Children's Literature Association Centennial Studies – serie

Thirteen essays explore the timeless appeal of Peter's antics, and the impact of this extraordinary book on children worldwide. Contributors, each a respected scholar in the field of children's literature, examine details of Potter's life, her history as an artist, her accomplishments as a naturalist, and the contextual factors affecting her writing and illustrations. Others investigate the timelessness of this story, exploring its psychological and sociological truths and comparing Peter Rabbit to present day literature.

Although L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published one hundred years ago, literary critics and historians continue to discover new approaches to the fantastic world of Oz. The second in a new series of anthologies sponsored by the Children's Literature Association, this collection of essays represents some of the most interesting of these new approaches.Beginning with a glance back over the entire history of research and commentary on the Oz books, this work is organized in three main sections. Essays in the "Origins of Oz" examine Frank Baum's personal history and unlock the mystery of one of the most bizarre episodes in the Oz books. "The World of Oz" looks at three very different aspects of Baum's world: its concept of home and family, its sense of humor, and its relationship to its young readers. "Oz on Screen" features both the silent films Baum produced himself and MGM's classic movie The Wizard of Oz.

The year 2006 marks the hundredth anniversary of book publication of the final volume of the Psammead trilogy-Five Children and It (1902), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), and The Story of the Amulet (1906)-a remarkable series of fantasy novels for children by an equally remarkable writer, Edith Nesbit. In this trilogy, Nesbit combined fantasy and history with the domestic realism and humor of her Bastable books-The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), The Wouldbegoods (1901), and The New Treasure Seekers (1904)-the books that established her reputation as one of England's preeminent writers for children. By doing so, she not only earned popularity with several generations of child readers, but she also established her claim to a position in the pantheon of important writers for children.The essays collected in this volume celebrate the completion of the Psammead trilogy. Written by both established and new scholars in England, Canada, and the United States, these essays employ differing critical strategies and place Nesbit in various contexts to assess her achievement. In producing books with memorable comic moments, character-testing adventures, plausible child characters with real feelings and real limitations, and interesting and challenging thematic material, Nesbit produced in the Psammead trilogy books that children still read with enjoyment. Such fantasies truly are classics of children's literature. Teachers and students of children's literature and of British literature and culture will find this a valuable guide to critically reviewing and enjoying Nesbit's works.

Celebrating 100 years of Peter Pan, this fourth volume in the Centennial Studies series explores the cultural contents of Barrie's creation and the continuing impact of Peter Pan on children's literature and popular culture today, especially focusing on the fluctuations of time and narrative strategies. This collection of essays on Peter Pan is separated into four parts. The first section is comprised of essays placing Barrie's in its own time period, and tackles issues such as the relationship between Hook and Peter in terms of child hatred, the similarities between Peter and Oscar Wilde, Peter Pan's position as an exemplar of the Cult of the Boy Child is challenged, and the influence of pirate lore and fairy lore are also examined. Part two features an essay on Derrida's concept of the grapheme, and uses it to argue that Barrie is attempting to undermine racial stereotypes. The third section explores Peter Pan's timelessness and timeliness in essays that examine the binary of print literacy and orality; Peter Pan's modular structure and how it is ideally suited to video game narratives; the indeterminacy of gender that was common to Victorian audiences, but also threatening and progressive; Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling, who publicly claim to dislike Peter Pan and the concept of never growing up, but who are nevertheless indebted to Barrie; and a Lacanian reading of Peter Pan arguing that Peter acts as "the maternal phallus" in his pre-Symbolic state. The final section looks at the various roles of the female in Peter Pan, whether against the backdrop of British colonialism or Victorian England. Students and enthusiasts of children's literature will find their understanding of Peter Pan immensely broadened after reading this volume.

In 1908, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows was published to surprisingly little critical fanfare. But readers championed its cause, and Grahame's novel of a riverbank life soon proved both a commercial—and ultimately critical—success. One hundred years after its first publication, Grahame's book and its memorable characters continue their hold on the public imagination and have taken their place in the canon of children's literature. However, little academic criticism emerged in the wake of the book's initial publication. Only after the appearance of Peter Green's biocritical study did the academy begin to wrestle with Grahame's complex work, though many read it in terms of Grahame's often unhappy personal life.The essays in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows: A Children's Classic at 100 focus on recent discussions of the book in regards to class, gender, and nationality but also examine issues previously not addressed by Grahame criticism, such as the construction of heteronormative masculinity, the appeal of this very English novel to Chinese readers, and the meaning of a text in which animals can be human-like, pets, servants, and even food. This volume also revisits some of the issues that have engaged critics from the start, including the book's dual-strand narrative structure, the function of home, and the psychological connections between Toad and Grahame. Scholars of fantasy and children's literature will find great value in this collection that sheds new light on this enduring classic.