Discusses how the author decided to become a writer of historical novels based in Great Britain during the Middle Ages, with an audience of adolescents in mind. Reveals the kinds of decisions authors must make to present historical material and tell a good story simultaneously. (SKC)

Uses measures of readability and syntactic complexity to verify that U.S. teen books are easier for young people reading English as a Second Language than British ones. (SR)

The articles in this journal focus on several aspects of adolescent literature. In the first article, author Robert Cormier discusses the process of writing a novel and explains how several of his works came to be. The second article comments on the utilitarian nature of English instruction and its accompanying disparagement of aesthetics. The…

Describes 60 winners and runners-up of major children's book awards from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain for 1992. (SR)

A revised and expanded version of an earlier study of modern British children's literature (1952), this latest edition begins with an introductory section on the historical development of children's literature and follows with chapters examining the main trends in British children's books from 1900 to the present day. Special attention is given to…

Focuses on the figure of "the Indian gentleman," a friend of Sara's late father, and who later becomes her surrogate one, to clarify what this most Orientalised Englishman embodies. Notes how examining the plot development from his perspective will make it possible to interpret the "happy" ending as the resolution of racial,…

Reports on the findings of a survey of over 450 children (ages 7 through 9) in southwest England exploring aspects of their views about and experience of reading. Provides insight into what children read and what influences their choice of reading and response to reading. (HB)

Observes that poststructuralist and earlier sociological accounts of children's literature neglect the relationship between their fantasies and preferred literature. Uses Freudian arguments to study British comics aimed at boys and girls. Suggests a need for descriptive accounts and theoretical work to better understand the hold of…

Surveys show that literature is virtually absent from secondary level second language (SL) programs; at the same time it is often asserted that literature used to dominate these programs. The thoughts of authorities and educators in Ontario, Great Britain, the United States, the Canadian province of Ontario, and Germany over the period of 100…

There is no shortage of surveys on children's and young adults' leisure time reading interests, stretching as far back as 1888 in Great Britain and 1897 in the United States. The most comprehensive research undertaken in Great Britain was a study conducted by the Schools Council, published by Macmillan in 1975 as "Children and Their…

The institutional view of literature in the National Curriculum of Great Britain shows a dramatic belittlement in its revised version. It lacks a coherent literary or pedagogical rationale and substitutes a functional one in which over-simplification purports to be clarification. The institution is primarily concerned to define English literary…