In order to understand how adults deal with children's questions about death, we must examine how children understand death, as well as the broader society's conceptions of death, the tensions between biological and supernatural views of death and theories on how children should be taught about death. This collection of essays comprehensively examines children's ideas about death, both biological and religious. Written by specialists from developmental psychology, pediatrics, philosophy, anthropology and legal studies, it offers a truly interdisciplinary approach to the topic. The volume examines different conceptions of death and their impact on children's cognitive and emotional development and will be useful for courses in developmental psychology, clinical psychology and certain education courses, as well as philosophy classes - especially in ethics and epistemology. This collection will be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners in psychology, medical workers and educators - both parents and teachers.

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aAt a time when childrenas play seems under siege, Howard Chudacoffas history--the first of its kind--arrives to tell us what we are letting slip away. . . . His history demonstrates that the topic of play is anything but trivial. And by showing us where weave been, he can help us decide where, as a culture, we want to go.a
--"Wilson Quarterly"

aA fascinating and provocative survey. . . . Chudacoff builds up a scathing critique of modern parentsa intrusion in childrenas play.a
--"New York Times Book Review"

aIn this wonderfully polished, scholarly treatment of children and play from Colonial times to the present, Chudacoff uses excellent historical methodology and perceptive psychological insights, putting primary sources to good use, as he presents an illustrated, chronological history of children at play from ages six to 12.a
--"Library Journal" (starred review)

aIn tracing the history of play over the American centuries, Chudacoff makes the mid-seventeenth century sound like our own time, only better.a
--"Slate.com"

a[Chudacoffas] history demonstrates that the topic of play is anything but trivial. And by showing us where weave been, he can help us decide where, as a culture, we want to go.a
--"The Wilson Quarterly"

aThe tension between how children spend their free time and how adults want them to spend it runs through Chudacoffas book like a yellow line smack down the middle of a highway. His critique is increasingly echoed today by parents, educators and childrenas advocates who warn that organized activities, overscheduling and excessiveamounts of homework are crowding out free time and constricting childrenas imaginations and social skills.a
--"The New York Times"

aChildren at Play is a strong addition to the growing literature on childhood, but itas also good reading for adults seeking a fresh perspective on their own kids.a
--"American Heritage"

aChudacoffas work gives historical depth to debates that continue to rage over what constitutes appropriate childas play.a
--"Publishers Weekly"

"Shrewd, balanced, witty, and important. Chudacoff has written a sweeping history that encompasses boys and girls, black children and white, rich and poor, children on farms and in cities. He shows how children play alone and with each other, and how they use their imaginations to create a world apart from their parents. This is historical synthesis at its finest, and instantly becomes an essential text in this new and dynamic area of inquiry."
--Paula S. Fass, author of "Children of a New World: Society, Culture, and Globalization"

a"Children at Play" is a brilliant, richly researched study that foregrounds childrenas voices, offering a message that could not be more timely or profound: That the history of childrenas play consists of an ongoing struggle between adults who seek to improve and safeguard the young, and kids themselves, who have sought to create worlds of play that are truly their own.a --Steven Mintz, author of "Huckas Raft: A History of American Childhood"

"In this beautifully written book, Howard Chudacoff lets us peer into the diverse playworlds of America's children across time and place. Informed by deep historical research and balanced with the best sociological and psychological theory, Chudacoff shows us how children (often in spite of adults) used play to express their freedom and themselves."
--Gary Cross, author of "The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children's Culture"

If you believe the experts, "child's play" is serious business. From sociologists to psychologists and from anthropologists to social critics, writers have produced mountains of books about the meaning and importance of play. But what do we know about how children "actually" play, especially American children of the last two centuries? In this fascinating and enlightening book, Howard Chudacoff presents a history of children's play in the United States and ponders what it tells us about ourselves.

Through expert investigation in primary sources-including dozens of children's diaries, hundreds of autobiographical recollections of adults, and a wealth of child-rearing manuals-along with wide-ranging reading of the work of educators, journalists, market researchers, and scholars-Chudacoff digs into the "underground" of play. He contrasts the activities that genuinely occupied children's time with what adults thought children should be doing.

