This book examines the construction of adolescent girlhood across a range of genres in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. It argues that there was a preoccupation with defining, characterising and naming adolescent girlhood at the fin de siecle. These 'daughters of today', 'juvenile spinsters' and 'modern girls', as the press variously termed them, occupying a borderland between childhood and womanhood, were seen to be inextricably connected to late nineteenth-century modernity: they were the products of changes taking place in education and employment and of the challenge to traditional conceptions of femininity presented by the Woman Question. The author argues that the shifting nature of the modern adolescent girl made her a malleable cultural figure, and a meeting point for many of the prevalent debates associated with fin-de-siecle society. By juxtaposing diverse material, from children's books and girls' magazines to New Woman novels and psychological studies, the author contextualises adolescent girlhood as a distinct but complex cultural category at the end of the nineteenth century.

This book examines the construction of adolescent girlhood across a range of genres in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. It argues that there was a preoccupation with defining, characterising and naming adolescent girlhood at the fin de siecle. These 'daughters of today', 'juvenile spinsters' and 'modern girls', as the press variously termed them, occupying a borderland between childhood and womanhood, were seen to be inextricably connected to late nineteenth-century modernity: they were the products of changes taking place in education and employment and of the challenge to traditional conceptions of femininity presented by the Woman Question. The author argues that the shifting nature of the modern adolescent girl made her a malleable cultural figure, and a meeting point for many of the prevalent debates associated with fin-de-siecle society. By juxtaposing diverse material, from children's books and girls' magazines to New Woman novels and psychological studies, the author contextualises adolescent girlhood as a distinct but complex cultural category at the end of the nineteenth century.

Abigail misses her father, who is a soldier deployed far, far away from their ranch in Texas. For her fourth birthday, her grandmothers create a green dinosaur costume that snaps to her rumpus. Although Abigail's own ears don't hear as well as other children's, she quickly discovers that only she can hear the dinosaur's magical voice. Snapped together, the two begin a year-long exploration of the ranch where their adventures include bottle feeding a baby calf, learning the proper way to call elk, and finding a suitable tail for a tailless monkey. Singing "Jesus Loves Me This I Know," gives the two friends courage while meeting a room full of wild animals. Explaining to Rumpus that God is always with us, even though He is invisible, helps Abigail remain brave until her father's safe return from Iraq.

New perspectives on women, periodicals and print culture in Victorian Britain by experts in media, literary and cultural history The period covered in this volume witnessed the proliferation of print culture and the greater availability of periodicals for an increasingly diverse audience of women readers. This was also a significant period in women's history, in which the 'Woman Question' dominated public debate, and writers and commentators from a range of perspectives engaged with ideas and ideals about womanhood ranging from the 'Angel in the House' to the New Woman. Essays in this collection gather together expertise from leading scholars as well as emerging new voices in order to produce sustained analysis of underexplored periodicals and authors and to reveal in new ways the dynamic and integral relationship between women's history and print culture in Victorian society. Key Features Presents 35 thematically organised, research-led essays on women, periodicals and print culture in Victorian Britain Features cutting-edge work by senior and early career scholars working across a range of specialist fields, including literary and periodical studies, material culture studies, cultural history, art history and women's history Extends recent scholarship on the Victorian press by revealing the diversity and complexity of women's interactions with periodical culture in Victorian Britain - as readers, authors, journalists, editors, engravers, illustrators, and correspondents Envisaged as an indispensable resource for students and specialists interested in new developments in periodical studies, the Victorian period, and women and cultural history