Written with a distinctively international approach, and highlights the global perspective in each of the chapters.

Contents:
Section 1. Introduction 1. The ScreenPlay project 2. Setting the scene: Patterns of computer use in the home Section 2. The domestic context 3. Computer histories, computer roles in the home 4. The computer in family life Section 3. Young people's computer use in the home 5. The digital landscape: Games and information navigation 6. Writing, designing and making on the computer in the home Section 4. Digital cultures 7. Computers, consumption and identity 8. Computers, gender and class 9. Digital childhood Section 5. Learning with the computer 10. Learning with the computer at home 11. Learning with computers at school 12. Conclusion

What kinds of obligations do parents have towards their children as family life becomes more complex? Many children pass through a number of different households,living with one or both parents and later step parents and step brothers and sisters. How are the new forms of family life accommodated in the legal system? The answer is that parenthood, rather than marriage, is now emerging as the central mechanism through which moral principles are converted into legal and social obligations. This study of 250 children who do not live with both of their parents shows, however, that despite the comparative legal emptiness of marriage, the experience of living longer with both parents than is usually the case of children of cohabiting or single parents endows the child with social capital in the form of enduring involvement with the outside parent, even after divorce, and that this happens to a greater extent than for children whose parents were not married.

As the first complete portrait of U.S. adolescents, this resource provides information long needed by researchers working in this critical field of study. The handbook includes a wide variety of information about American adolescents, aged 12 to 21, who must deal with societal and cultural pressures unique to their generation. The extensive collection of data contained in this definitive resource will give readers the information they need to accurately assess the status of adolescents in America today.

As Tony Blair has argued "Technology has revolutionised the way we work and is now set to transform education. Children cannot be effective in tomorrow's world if they are trained in yesterday's skills."
Cyberkids draws together research in the sociology of childhood and social studies of technology to explore children's experiences in the Information Age. The book addresses key policy debates about social inclusion and exclusion, children's identities and friendships in on-line and off-line worlds and their relationships with families and teachers. It counters contemporary moral panics about children's risk from dangerous strangers on-line, about corruption and lost innocence from adult-centred material on the web and about the addiction to life on the screen. Instead, by showing how children use ICT in balanced and sophisticated ways, the book draws out the importance of everyday uses of technology and the ways in which children's local experiences are embedded within, and in part, constitute the global.

Contents:
VOLUME 1: PARENT, STATE AND CHILD - PARENTING OF CHILDREN

1. Generally

ARTICLES

Klicka, Christopher J. and Phillips, Douglas W., 'Why Parental Rights Laws are Necessary', Educational Leadership Vol. 55, Nov.1997, pp.80-83.

Woodhouse, Barbara Bennett, 'Child Abuse, The Constitution and the Legacy of Pierce v. Society of Sisters', 78 University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 479-489 (2001).
2. Who is a Parent?

A. Generally

ARTICLES

Holmes, Gilbert A. 'The Tie that Binds: The Constitutional Right of Children to Maintain a Relationship with Parent-Like Individuals', Vol.53 Maryland Law Review 358-411 (1994).

B. The Unwed Parent

ARTICLES

Comment, Craig and Toni, L., 'Establishing the Biological Rights Doctrine to Protect Unwed Fathers in Contested Adoptions', Vol. 25 Florida State University Law Review 391-438 (1998).

Boccaccini, Marcus T. and Willemsen, Eleanor, 'Contested Adoption and the Liberty Interest of the Child', Vol. 10 Saint Thomas Law Review 211-227 (1998).

C. Persons Who are Parent-Like

ARTICLES

Brandon, Kristin J., Note, 'The Liberty Interests of Foster Parents and the Future of Foster Care', Vol.63 University of Cincinnati Law Review 403-437 (1994).

Haury, Cassandra S., Note, The Changing American Family: A Reevaluation of the Rights of Foster Parents When Biological Rights Have Been Terminated', Vol. 35 Georgia Law Review 313-344 (2000).