Filled with intriguing stories and revelatory insights, Children at Play provides a chronological history of play in the U.S. from the point of view of children themselves. Focusing on youngsters between the ages of about six and twelve, this is history "from the bottom up." It highlights the transformations of play that have occurred over the last 200 years, paying attention not only to the activities of the cultural elite but to those of working-class men and women, to slaves, and to Native Americans. In addition, the authorconsiders the findings, observations, and theories of numerous social scientists along with those of fellow historians.

Chudacoff concludes that children's ability to play independently has attenuated over time and that in our modern era this diminution has frequently had unfortunate consequences. By examining the activities of young people whom marketers today call "tweens," he provides fresh historical depth to current discussions about topics like childhood obesity, delinquency, learning disability, and the many ways that children spend their time when adults aren't looking.

Unlike many children's television shows, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood did more than simply entertain or occupy children's attention. The show educated them in the affective domain, encouraging such things as appreciation for difference, collaboration, self-expression, and self-worth. It also introduced them to the areas of culture, art, and music through guests, trips, art objects and processes, and demonstrations, making it accessible and meaningful in a way that a child could understand. While the educational content of children's television programming has improved greatly since the late 1960s, no other children's program has ever attempted such a mix of high art, low art, folk art, industrial production, learning in the affective and social domains, and more, all with a whimsical sense of humor, insight, and a level of interconnected detail unmatched by any other children's television program. This book illuminates and examines the world of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood through world design, narrative, genre, form, content, authorship, reception and more.

How children are taught to control their feelings and how they resist this emotional management through cultural production. Today, even young kids talk to each other across social media by referencing memes,songs, and movements, constructing a common vernacular that resists parental, educational, and media imperatives to name their feelings and thus control their bodies. Over the past two decades, children's television programming has provided a therapeutic site for the processing of emotions such as anger, but in doing so has enforced normative structures of feeling that, Jane Juffer argues, weaken the intensity and range of children's affective experiences. Don't Use Your Words! seeks to challenge those norms, highlighting the ways that kids express their feelings through cultural productions including drawings, fan art, memes, YouTube videos, dance moves, and conversations while gaming online. Focusing on kids between ages five and nine, Don't Use Your Words! situates these productions in specific contexts, including immigration policy referenced in drawings by Central American children just released from detention centers and electoral politics as contested in kids' artwork expressing their anger at Trump's victory. Taking issue with the mainstream tendency to speak on behalf of children, Juffer argues that kids have the agency to answer for themselves: what does it feel like to be a kid?

Over one billion people under the age of eighteen live in territories affected by armed conflict. Despite this, scholars and practitioners often lack a comprehensive knowledge of how children both struggle within and shape conflict zones. Children and Global Conflict provides this understanding with a view to enhancing the prospects of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. This book presents key ideas and issues relating to children's experiences of war, international relations and international law. The authors explore the political, conceptual and moral debates around children in these contexts and offer examples and solutions based on case studies of child soldiers from Vietnam, child forced migrants in Australia, young peace-builders in post-conflict zones, youth in the international justice system, and child advocates across South Asia and the Middle East.

In this engaging and eloquent history, Ruby Lal traces the becoming of nineteenth-century Indian women through a critique of narratives of linear transition from girlhood to womanhood. In the north Indian patriarchal environment, women's lives were dominated by the expectations of the male universal, articulated most clearly in household chores and domestic duties. The author argues that girls and women in the early nineteenth century experienced freedoms, eroticism, adventurousness and playfulness, even within restrictive circumstances. Although women in the colonial world of the later nineteenth century remained agential figures, their activities came to be constrained by more firmly entrenched domestic norms. Lal skillfully marks the subtle and complex alterations in the multifaceted female subject in a variety of nineteenth-century discourses, elaborated in four different sites - forest, school, household, and rooftops.

