The astonishing success of J.K. Rowling and other contemporary children's authors has demonstrated how passionately children can commit to the books they love. But this kind of devotion is not new. This timely volume takes up the challenge of assessing the complex interplay of forces that have created the popularity of children's books both today and in the past. The essays collected here ask about the meanings and values that have been ascribed to the term 'popular'. They consider whether popularity can be imposed, or if it must always emerge from children's preferences. And they investigate how the Harry Potter phenomenon fits into a repeated cycle of success and decline within the publishing industry. Whether examining eighteenth-century chapbooks, fairy tales, science schoolbooks, Victorian adventures, waif novels or school stories, these essays show how historical and publishing contexts are vital in determining which books will succeed and which will fail, which bestsellers will endure and which will fade quickly into obscurity. As they considering the fiction of Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling, the contributors carefully analyse how authorial talent and cultural contexts combine, in often unpredictable ways, to generate - and sometimes even sustain - literary success.

'How did Long John Silver Lose His Leg?' is a diverting tour through some of the best-loved classics of children's literature, addressing many of the unanswered questions that inspire intense speculation when the books are laid down. Could Bobbie's train really have stopped in time ('The Railway Children')? Did Beatrix Potter have the 'flu in 1909, and did this lead to a certain darkness in her work ('The Tale of Mr Tod')? Would the 'rugby football' played by Tom Brown be recognised by sportsmen today ('Tom Brown's Schooldays')? The authors speculate entertainingly and informatively on the anomalies and unexplained phenomena found in children's literature and, having established the cultural importance of children's books in the modern age, also consider the more serious issues raised by the genre. Why are we so defensive of the idyllic worlds presented in children's books? Why have some of our best-loved authors been outed as neglectful parents to their own children? Should we ever separate the book from its creator and appreciate the works of writers convicted of crimes against children?A treat for any enthusiast of children's literature, two of the most distinguished writers on the subject provide rich detail, witty explication, and serious food for thought. Dennis Butts has taught Children's Literature at Reading University and is a former Chairman of The Children's Books History Society. He is co-editor of 'From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF' (The Lutterworth Press, 2006). Peter Hunt is Professor Emeritus at the School of English, Cardiff University, Visiting Professor at Newcastle University, and Visiting Professor at the Universita Ca' Foscari, Venice. In 2003 he was awarded the Brothers Grimm Award for services to children's literature, and in 1998 the Distinguished Scholarship Award, International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. 'This is a book that wears its learning lightly but offers much in the way of cultural insight and some serious reflections on the condition and future of the children's book in a digital age.' Professor Kimberley Reynolds, School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University. 'An imaginative and clever book that showcases some of children's literature's most beloved classics and the mysteries and puzzles they contain . . . a work certain to delight and inform children's book lovers of every age.' Professor Lynne Vallone, Department of Childhood Studies, Rutgers University.

The astonishing success of J.K. Rowling and other contemporary children's authors has demonstrated how passionately children can commit to the books they love. But this kind of devotion is not new. This timely volume takes up the challenge of assessing the complex interplay of forces that have created the popularity of children's books both today and in the past. The essays collected here ask about the meanings and values that have been ascribed to the term 'popular'. They consider whether popularity can be imposed, or if it must always emerge from children's preferences. And they investigate how the Harry Potter phenomenon fits into a repeated cycle of success and decline within the publishing industry. Whether examining eighteenth-century chapbooks, fairy tales, science schoolbooks, Victorian adventures, waif novels or school stories, these essays show how historical and publishing contexts are vital in determining which books will succeed and which will fail, which bestsellers will endure and which will fade quickly into obscurity. As they considering the fiction of Angela Brazil, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and J.K. Rowling, the contributors carefully analyse how authorial talent and cultural contexts combine, in often unpredictable ways, to generate - and sometimes even sustain - literary success.

A collection of essays based on the Children's Books History Society study conference marking the bicentenary of the Religious Tract Society and the Lutterworth Press. The book analyses the children's literature it produced, charting the development of the genre from the evangelical tract through to the popular school story, spanning the period from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. It shows how publishing worked within the context of a missionary society with a global reach. The book details the nature and development of the tract genre both in Britain and America, before looking at the range of RTS and Lutterworth output of children's titles, including its movement into magazine publishing. The work studies the two great magazines for which the RTS and Lutterworth were known to generations of children, the Boy's Own Paper and the Girl's Own Paper, as well as other magazines, such The Child's Companion. There are also chapters on popular tracts, such as The Dairyman's Daughter, and successful authors, from Hesba Stretton and Mrs Walton to W.E. Johns and Laura Ingalls Wilder. These essays explore how, in order to reflect an increasingly secular age, the subject matter widened, providing more non-fiction in its periodicals as well as an increasingly broad range of fiction, mostly secular in nature. It was also necessary for the Society to alter its didactically religious tone in order to present its Christian values with more subtlety. With chapters on subjects as diverse as American religious tracts, boy's school stories, secular publishing for girls and the presentation of gender roles, this collection is a major contribution to publishing history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Contributors include Brian Alderson, Mary Cadogan, Aileen Fyfe and Anne Thwaite.

While there are many books about children's literature, few discuss it within its social context or investigate the ways writers reflect or react to change in society. Dennis Butts explores how shifting attitudes and historical upheavals from the 1840s onwards affected and continue to affect books written for younger audiences. Spanning from the industrial revolution to the sexual revolution, this title tells about the impact these external events have had on writers as diverse as moral storyteller Barbara Hofland and the controversial Melvin Burgess. G.A. Henty, Robert Louis Stevenson and even Philip Pullman are included in the discussion, as Butts identifies commonalities between books of the past and present, arguing that trends shown in most of the early children's literature are being displayed again now, albeit in a more subtle manner. This book will appeal to undergraduate students attending complementary courses in children's literature during their degree in English Literature or Cultural Studies. It will also be of use to postgraduate research students working in the field of Children's Literature.

After the success of How Did Long John Silver Lose His Leg?, Dennis Butts and Peter Hunt take their forensic lenses to more mysteries that have troubled readers of children's books over the centuries. Their questions range from the historical to the philosophical, some of which are puzzling, some of which are controversial: - Why does it seem there are no Nursery Rhymes before 1744? - Why did God start to die in children's books long before Nietzsche noticed it? - Why are the schoolgirls at Enid Blyton's St Clare's so horrible? - Why are there so many dead parents littering children's books? - Why does C.S. Lewis annoy so many people? The book also explains why an elephant captures Adolph Hitler, who was Biggles's great love, and whose side G.A. Henty was on in the American civil war, and delivers a plethora of erudite, entertaining answers to questions that you may not have thought of asking. And notably, of course, it reveals why William George Bunter, the Fat Owl of the Remove, was never permanently removed from Greyfriars School.

Children's literature did not suddenly appear as if by magic. It came into existence in printed form in the 18th century, though religious and instructional books had appeared earlier, and grew to fruition in Britain and America in the 19th century because of quite specific developments in society. The ideas of such men as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau helped to change European perspectives on the nature of childhood, and to suggest that it had needs and values of its own. This book charts the development of books for children by examining factors such as the gradual spread of education from the later half of the 18th century onwards, first through the Sunday School Movement, and then through the faltering steps towards providing state education. Finally, innovations in printing and publishing meant that it became possible to produce attractive books more cheaply for children. The combination of these several forces was irresistible and throughout the 19th century more and more books were published for children.