The State's 'Right' to Intervene in the Parent-Child relationship to Protect a Child from Harm

A. Custody and Adoption of Children

CASES

Palmore v Sidoti, 466 US 429-434 (1984)

Santosky v Kramer, 455 US 745-791 (1982)

ARTICLES

O'Brien, Raymond C., 'An Analysis of Realistic Due Process Rights of Children Versus Parents', Vol. 26 Connecticut Law Review 1209-1260 (1994).

B. Corporal Punishment of Children by Parents or Guardians

ARTICLES

Bitensky, Susan H., 'The Child's Right to Humane Discipline under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Mandate Against All Corporal Punishment of Children', Vol.4 Loyola Poverty Law Journal 47-53 (1998).

Garner, Richard, 'Fundamentally Speaking: Application of Ohio's Domestic Violence Laws in Parental Discipline Cases - A Parental Perspective', Vol. 30 Toledo Law Review 1-29 (1998)

Orentlicher, David. 'Spanking and Other Corporal Punishment of Children by Parents: Overvaluing Pain, Undervaluing Children', Vol. 35 Houston Law Review 147-185 (1998).

C. Parent's of Medical Treatment for Children

ARTICLES

Wadlington, Walter., 'Medical Decision Making for and by Children: Tensions Between Parent, State and Child', 1994 University of Illinois Law review 311-336 (1994).

Lederman, Anne D., Understanding Faith: When Religious Parents Decline Conventional Medical Treatment for Their Children', Vol. 45 Case Western Law Review 891-926 (1995).

Dwyer, James G., 'Spiritual Treatment Exemptions to Child Medical Neglect Laws: What We Outsiders Should Think', Vol. 76 Notre Dame Law Review 147-177 (2000).

State's Obligation to Protect Children from Harm

ARTICLES

Armacost, Barbara E., 'Affirmative Duties, Systematic Harms and the Due Process Clause', Vol. 94 Michigan Law Review 982-1040 (1996).

Schriwer, Tania., Comment, 'Establishing an Affirmative Governmental Duty to Protect Children's Rights: The European Court of Human Rights as a Model for the United States Supreme Court', Vol. 34 University of San Francisco Law Review 379-408 (2000).

5. Third-party Visitation with Children
ARTICLES

Woodhouse, Barbara Bennett., 'Protecting Children's Relationships with Extended Family: The Impact of Troxel v. Granville', Vol.19, No. 5 ABA Child Law Practice 65, 70-71 (July 2000).

Weiss, Elizabeth., Comment, 'Nonparent Visitation Rights v. Family Autonomy: An Abridgement of Parents' Constitutional Rights?', Vol. 10 Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal 1085-1131 (2000)

Strawman, Erica L., 'Grandparent Visitation: The Best Interests of the Grandparent, Child and Society', Vol. 30 University of Toledo Law Review 31-47 (1998)

VOLUME 2: PARENT STATE AND CHILD - THE SCHOOLING OF CHILDREN

1. Education of Children and Parent's Right to Control Child's Education

A. Right to Control Education Generally

ARTICLES

De Mitchell, Todd A. 'The Right to Direct the Upbringing of a Child', Parent as Sovereign and State as Educator: A Balance of Vital Interests', 6 International Journal of Education Reform pp. 368-376 (1997).

Garnett, Richard W., 'Taking Pierce Seriously: The Family, Religious Education and Harm to Children', Vol. 76 Notre Dame Law Review 109-146 (2000).

Ross, William G., 'The Contemporary Significance of Meyer and Pierce for Parental Rights Issues Involving Education', Vol. 34 Akron Law Review 177-207 (2000).

B. School Vouchers

ARTICLES

Underkuffler, Laura S., 'The Price of Vouchers for Religious Freedom', Vol. 78 University of Detroit Mercy Law Review 463-478 (2001).

Lupu, Ira C., 'The Increasingly Anachronistic Case Against Scholl Vouchers', Vol. 13 Notre Dame Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy 375-396 (1999).

2. The Constitutional Rights of Schoolchildren

A. Generally

ARTICLES

Brown, Lisa A. and Gilbert, Christopher., 'Understanding the Constitutional Rights of School Children', Vol. 34-APR Houston Lawyer 40-45 (1997).

Ryan, James E., 'The Supreme Court and Public Schools, Vol. 86 Virginia Law Review 1335-1433 (2000).