The testimonies of individuals who survived the Holocaust as children pose distinct emotional and intellectual challenges for researchers: as now-adult interviewees recall profound childhood experiences of suffering and persecution, they also invoke their own historical awareness and memories of their postwar lives, requiring readers to follow simultaneous, disparate narratives. This interdisciplinary volume brings together historians, psychologists, and other scholars to explore child survivors' accounts. With a central focus on the Kestenberg Holocaust Child Survivor Archive's over 1,500 testimonies, it not only enlarges our understanding of the Holocaust empirically but illuminates the methodological, theoretical, and institutional dimensions of this unique form of historical record.

Interpreter-mediated child interviews, by their nature, involve communication with vulnerable interviewees who need extra support for three main reasons: their age (under 18), language and procedural status (victim, witness or suspect). The CO-Minor-IN/QUEST research project (JUST/2011/JPEN/AG/2961; January 2013 - December 2014) studied the interactional dynamics of interpreter-mediated child interviews during the pre-trial phase of criminal proceedings. The project aimed to provide guidance in implementing the 2012/29/EU Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. This book sets out the key findings from a survey conducted in the project partners' countries (Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK) targeting the different professional groups involved in child interviewing. Both the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the respondents' answers is discussed in detail. The book also provides hands-on chapters, addressing concrete cases of children involved in criminal procedures who required the assistance of an interpreter to ensure their rights were fully protected.Finally, a set of recommendations is offered to professionals working in this area.

This book responds to the reality that children and youth constitute a disproportionately large percentage of displaced populations worldwide. It demonstrates how their hopes and aspirations reflect the transient nature of their age group, and often differ from those of their elders. It also examines how they face additional difficulties due to the inconsistent definition and uneven implementation of the traditional 'durable solutions' to forced migration implemented by national governments and international assistance agencies. The authors use empirical research findings and robust policy analyses of cases of child displacement across the globe to make their central argument: that the particular challenges and opportunities that displaced children and youth face must be investigated and factored into relevant policy and practice, promoting more sustainable and durable solutions in the process. This interdisciplinary edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of forced migration studies, development, conflict and peace-building and youth studies, along with policy-makers, children's rights organizations and NGOs.

This book investigates how constructed representations of the child have and continue to restrict children's opportunities to engage in moral discourses, and the implications this has on children's everyday experiences. By considering a moral dimension to both structure and agency, the author focuses on the nature of the images that are used to represent the child and how these sit in contrast to the active and meaning-driven way in which children negotiate their everyday lives. The book therefore argues that 'morality' provides a filter to understand the backdrop for interaction, as well as offering a focus for engaging with the individual as a social agent, acting and reacting in the world around them. Negotiating Childhoods will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, childhood studies, criminology, social work, culture and media studies and philosophy.

This book explores the ways in which notions of childhood are being influenced by a rapidly expanding consumer-media culture in the 21st Century. It has been argued that new stages of childhood are being created and defined by children's role as consumers. The concept of 'tween', girls aged between 9 and 14, has generated the greatest debate. While the fantasy world of 'tween' offers girls a space to fashion a young, feminine identity it has been widely argued that the consumer-media's messages pressure tween girls to consume and adopt highly sexualised appearances and behaviours. The author considers how the art of consumption for 'tween' girls is intrinsically linked with their desire for independence and belonging, and how their consumption is interwoven with other important social and cultural influences. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of Childhood and Youth Studies, Cultural Studies, Feminist and Women's Studies and Sociology.

This book provides the first overarching, empirically grounded, critical analysis of child trafficking as an idea, ordering principle, and artefact of politics. It examines (once) hegemonic anti-child trafficking discourse, policy and practice, and does so by placing secondary literature from around the world in conversation the author's paradigmatic case study of the situation in southern Benin. It deconstructs the child trafficking paradigm, contrasts it with 'real' histories of child and youth labour and mobility, and seeks to explain it by going 'inside' the anti-trafficking field. In doing so, Howard tells a gripping story of ideology at work.

