In Hunt’s argument, he refers to ‘preoccupations of a culture’ by which he means adults and not children as it is they who write, publish and purchase children’s books. This essay discusses Hunt’s statement with reference to Mortal Engines, The Other Side of Truth and Junk. It looks at what assumptions these books challenge and how the authors use their craft to persuade the reader to reassess their assumptions and ideology changing their idioms in the process. What the books reflect about the current theories surrounding the concepts of childhood and a discourse about the reasons why authors opt to challenge cultural preoccupations.
Hunt evidences his statement with Treasure Island showing that the conservative plot reflects conventional 19th century idealism but that in reality it is about corruption and ambiguity. These same elements are evident in Mortal Engines: with corrupt adults of Chrome and Valentine, reversing the typical heroic role to a female contrasted with a comic and ineffectual male protagonist along with the critical stance of colonisation in the modern format of urban sprawl. Reeves parodies Stevenson’s (2008) Long John Silver in Chrysler Peavey (Dawson, 2009) the posh pirate that pleads with Tom to ‘turn us into a gentleman’ (Reeve, 2009, p135). His homage to Stevenson (2008) culminates with a battle of historians dressed as brigands against the engineers but then he inverts the just cause to the brigands. This inversion highlights Reeve’s main challenge to the beliefs and ideas surrounding science and in particular technology (Dawson, 2009). He does this through intertextuality, pastiche and parody creating animalised cities, which in true Darwin tradition evolve through selective consumption (Sambell, 2009...
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...(2009) Mortal Engines, Southam, Scholastic Children’s Books
Sambell, K. (2009) ‘Carnivalising the future: Mortal Engines’, in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.374-387.
Stephens, J.(2009) ‘And it’s so real, versions of reality in Melvin Burgess’s Junk’ in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.320-329.
Stevenson, R. (2008) Treasure Island, New York (USA), Oxford Press
The Open University (2009) E300 Children’s Literature, ‘DVD 1: Children’s Literature’, Milton Keynes, The Open University
The Open University (2009) E300 Children’s Literature, ‘DVD 2: Children’s Literature’, Milton Keynes, The Open University
Wilson, Nance S. “ZINDEL, Paul.” Continuum Encyclopedia Of Children’s Literature (2003): 848-849. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
In conclusion, critical evaluation of what makes a book good or bad depends on the selection criteria and agenda of those making the evaluation. The prizes have been criticised through the years and the selection committees have risen to this by changing the selection process, even if this change has been slow. Children’s Literature is in flux due to the ever-changing ideas and perceptions of childhood. Children’s books seen as prestigious today may become, like Blyton, unpalatable to the critics of tomorrow.
Nilsen, Helge Normann. "Naturalism in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome." Performances in American Literature and Culture: Essays in Honor of Professor Orm Øverland on His 60th Birthday. Ed. Vidar Pedersen and Eljka Svrljuga. Bergen, Norway: University of Bergen, 1995. 179-188. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Tom Burns. Vol. 136. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
Damrosch, David. (Ed.) The Longman Anthology of British Literature 2nd ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 2003.
Senick, Gerard J., and Hedblad, Alan. Children’s Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People (Volumes 14, 34, 35). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995..
... Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Tom Burns.
Falconer, Rachel. The Crossover Novel: Contemporary Children’s Fiction and Its Adult Readership. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Children literature is a term that refers to the texts written for children. The artist uses creative ways to ensure that children are provided with educational books, touching on a variety of themes. This paper will include comparison of two characters from the two texts, “Hana's Suitcase: A True Story,” authored by Karen Levine and “Charlotte’s Web,” written by E.B. White, with the aim of understanding ways in which problems are solvable as indicated by selected characters.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Perrault, B. (2003). Little red riding hood. In Schilb, J. and Clifford, J. (Ed.) Making literature matter (pp. 667-669). NY: Bedford/St. Martin?s.
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/sec2.3
Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key. Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit is not a ‘modern’ picturebook, and was written to a different concept of childhood than Voices in the Park, it certainly falls within Bader’s description.... ... middle of paper ...
Literature has been part of society since pen met paper. It has recorded history, retold fables, and entertained adults for centuries. Literature intended for children, however, is a recent development. Though children’s literature is young, the texts can be separated into two categories by age. The exact splitting point is debatable, but as technology revolutionized in the mid-twentieth century is the dividing point between classic and contemporary. Today’s children’s literature is extraordinarily different from the classics that it evolved from, but yet as classic was transformed into modern, the literature kept many common features.
...nnual of the Modern Language Association Division on Children’s Literature and the Children’s Literature Association.18 (1990): 131-134.