B. Corporal Punishment in Schools

ARTICLES

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 'Policy Statement: Corporal Punishment in Schools', (June 1998).

Corporal Punishment in Schools: A Position Paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine', Journal of Adolescent Health: 1992;13 240-246.

Imbrogno, Andre R. 'Corporal Punishment in America's Public Schools and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Case for Nonratification', Vol. 29 Journal of Law and Education 125-147 (2000).

Free Speech

ARTICLES

Parker, Jonathan K., 'Parents Patriage in the Marketplace of Ideas: Limitations of Freedom of Expression in the Public Schools', Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, 1997, pp. 39-41.

Johnson, John W., 'Behind the Scenes in Iowa's Greatest Case: What Isn't in the Official Record of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District', Vol. 48 drake Law Review 473-490 (2000).

Hafen, Bruce C., 'Schools as Intellectual And Moral Associations' 1993 Brigham Young University Law Review 605-621 (1993).

Ingber, Stanley, 'Liberty and Authority: Two facets of the Incultation of Virtue', Vol. 69 St. John's Law Review 421-479 (1995).

Allred, Chad. 'Guarding the Treasure: Protection of Student Religious Speech in the Classroom', Vol.22 Seattle University Law Review 741-780 (1999).

D. Minor's Right to Be Free From Unreasonable Searches And Seizure

ARTICLES

Mitchell, J. Chad, Comment, 'An Alternative Approach to the Fourth Amendment in Public Schools: Balancing Students' Rights with School Safety', B.Y.U. Law Review 1207-1240 (1998).

E. Minor's Rights to Procedural Due Process Prior to Suspension from School

ARTICLES

Wilkinson, III, Hon. J. Harvie, 'Constitutionalization of School Discipline: an Unnecessary and Counter-Productive Solution', Vol. 1 Michigan Law and Policy Review 309-313 (1996).

Strossen, Nadine. 'Protecting Student Rights Promotes Educational Opportunity: A Response to Judge Wilkinson, Vol.1 Michigan Law and Policy Review 315-323 (1996).

VOLUME 3: CHILD VERSUS STATE

1. Generally

ARTICLES

Geimer, William S. 'Juvenileness: A Single Edged Constitutional Sword', Vol. 22 Georgia Law Review 949-973 (1988).

2. Minor's Medical Rights

A. Generally

ARTICLES

Hanisco, Christine, Note, 'Acknowledging the Hypocrisy: Granting Minors the Right to Choose Their Medical Treatment', Vol. 16 New York Law School Journal of Human Rights 899-932 (2000).

B. Minor's Right to Contraception

CASES

Carey v. Population Services International, 431 US 678-719 (1977).

Minor's Right to Abortion

ARTICLES

Puzella, Carolyn., 'Rights of Children: Abortion Rights of Minors, Parental Consent and Parental Notification', Vol. 11 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 642-645 (2000).

Collett, Teresa Stanton. 'Seeking Solomon's Wisdom: Judicial Bypass of Parental Involvement in a Minor's Abortion Decision', Vol. 52 Baylor Law Review 513-601 (2000).

Katz, Katheryn D., 'The Pregnant Child's Right to Self-Determination', Vol.62 Albany Law Review 1119-1166 (1999).

3. Juvenile Curfews

ARTICLES

Norton, Diedre E., 'Why Criminalize Children? Looking Beyond the Express Policies Driving Juvenile Curfew Legislation', Vol.4 New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy 175-203 (2000/2001).

Hammens, Craig. and Bennett, Katherine., 'Out in the Street: Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Curfews and the Constitution', 34 Gonzaga Law Review 267-327 (1998/1999).

Sasse, Benjamin C., Note, 'Curfew Laws, Freedom of Movement and the Rights of Juveniles', Vol.50 Case Western Reserve Law Review 681-728 (2000).

Foreman, William L., Note, 'Constitutional Law: Hutchins v. District of Columbia: The Constitutional Dilemma Over Juvenile Curfews, 53 Oklahoma Law Review 717-735 (2000).