This book addresses the endangerment of children's bodies in affluent societies. Bodily integrity is an important part of a child's physical and mental well-being, but it can also be violated through various threats during childhood; not only affecting physical health but also causing mental damage and leading to distortions in the development of the self. The authors give an account of three areas, which present different serious dangers: (1) body and eating, (2) body and sexuality, and (3) body and violence. Through an in-depth examination of the available theoretical and empirical knowledge, as well as a thorough ethical analysis, the central injustices in the mentioned areas are identified and the agents with responsibilities towards children displayed. The authors conclude by providing invaluable insight into the necessity of an ethical basis for policies to safeguard children and their bodies.

Exciting stories, extraordinary creatures, and compelling gods, goddesses, and heroes come together in this compendium of Norse myths - first told long ago by the Vikings.

Read about Thor, the god of thunder and how he once disguised himself as a bride to seek revenge on a giant and retrieve his powerful hammer -Mjölnir, and how Sif, the goddess of fertility had her long golden hair cut off by Loki, the trickster god. Each myth is told with thrilling immediacy, in language that is easy for children to understand, while retaining the awe, majesty and intrigue of the original tales. Stunning illustrations by multi-award winning artist Katie Ponder breathe new life into each story.

This book explores the daily mobilities and immobilities of children and young people in sub-Saharan Africa. The authors draw on findings from rural and urban field research extending over many years, culminating in a 24-site study across three African countries: Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa. Wider reflections on gender, relationality, the politics of mobility, and field methodology frame the study. By bringing together diverse strands of a complex daily mobilities picture-from journeys for education, work, play/leisure and health, to associated experiences of different transport modes, road safety, and the virtual mobility now afforded by mobile phones-the book helps fill a knowledge gap with crucial significance for development policy and practice.

A Tender Voyage is the first full-length study of the history of childhood and children's lives in late imperial China. The author draws on an extraordinary range of sources to analyze both the normative concept of childhood-literary and philosophical-and the treatment and experience of children in China. The study begins with the history of pediatrics and newborn care and their evolution over time. The author moves on to the social environment of the child, including models of upbringing and expected behavior and the treatment of different kinds of children, including the rebellious and the "gentle" child. She examines the role of the mother, notably her close and complex relations with her sons, and the broader emotional world of children, their relationships with the adults around them, and the destructive power of death. The last section discusses concepts of childhood in China and the West. Throughout, the study keeps in view the issue of representation versus practice, the role of memory, and the importance of listening for what is not said.

This book analyses parental anxieties about their children's healthcare issues in urban China, engaging with wider theoretical debates about modernity, risk and anxiety. It examines the broader social, cultural and historical contexts of parental anxiety by analysing a series of socio-economic changes and population policy changes in post-reform China that contextualise parental experiences. Drawing on Wilkinson's (2001) conceptualisation linking individual's risk consciousness to anxiety, this book analyses the situated risk experiences of parents' and grandparents', looking particularly into their engagement with various types of media. It studies the representations of health issues and health-related risks in a parenting magazine, popular newspapers, commercial advertising and new media, as well as parents' and grandparents' engagement with and response to these media representations. By investigating 'a culture of anxiety' among parents and grandparents in contemporary China, this book seeks to add to the scholarship of contemporary parenthood in a non- Western context.

This book addresses the impact of globalization on the lives of youth, focusing on the role of legal institutions and discourses. As practices and ideas travel the globe-such as the promotion and transmission of zero tolerance and retributive justice programs, the near ubiquitous acceptance of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the transnational migration of street gangs-the legal arena is being transformed. The essays in this book offer case studies and in-depth analyses, spanning diverse settings including courts and prisons, inner-city streets, international human rights initiatives, newspaper offices, local youth organizations, and the United Nations. Drawing on everyday social practices, each chapter adds clarity to our current understanding of the ways in which ideas and practices in different parts of the world can affect youth in one particular locale.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

"In this remarkable volume, Paula S. Fass, a pioneer and pace-setter in the burgeoning field of children's history, demonstrates that a knowledge of history is essential to understanding contemporary controversies over child protection, the commercialization of childhood, multiculturalism in public schools, and the impact of globalization."
--Steven Mintz, author of "Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood"

aThought-provokinga--"Choice"

Paula S. Fass, a pathbreaker in children's history and the history of education, turns her attention in Children of a New World to the impact of globalization on children's lives, both in the United States and on the world stage. Globalization, privatization, the rise of the "work-centered" family, and the triumph of the unregulated marketplace, she argues, are revolutionizing the lives of children today.

