The varied collection of essays presented in this volume bridges the gap between continental and Anglo-American approaches to childrenâ (TM)s literature, and discuss the state of the art of what is topical in childrenâ (TM)s literature studies in Europe and the United States. Varied as the different subject areas under discussion are, considering different subgenres, historical periods, and geographical contexts, two main themes surface in nearly all the essays: ideology and childrenâ (TM)s literature on the one hand, and images of childhood on the other. The contributions illustrate the wide range of subject areas and the increasing level of sophistication with which criticism of ideology and Cultural Studies have enriched childrenâ (TM)s literature criticism. The essays address, among others, the influence of globalisation and mass market culture on the production of childrenâ (TM)s books, as well as the choices governing the production of translations and adaptations of texts for young readers. Representing a broad array of methodological approaches and of representations of childhood, this publication intends to render visible actual manifestations of the tension between pedagogy and aesthetics, inherent to and constitutive of childrenâ (TM)s literature.

The varied collection of essays presented in this volume bridges the gap between continental and Anglo-American approaches to childrenâ (TM)s literature, and discuss the state of the art of what is topical in childrenâ (TM)s literature studies in Europe and the United States. Varied as the different subject areas under discussion are, considering different subgenres, historical periods, and geographical contexts, two main themes surface in nearly all the essays: ideology and childrenâ (TM)s literature on the one hand, and images of childhood on the other. The contributions illustrate the wide range of subject areas and the increasing level of sophistication with which criticism of ideology and Cultural Studies have enriched childrenâ (TM)s literature criticism. The essays address, among others, the influence of globalisation and mass market culture on the production of childrenâ (TM)s books, as well as the choices governing the production of translations and adaptations of texts for young readers. Representing a broad array of methodological approaches and of representations of childhood, this publication intends to render visible actual manifestations of the tension between pedagogy and aesthetics, inherent to and constitutive of childrenâ (TM)s literature.

Since its emergence in the seventeenth century as a distinctive cultural system, children's literature has had a culturally inferior status resulting from its existence in a netherworld between the literary system and the educational system. In addition to its official readership—children—it has to be approved of by adults. Writers for children, explains Zohar Shavit, are constrained to respond to these multiple systems of often mutually contradictory demands. Most writers do not try to bypass these constraints, but accept them as a framework for their work. In the most extreme cases an author may ignore one segment of the readership. If the adult reader is ignored, the writer risks rejection, as is the case of popular literature. If the writer utilizes the child as a pseudo addressee in order to appeal to an adult audience, the result can be what Shavit terms an ambivalent work. Shavit analyzes the conventions and the moral aims that have structured children's literature, from the fairy tales collected and reworked by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm—in particular, “Little Red Riding Hood”—through the complex manipulations of Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, to the subversion of the genre's canonical requirements in the chapbooks of the eighteenth century, and in the formulaic Nancy Drew books of the twentieth century. Throughout her study Shavit, explores not only how society has shaped children's literature, but also how society has been reflected in the literary works it produces for its children.

49 original essays on the essential terms and concepts in children's literature

Are children fundamentally different kinds of thinkers than adults? Or are the cognitive differences between young children and adults merely a matter of accumulation of knowledge? In this book, Susan Carey develops an alternative to these two ways of thinking about childhood cognition, putting forth the idea of conceptual change and its relation to the development of knowledge systems.Conceptual Change in Childhood is a case study of children's acquisition of biological knowledge between ages 4-10. Drawing on evidence from a variety of sources, Carey analyzes the ways that knowledge is restructured during this development, comparing them to the ways that knowledge is restructured by an adult learner, and to the ways that conceptual frameworks have shifted in the history of science. Susan Carey is Professor of Psychology at MIT.

Looking at and listening to picture and story books is a ubiquitous activity, frequently enjoyed by many young children and their parents. Well before children can read for themselves they are able to learn from books. Looking at and listening to books increases children’s general knowledge, understanding about the world and promotes language acquisition. This collection of papers demonstrates the breadth of information pre-reading children learn from books and increases our understanding of the social and cognitive mechanisms that support this learning. Our hope is that this Research Topic/eBook will be useful for researchers as well as educational practitioners and parents who are interested in optimizing children’s learning.

A groundbreaking collection of essays on a hitherto underexplored subject that challenges the existing stereotypical views of the trivial and innocent nature of children's culture, this work reveals for the first time the artistic and complex interactions among children. Based on research of scholars from such diverse fields as American studies, anthropology, education, folklore, psychology, and sociology, this volume represents a radical new attempt to redefine and reinterpret the expressive behaviors of children. The book is divided into four major sections: history, methodology, genres, and setting, with a concluding chapter on theory. Each section is introduced by an overview by Brian Sutton-Smith. The accompanying bibliography lists historical references through the present, representing works by scholars for over 100 years.