This collection of facsimile reprints brings together essays in the field of American law relating to the controversial area of children's rights, parents' rights, and state's obligations toward children. Articles discuss the major rulings concerning an array of hotly debated issues.
Volume three explores the rights of children against the state. Areas treated include freedom of speech, the right of a minor to refuse medical treatment and a minor's right to contraception and abortion with and without parental consent, the rights of minors to separate from their legal parents, the rights of children to know their biological parents in the case of adoption, the rights of children resisting repatriation to relatives outside the United States.

This collection of facsimile reprints brings together essays in the field of American law relating to the controversial area of children's rights, parents' rights, and state's obligations toward children. Articles discuss the major rulings concerning an array of hotly debated issues.
Volume one focuses on the obligations of the state to insure the protection of children and to intervene on behalf of a child. Issues include the rights of parents to educate children, to retain custody of children and to inflict corporal and noncorporal punishment on children. This volume also covers the state's lack of obligation to intervene in the private sphere of the family, i.e. the right of the state to remain neutral in cases of abuse, threat, or in cases where decisions made by the head of a household might appear to compromise the welfare or best interests of a child.

To date, knowledge of the everyday world of the juvenile correction institution has been extremely sparse. Compassionate Confinement brings to light the challenges and complexities inherent in the U.S. system of juvenile corrections. Building on over a year of field work at a boys' residential facility, Laura S. Abrams and Ben Anderson-Nathe provide a context for contemporary institutions and highlight some of the system's most troubling tensions. This ethnographic text utilizes narratives, observations, and case examples to illustrate the strain between treatment and correctional paradigms and the mixed messages regarding gender identity and masculinity that the youths are expected to navigate. Within this context, the authors use the boys' stories to show various and unexpected pathways toward behavior change. While some residents clearly seized opportunities for self-transformation, others manipulated their way toward release, and faced substantial challenges when they returned home. Compassionate Confinement concludes with recommendations for rehabilitating this notoriously troubled system in light of the experiences of its most vulnerable stakeholders.

This book explores in detail the concept of homelessness by examining the dynamics of shelter living and the financial costs in comparison to the psychological costs to the children and the family. A comparison is made with housed low-income families to highlight the fact that homelessness, outside of poverty, does play a key role in the negative outcomes of homeless children and families. Psychological well-being is defined with behavioural outcomes and self-concept while family functioning is defined with parenting dimensions, family environment and social supports. Strong recommendations are made for program implementations to provide a comprehensive response to the needs of homeless families with children.

Mobile Childhoods in Filipino Transnational Families focuses on the lived experiences of '1.5-generation' migrants with similar 'roots' (the Philippines), traversing different 'routes' (receiving countries). By shedding light on the diversified paths of their migratory lives, it revisits the relationships between mobility, sociality and identity.

This book introduces current theories and research on disability, and builds on the premise that disability has to be understood from the dialectical dynamics of biology, psychology, and culture over time. Based on the newest empirical research on children with disabilities, the book overcomes the limitations of the medical and social models of disability by arguing for a dialectical biopsychosocial model. The proposed model builds on Vygotsky's cultural-historical ideas of developmental incongruence, implying that the disability emerges from the misfit between individual abilities and the cultural-historical activity settings in which the child with impairments participates. The book is a theoretical contribution to an updated understanding of disability from a psychological and educational perspective. It focuses on the first years of the life of the child with impairment, and travels through infancy, toddler, preschool and early school age, to track the developmental trajectories of disability through the dialectical processes of cultural, social, individual, and biological processes. It discusses a number of themes that are relevant for the early development and support for children with various types and degrees of disability through the lens of Vygotsky's cultural-historical developmental theories. Some of the themes discussed are inclusion, mental health, communication, aids and family life.

Small Comrades is a fascinating examination of Soviet conceptions of childhood and the resulting policies directed toward young children. This book offers some tentative answers to the questions, 'What did children make of the Revolution?' and 'What did the Revolution make of them?' This project emphasises young children as the subjects of policies and politics in their own right. It draws on work that has been done on Soviet schooling, and focuses specifically on the development of curricula and institutions, it also examines the wider context of the relationship between the family and the state, and to the Bolshevik vision of the 'children of October.'