Fass begins by considering the role of the school as a fundamental component of social formation, particularly in a nation of immigrants like the United States. She goes on to examine children as both creators of culture and objects of cultural concern in America, evident in the strange contemporary fear of and fascination with child abduction, child murder, and parental kidnapping. Finally, Fass moves beyond the limits of American society and brings historical issues into the present and toward the future, exploring how American historical experience can serve as a guide to contemporary globalization as well as how globalization is altering the experience of American children and redefining childhood.

Clear and scholarly, serious but witty, Children of a New World provides afoundation for future historical investigations while adding to our current understanding of the nature of modern childhood, the role of education for national identity, the crisis of family life, and the influence of American concepts of childhood on the world's definitions of children's rights. As a new generation comes of age in a global world, it is a vital contribution to the study of childhood and globalization.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

aMarten adds to the growing body of literature on the history of family life with this rich collection of original essays and transcriptions from primary documents. Divided into thematic subdivisions relating to Europeans and Native Americans, issues of family and community, and the process of becoming American, the 12 essays contributed mainly by history academics examine children's lives from the varied cultures found in Colonial North America and contain copious footnotes and a list of suggested further reading. Such topics as parenting practices, health, education, gender roles, and rites of passage are touched on. The small selection of primary documents (excerpts from letters, diaries, and autobiographies) add depth to an already well-written and researched work whose real strength is its juxtaposition of children's lives across a variety of Colonial cultures.a
--"Library Journal"

"Providing fresh historical perspectives on key features of children's lives, this book offers compelling, new materials on childhood in colonial America, and on groups--including Native Americans and Hispanics--too often left out of conventional coverage."
--Peter Stearns, George Mason University

"Children in Colonial America is a highly original contribution to the history of childhood. The collection's unique strength lies in its great range of regions and peoples represented: from Indian children of Mexico to young Africans in Jamaica, from Separatist Pilgrims in the Netherlands and Plymouth to Catholic girls in Germany, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania. Although ideal for the classroom, these essays offer much that will be of interest toseasoned scholars."
--Gloria L. Main, University of Colorado-Boulder

aFew books can be all things to all people, but this one is an exception.a
--Kenneth J. Blume

aA useful and largely impressive anthology on an under-studied topic.a
--"PhiloBiblos"

The Pilgrims and Puritans did not arrive on the shores of New England alone. Nor did African men and women, brought to the Americas as slaves. Though it would be hard to tell from the historical record, European colonists and African slaves had children, as did the indigenous families whom they encountered, and those children's life experiences enrich and complicate our understanding of colonial America.

Through essays, primary documents, and contemporary illustrations, Children in Colonial America examines the unique aspects of childhood in the American colonies between the late sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries. The twelve original essays observe a diverse cross-section of children--from indigenous peoples of the east coast and Mexico to Dutch-born children of the Plymouth colony and African-born offspring of slaves in the Caribbean--and explore themes including parenting and childrearing practices, children's health and education, sibling relations, child abuse, mental health, gender, play, and rites of passage.

Taken together, the essays and documents in Children in Colonial America shed light on the ways in which the process of colonization shaped childhood, and in turn how the experience of children affected life in colonial America.

