Table Of ContentEdinburgh Critical Guides to Literature
Series Editors: Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley
This series provides accessible yet provocative introductions to a wide range of
literatures. The volumes will initiate and deepen the reader’s understanding of
key literary movements, periods and genres, and consider debates that inform CHILDREN’S
the past, present and future of literary study. Resources such as glossaries of
key terms and details of archives and internet sites are also provided, making
each volume a comprehensive critical guide.
LITERATURE
G
r
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE e
n
b
M. O. Grenby y
E
s This critical guide provides a concise yet comprehensive history of British and
C d
North American children’s literature from its seventeenth-century origins to the
e M. O. Grenby
present day. H
i
d Each chapter focuses on one of the main genres of children’s literature: fables, I n
L
fantasy, adventure stories, moral tales, family stories, the school story, and
i D b
u poetry. M. O. Grenby shows how these forms have evolved over three hundred
R
years as well as asking why most children’s books, even today, continue to fall u
G into one or other of these generic categories. Why, for instance, has fantasy E
been so appealing to both Victorian and twenty-first-century children? Are the N r
religious and moral stories written in the eighteenth century really so different g
’
l from the teenage problem novels of today? The book answers questions like S
a these with a combination of detailed analysis of particular key texts and a broad h
L
c survey of hundreds of children’s books, both famous and forgotten. I
T
C
i Key Features
E
t
i • The first concise history of children’s literature to be published for more than R r
r a decade A i
C • Extensive coverage of children’s literature, across genres, continents and t
T
from the beginnings of the form to Harry Potter and Philip Pullman i
U
• Links close reading of texts with the historical and cultural context of their c
h production and reception R a
E
g
M. O. Grenby is Reader in Children’s Literature in the School of English Literature, l
r Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University. He is a co-editor of Popular
G
u Children’s Literature in Britain (2008) and of The Cambridge Companion to
Children’s Literature (2008).
b u
n i
Edinburgh University Press E d
i 22 George Square d
d Edinburgh EH8 9LF in e
www.eup.ed.ac.uk b
u
E ISBN 978 0 7486 2274 0 rg s
Cover design: Michael Chatfield h
Pantone 152
Children’s Literature
Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature
Series Editors: Martin Halliwell, University of Leicester and
Andy Mousley, De Montfort University
Published Titles:
Gothic Literature, Andrew Smith
Canadian Literature, Faye Hammill
Women’s Poetry, Jo Gill
Contemporary American Drama, Annette J. Saddik
Shakespeare, Gabriel Egan
Asian American Literature, Bella Adams
Children’s Literature, M. O. Grenby
Forthcoming Titles in the Series:
Eighteenth-Century Literature, Hamish Mathison
Contemporary British Fiction, Nick Bentley
Contemporary American Fiction, David Brauner
Victorian Literature, David Amigoni
Crime Fiction, Stacy Gillis
Renaissance Literature, Siobhan Keenan
Modern American Literature, Catherine Morley
Scottish Literature, Gerard Carruthers
Romantic Literature, Richard Marggraf Turley
Modernist Literature, Rachel Potter
Medieval Literature, Pamela King
Women's Fiction, Sarah Sceats
African American Literature, Jennifer Terry
Children’s Literature
M. O. Grenby
Edinburgh University Press
© Matthew Grenby,
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
George Square, Edinburgh
Typeset in Ehrhardt
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and
printed and bound in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN (hardback)
ISBN (paperback)
The right of Matthew Grenby
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act .
Contents
Series Preface vi
Acknowledgements vii
Chronology ix
Introduction
Chapter Fables
Chapter Poetry
Chapter Moral and Instructive Tales
Chapter The School Story
Chapter The Family Story
Chapter Fantasy
Chapter The Adventure Story
Conclusion
Student Resources
Glossary
Guide to Further Reading
Index
Series Preface
The study of English literature in the early twenty-first century is
host to an exhilarating range of critical approaches, theories and
historical perspectives. ‘English’ ranges from traditional modes of
study such as Shakespeare and Romanticism to popular interest in
national and area literatures such as the United States, Ireland and
the Caribbean. The subject also spans a diverse array of genres from
tragedy to cyberpunk, incorporates such hybrid fields of study as
Asian American literature, Black British literature, creative writing
and literary adaptations, and remains eclectic in its methodology.
Such diversity is cause for both celebration and consterna-
tion. English is varied enough to promise enrichment and enjoy-
ment for all kinds of readers and to challenge preconceptions about
what the study of literature might involve. But how are readers to
navigate their way through such literary and cultural diversity? And
how are students to make sense of the various literary categories and
periodisations, such as modernism and the Renaissance, or the pro-
liferating theories of literature, from feminism and Marxism to
queer theory and eco-criticism? The Edinburgh Critical Guides to
Literature series reflects the challenges and pluralities of English
today, but at the same time it offers readers clear and accessible
routes through the texts, contexts, genres, historical periods and
debates within the subject.
Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley
Acknowledgements
An introduction to children’s literature might be written in many
different ways. The particular approach I have adopted here derives
from my experiences teaching in the School of English at Newcastle
University. I am very grateful therefore to all the students who have
taken my ‘Beyond Wonderland’ undergraduate module since it first
began. Their responses to the course, and their comments about
how difficult it can be for those new to the subject to find their bear-
ings, have shaped my thinking about what a new introduction might
try to do. But I am equally grateful to the community of postgrad-
uate students in the Children’s Literature Unit at Newcastle. Their
suggestions and criticisms, given as a group and individually, in
person and by correspondence, have helped this book very much,
and I have greatly enjoyed the challenge of responding to their
forthright assessments. More than this, their own master’s and
doctoral projects have prompted me to think in different ways about
children’s literature. Above all, the enthusiasm and commitment
of all the students in the Children’s Literature Unit has been an
inspiration.
My colleague Professor Kim Reynolds has read some sections of
this book and, as ever, her advice has been constructive, astute and
erudite. Dr Jenny Litster has taken the time to talk with me about
my plans, and has generously shared her bright ideas and detailed
knowledge. The anonymous reviewers of the proposal made many
useful comments. All of the errors that remain are entirely my own.
viii ’
I must also thank Dr Andy Mousley for suggesting that I should
write this book, and, with Dr Martin Halliwell, for commissioning
me to do so. Jackie Jones and James Dale, at Edinburgh University
Press, have been sympathetic editors. I am very grateful for the
patience and forbearance of them all.
Finally, and above all, thank-you to Mary.
Chronology
The timeline lists only those children’s books mentioned in this
Edinburgh Critical Guide. The chapters in which the texts are dis-
cussed are given in brackets. Where the year of first publication is
uncertain, an approximate date has been given.
Evaldus Gallus, Pueriles Confabulatiunculae: or
Children’s Dialogues(School)
James Janeway, A Token for Children (Introduction;
Moral Tales; Family)
Benjamin Keach, War with the Devil(Introduction)
John Bunyan, Divine Emblems, also known asA Book
for Boys and Girlsor Country Rhimes for Children
(Introduction; Poetry)
Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop(Fables)
Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World
(Fantasy)
Anon., The Friar and the Boy, a new version (Poetry)
Joseph Jackson, A New Translation of Æsop’s Fables
(Fables)