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0815339453

This book constitutes a clear, comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to the basic principles of psychological and educational assessment that underlie effective clinical decisions about childhood language disorders. Rebecca McCauley describes specific commonly used tools, as well as general approaches ranging from traditional standardized norm-referenced testing to more recent ones, such as dynamic and qualitative assessment. Highlighting special considerations in testing and expected patterns of performance, she reviews the challenges presented by children with a variety of problems--specific language impairment, hearing loss, mental retardation, and autism spectrum disorders. Three extended case examples illustrate her discussion of each of these target groups. Her overarching theme is the crucial role of well-formed questions as fundamental guides to decision making, independent of approach.
Each chapter features lists of key concepts and terms, study questions, and recommended readings. Tables throughout offer succinct summaries and aids to memory.
Students, their instructors, and speech-language pathologists continuing their professional education will all welcome this invaluable new resource.
Distinctive features include:
* a comprehensive consideration of both psychometric and descriptive approaches to the characterization of children's language;
* a detailed discussion of background issues important in the language assessment of the "major" groups of children with language impairment;
* timely information on assessment of change--a topic frequently not covered in other texts;
* extensive guidance on how to evaluate individualnorm-referenced measures for adoption;
* an extensive appendix listing about 50 measures used to assess language in children; and
* a test review guide that can be reproduced for use by readers.

This pioneering monograph integrates the major research findings of the past four decades and offers a new model for the study of human sexuality. The author examines the empirical literature on sexuality for the developmental stages of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood and for experiences of sexual aggression. He then uses symbolic interactionism to develop a theoretical model which integrates the research across the developmental periods and for instances of sexual aggression, providing one of the most comprehensive views of sexuality development that has yet been offered.
The work investigates the role of family, peers, romantic partners, and personality in the development of sexual expression and offers a unique vision of how symbolic interactionism can inform one's understanding of sexual beliefs and behaviors through the developmental stages. By acknowledging developmental differences and changes in individuals and their interpersonal relationship context, a more integrated understanding emerges of how sexuality develops.
This volume is intended for students and scholars interested in the influences on the development of sexual expression of youth and young adults. It will be of great interest to readers in psychology, family studies, communication, sociology, adolescent studies, and specialized areas of sexuality research. It is appropriate for undergraduate seminars and graduate-level courses on human sexuality, close relationships, family theory, sociology, communication, social psychology, developmental psychology, and related areas.

Look up, up high and see all the trees! Who lives in the tree and what wonderful fruit can you pick? What do trees look like as the year goes by? Lift the flaps to discover red autumn trees, leafless wintry trees and even lots of things that can fall from trees! With bright illustrations and simple, accessible and interactive text, this is the perfect first introduction to trees for preschoolers. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. With two inspiring gardens at Kew in London, and Wakehurst in Sussex, visitors are enchanted with the wonder of plant diversity. Over the past 250 years Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has made innumerable contributions to increasing the understanding of plants and fungi, with many benefits for humankind. Bloomsbury's Lift and Look board books are packed full of large cut-out flaps, specially designed for little hands. They also feature bright and beautiful illustrations and fun, engaging text, which children will adore. Available in a range of young children's favourite topics, including Bugs, Garden, School, Dinosaurs and Space.

From recent sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church, to arguments about faith schools and religious indoctrination, this volume considers the interconnection between the actual lives of children and the position of children as placeholders for the future. Childhood has often been a particular site of struggle for negotiating the location of religion in public and everyday social life, and children's involvement and non-involvement in religion raises strong feelings because they represent the future of religious and secular communities, even of society itself. The Bloomsbury Reader in Religion and Childhood provides a rich resource for students and scholars of this interdisciplinary field, and addresses wider questions about the distinctiveness of childhood and its religious dimensions in historical and contemporary perspective. Divided into five thematic parts, the volume provides classic, contemporary, and specially commissioned readings from a range of perspectives, including the sociological, anthropological, historical, and theological. Case studies range from Augustine's description of childhood in Confessions, the psychology of religion and childhood, to religion in children's literature, religious education, and Qur'anic schools. - Religious traditions covered include Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, in the UK and Europe, USA, Latin America and Africa - An introduction situates each thematic part, and each reading is contextualised by the editors - Guidance on further reading and study questions are provided on the book's webpage