Introducing Children's Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism

by Deborah Cogan Thacker

Introducing Children's Literature is an ideal guide to reading children's literature through the perspective of literary history. Focusing on the major literary movements from Romanticism to Postmodernism, Thacker and Webb examine the concerns of each period and the ways in which these concerns influence and are influenced by the children's literature of the time.

Each section begins with a general chapter, which explains the relationship between the major issues of each literary period and the formal and thematic qualities of children's texts. Close readings of selected texts follow to demonstrate the key defining characteristics of the form of writing and the literary movements.

Original in its approach, this book sets children's literature within the context of literary movements and adult literature. It is essential reading for students studying writing for children. Books discussed:
- Louisa May Alcott's Little Women
- Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies
- Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland
- Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz
- Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden
- P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins
- E. B. White's Charlotte's Web
- Philip Pullman's Clockwork>/i>

Genres: Nonfiction, Criticism

206 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 2002

Reviews

[Ruby Granger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one! It traces how conceptions of childhood has changed since the Romantic period, and how this has changed the literature (using chapter-long case studies of particular books). I particularly enjoyed the case study of The Secret Garden and the argument about Eden in Alice in Wonderland.

[Irene Vazquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm an English major from UNAM in Mexico City. I'm graduating via a translation with commentary of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Sara Crewe. I got this book for research.

Though this wasn't particularly useful for me, it was an extremely interesting read and it honestly made me want to read a couple of children's books I hadn't heard of before. My classes in uni have been very lacking in children's literature. I mean obviously you take a look at the Alice books but I think mostly that's that.

What I really liked about this book was how it presented children's literature as part of the literary trends in each period. It's not removed or exempt from Romanticisim or Modernism of Post-modernism, it's all part of the same development.

I think a lot of us English students (or just literature students) come into this area of research because of the books we read as children and this book recognizes that. It isn't really a strange thought, that the books we read as children define the books we read or even WRITE as adults.

I would have liked it if they had a wider selection, but I think all in all they covered some pretty interesting ground. I'd definitely like to read more of their work.