Storybook Worlds Made Real

Kathy Merlock Jackson, a professor of media and communication at Virginia Wesleyan University, teaches courses in media studies and children’s culture. She is the author or editor of thirteen books and former editor of The Journal of American Culture. She has served as past president of both the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association. Mark I. West is the former chair of the English department at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has written or edited nineteen books on children’s literature and culture and is a former president of the Children’s Literature Association.

“Beautifully highlights the life breathed into some of our most beloved tales, through the world of amusement parks and tourist attractions.”—Children’s Literature Association Quarterly

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionKathy Merlock Jackson and Mark I. WestFairylandsTivoli Gardens and Hans Christian Andersen: A Tale of ConfluenceMark I. WestFairy Tales, German Heritage, and a Vision of Roadside America: See Rock CityKathy Merlock JacksonPlaces Embracing Beloved CharactersVisiting Pinocchio in TuscanyLucy RollinFor Anne Fans Only: Romanticism and Narrative Simulacra in Cavendish’s AvonleaSue MathesonFantasy Worlds of Animals­Winnie-the-Pooh: Resisting Commodification of a Beloved Childhood NarrativeTerri Toles PatkinBeatrix Potter World, Hill Top Farm, and a Legacy of ConservationSarah MinslowPaths for Girls’ JourneysSomewhere on Top of a Mountain: A Real Journey toDina Schiff MassachiWorldly Wonderlands: ­Alice-Inspired Places Across the GlobeFrancesca ArnavasDramatic PlaylandsPlaying in Astrid Lindgren’s World: Developing Empathy Through Dramatic PlayMark I. WestMagic Keys and Musical Mushrooms: Storylands and Early Dramatic PlayCarissa BakerWacky WorldsOh, the Places You’ll Know! Universal’s Seuss Landing and Surrealism Made RealCarl F. MillerThe Hidden Child: Considering the Adult Visitor at Moominworld and the Roald Dahl MuseumAnna Cohn OrchardMagical Theme ParksPeter Pan, Snow White, and Toad: Disneyland’s First Dark RidesSuzanne Rahn“—yer a wizard”: Immersion and Agency in the Wizarding World of Harry PotterSusan Larkin and Travis B. MaloneAmerican Girl ToylandsUnique, Yet United: Empowering Individuality and Sisterhood at American Girl Place and American Girl LiveHaley Flanders AndersonRevisionist History: How American Girl Place Revolutionized and Abandoned Immersive Storytelling in ShoppingEmily SullivanSites for Educating and RememberingPlaces That Inspire: Figment, Shamu, and the Thin Line Between Education and AdvertisingAndrew J. FriedenthalMartin’s Park: A Disaster Narrative in a Children’s SpaceAmy LantingaA Bibliography of Childhood Narratives and the Places They InspireCamille McCutcheonAbout the ContributorsIndex