This article presents a small case study of two childhood readers of Enid Blyton's Famous Five series, who meet in a research project devoted to a different but related topic. One is Indian by birth and background, the other, Canadian. Their experience of this series is separated by distance (many thousands of miles), time of reading (nearly fifty…

This article considers the extent to which medieval "mappaemundi" are an important precedent for literary cartographies in fiction for children. It connects the notion of embeddedness to Peta Mitchell's (2011) suggestion that "mappaemundi" refused to entertain the later, post-Enlightenment cartographic distinction between…

Laurie Halse Anderson's young adult novel "Speak" concerns the rape and subsequent silence of ninth grade protagonist Melinda Sordino. By relying on extensive literary allusions involving trees, rape, silence, and transformation, Anderson creates a young adult problem novel that is both of the moment and timeless in its themes. The…

There are few empirical studies that examine the depiction of Muslims in children's literature. Given the influence of US media on perspectives of Muslims (Jackson, 2010), and the pervasive use of children's literature in American schools, it is important to investigate what viewpoints about Islam are being communicated to children through these…

The article begins by assessing Enid Blyton's contribution to the Arthurian revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, setting this in the context of longstanding debates about the function of children's literature. It goes on to argue that Blyton's use of the story of Enid in "The Knights of the Round…

The first full biography of Ursula Moray Williams has been published to mark the centenary of her birth. In this article, its author, Colin Davison, assesses her work in the context of her life, paying particular attention to the way that her extraordinary childhood influenced her writing. He also examines new evidence about where her ideas came…

In this article the Viking motif in children's literature is explored--from its roots in (adult) nationalist and antiquarian discourse, over pedagogical and historical texts for children, to the eventual diversification (or dissolution) of the motif into different genres and forms. The focus is on Swedish Viking narratives, but points of…

The style of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" arises from an alternative vision and choice of values characteristic of romance. Romance seeks fulfillment beyond the consequences of everyday relationships and the constrictions of ordinary life. Causal relationships give way to lists of independent items, unmotivated outcomes, and…

David Almond and Dave McKean's "The Savage" is a hybrid prose and graphic novel which tells the story of one young man's maturation through literacy. The protagonist learns to deal with the death of his father and his own "savage" self by writing a graphic novel. This article reads "The Savage" in the context of earlier, "Northern" literacy…

This article argues that Harry Potter fan vids can be used in the classroom as works of secondary criticism about J. K. Rowling's primary text. It makes two claims: the first is that vids can be read as criticism of a particular text (in this case Harry Potter) alongside other critical essays on that text; the second is that the practice of…

This article looks at how four British-based poets born in the Caribbean exploit the rich language repertoire available to them in their work for children and young people. Following initial consideration of questions of definition and terminology, poetry collections by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols and Valerie Bloom are discussed, with a…

The myth of home is what distinguishes children's literature from adult novels (Wolf 1990). Nodelman and Reimer ("The Pleasures of Children's Literature," 2003) write that while "the home/away/home pattern is the most common story line in children's literature, adult fiction that deals with young people who leave home usually ends…

Imperial British India is the point of origin for protagonists in both Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden" (1911) and Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Books" (1894-1895), two influential children's stories in which late Victorian notions of childhood education and nature converge with those of national and imperial…

Examines the work of British children's author William Mayne. (MM)

Describes the loss of esteem as a children's classic of "The Water Babies," discusses the literary justification for keeping it in circulation, and offers suggestions for using it in children's education. (JM)