From the 1950s to the digital age, Americans have pushed their childrento live science-minded lives, cementing scientific discovery and youthfulcuriosity as inseparable ideals. In this multifaceted work, historian RebeccaOnion examines the rise of informal children's science education in thetwentieth century, from the proliferation of home chemistry sets after WorldWar I to the century-long boom in child-centred science museums. Onionlooks at how the United States has increasingly focused its energies over thelast century into producing young scientists outside of the classroom. Sheshows that although Americans profess to believe that success in the sciencesis synonymous with good citizenship, this idea is deeply complicated inan era when scientific data is hotly contested and many Americans have aconflicted view of science itself. These contradictions, Onion explains, can be understood by examiningconnections between the histories of popular science and the developmentof ideas about American childhood. She shows how the idealised concept of"science" has moved through the public consciousness and how the drive tomake child scientists has deeply influenced American culture.

This book is an ethnography of teachers and children in grades 1 and 2, and presents arguments about why we should take gender and childhood sexuality seriously in the early years of South African primary schooling. Taking issue with dominant discourses which assumes children's lack of agency, the book questions the epistemological foundations of childhood discourses that produce innocence. It examines the paradox between teachers' dominant narratives of childhood innocence and children's own conceptualisation of gender and sexuality inside the classroom, with peers, in heterosexual games, in the playground and through boyfriend-girlfriend relationships. It examines the nuances and finely situated experiences which draw attention to hegemonic masculinity and femininity where boys and girls challenge and contest relations of power. The book focuses on the early makings of gender and sexual harassment and shows how violent gender relations are manifest even amongst very young boys and girls. Attention is given to the interconnections with race, class, structural inequalities, as well as the actions of boys and girls as navigate gender and sexuality at school. The book argues that the early years of primary schooling are a key site for the production and reproduction of gender and sexuality. Gender reform strategies are vital in this sector of schooling.

The president has some VERY important documents to sign at Dublin Castle, but without his glasses, how will he do it? Luckily, the presidential pigeon knows exactly what's happened and follows the presidential car to Dublin Castle, taking in a bird's eye view of the city on his way. But the pigeon gets stuck in traffic on O'Connell Street ... meets some tourists taking selfies ... and even beats a Viking ship in a boat race! Will he ever catch up with the president to deliver his glasses in time? 'A charming, witty and stylish book about a forgetful president and his ever ready pigeon' Primary Times

What is childhood? In recent years, a cluster of critical and complex ideas have emerged around the nature of biological, social and psychological growth in the early years, reflecting the changing nature of adult - child relations, and political and cultural understandings of childhood in the twenty-first century. In this clear and concise book, Michael Wyness offers fresh insights into the current state of play within childhood studies. Drawing on work from a number of disciplines including sociology, geography and history, he discusses the contested terrain of theoretical and research advances with particular attention to the notion of children s agency and the concept of global childhoods. Key conceptual debates are illustrated through a range of contemporary issues that affect children and adults, including inequality, child abuse, ill-health, child labour, sexualization and identity formation. This book will appeal to students and academics within the fields of sociology, education, geography, history and childhood studies.

While the notion of young people as individuals worthy or capable of having rights is of relatively recent origin, over the past several decades there has been a substantial increase in both social and political commitment to children's rights as well as a tendency to grant young people some of the rights that were typically accorded only to adults. In addition, there has been a noticeable shift in orientation from a focus on children's protection and provision to an emphasis on children's participation and self-determination. With contributions from a wide range of international scholars, the Handbook of Children's Rights brings together research, theory, and practice from diverse perspectives on children's rights. This volume constitutes a comprehensive treatment of critical perspectives concerning children's rights in their various forms. Its contributions address some of the major scholarly tensions and policy debates comprising the current discourse on children's rights, including the best interests of the child, evolving capacities of the child, states' rights versus children's rights, rights of children versus parental or family rights, children as citizens, children's rights versus children's responsibilities, and balancing protection and participation. In addition to its multidisciplinary focus, the handbook includes perspectives from social science domains in which children's rights scholarship has evolved largely independently due to distinct and seemingly competing assumptions and disciplinary approaches (e.g., childhood studies, developmental psychology, sociology of childhood, anthropology, and political science). The handbook also brings together diverse methodological approaches to the study of children's rights, including both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and policy analysis. This comprehensive, cosmopolitan, and timely volume serves as an important reference for both scholarly and policy-driven interest in the voices and perspectives of children and youth.