This volume examines how children's books retain the ability to transform, activate, indoctrinate, or empower their readers. From utopian and dystopian voices to children's literature written in response to war situations to critiques of misogynistic assumptions that normalize or eroticize violence, these essays demonstrate the potential of children's literature to radically challenge cultural norms. Contents include: national identity in The Hunger Games * aspects of socio-political transformation in children's literature * the figure of the child in WWI children's literature * echoes of the past, aspirations for the future in the teenage novels of Eilis Dillon * portraits and paratexts in the work of Mrs. S.C. Hall * Catherine Breillat's cinematic perspective on Bluebeard * identity and ideology in the work of O.R. Melling * eco-critical perspectives on the life and works of Beatrix Potter * sexualized violence and rape myths in contemporary young adult fiction * the emergence of the gallant Fascist in Italian children's literature of the inter-war period. *** "It may seem odd to think of literature for children as containing political and ideological themes and ideas, but in fact, many theorists believe that such messages are quite prevalent in these stories and novels. The contributors do a nice job of addressing both modern and classic literature....a worthy addition to the resources on children's literature. Recommended." - Choice, July 2015, Vol. 52, No. 11 (Series: Studies in Children's Literature - Vol. 7) [Subject: Literary Criticism]

When children read fiction they are exposed to the beliefs which inform and structure their society. The books encourage child readers to internalise particular ways of seeing the world and help shape their development as individuals. Although this process forms a key part of their education, it remains largely invisible. As well as a story, fictions impart a significance to readers - often without revealing its presence or ground - and therefore have considerable potential to socialize their audience. John Stephens analyses this process and shows how fictions can work to constrain or liberate audience responses. He explores picture books as well as historical, realistic and fantastic fictions to show how both a character within the narrative and the implied reader are positioned within ideology. The author considers areas of ideology not previously examined and offers new perspectives on realism and fantasy. The book will be of interest to linguists and teachers as well as to the general reader.

It is often said that you can judge a society by the way it treats its weaker members. This book takes this theme and examines the ways in which different aspects of children's lives are treated in a number of societies. To this end it uses the conduit of children's rights. The importance of children's rights as an ideology and in practice is critically examined by a group of academics and practitioners with an international reputation and wide experience and insight. The book offers an understanding of the moral foundations of children's rights and enables all those in whatever discipline to gain a deeper understanding of an issue which has assumed major importance with the passing of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This landmark volume is the first to bring together leading scholarship on children’s and young adult literature from three intersecting disciplines: Education, English, and Library and Information Science. Distinguished by its multidisciplinary approach, it describes and analyzes the different aspects of literary reading, texts, and contexts to illuminate how the book is transformed within and across different academic figurations of reading and interpreting children’s literature. Part one considers perspectives on readers and reading literature in home, school, library, and community settings. Part two introduces analytic frames for studying young adult novels, picturebooks, indigenous literature, graphic novels, and other genres. Chapters include commentary on literary experiences and creative production from renowned authors and illustrators. Part three focuses on the social contexts of literary study, with chapters on censorship, awards, marketing, and literary museums. The singular contribution of this Handbook is to lay the groundwork for colleagues across disciplines to redraw the map of their separately figured worlds, thus to enlarge the scope of scholarship and dialogue as well as push ahead into uncharted territory.

A rarely discussed aspect of children's literature--the politics behind a book's creation--has been thoroughly explored in this intelligent, enlightening, and fascinating account.

This study examines children's films from various critical perspectives, including those provided by classical and current film theory.

One of 10 Best Indie Picture Books of 2014, ForeWord Reviews Runner-Up, 2014 New England Book Festival: Children's Books 2014 Distinguished List of the Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California CCBC Choices 2015 An affirming story about gender nonconformity. Jacob loves playing dress-up, when he can be anything he wants to be. Some kids at school say he can't wear "girl" clothes, but Jacob wants to wear a dress to school. Can he convince his parents to let him wear what he wants? This heartwarming story speaks to the unique challenges faced by children who don't identify with traditional gender roles.

This book explores the topic of ideological manipulation in the translation of children’s literature by addressing several crucial questions, including how target language norms and conventions affect the quality of a translation, how translations are selected on the basis of what is culturally accepted, who is involved in the selection of what should be translated for children in the target culture, and how this process takes place. The author presents different ways of looking at the translation of children’s books, focusing particularly on the practices of intralingual and interlingual translations as a form of rewriting across a selection of European languages. This book will be of interest to Translation Studies and children's literature scholars, as well as those with a wider interest in the impact of ideology on culture.

Strips, Enid Blyton, kolonialisme en het bovennatuurlijke (godsdienst, fantasie) in engelstalige jeugdlektuur worden op heldere wijze belicht, vanuit het idee dat kinderen op alle mogelijke manieren geïndoctrineerd worden via de boeken die zij lezen