Typical critical patterns for studying children's literature, defined in this study as a written text intended for a reader up to the age of 14, make it difficult to chart generic change across a large corpus of texts. Traditionally, criticism of children's literature focuses on cherry picked archetypes, exemplars, and the standout extraordinary.…

Literary criticism of children's literature asserts a one-directional view of power with the adult writer constructing the child reader. Using "aetonormativity"-- adult perceptions of normality -- this paper explores what happens when children co-construct publishable fiction. Our analysis of drama and creative writing workshops shows…

The quality of language produced is greatly influenced by the quality of language input. Reading is a major source of language and knowledge input. In Pakistan, two types of books written in the English language are available for the reader. The first type includes the books written and published in Pakistan and the second type is of the books…

While scholars have recognized the meaning making potential offered by the peritext of picturebooks, there has previously been only limited research on the nature of peritextual features. This content analysis focused on the ways in which various peritextual features (dust jackets, beginning endpapers, illustrations before title page, title pages,…

To engage in critical praxis, teachers of literary response writing need concepts and methods for understanding the efficacy of teaching practices in helping students develop particular dispositions towards texts and the social issues they represent. In this article, the author uses concepts from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and Systemic…

The paper presents findings from a reader response study conducted in February 2013 with 150 children aged 7-11 in which they discussed extracts and clips from Roald Dahl's "Matilda" (1988) and its cinematic adaptation (1996). Dahl and "Matilda" were chosen because they provoke emphatic responses from adults, often commenting…

This essay provides much-needed critical attention and historical context to the long-neglected 1924 edition of Gertrude Chandler Warner's "The Box-Car Children." Commonly overshadowed by its more recent and more popular 1942 version--known as "The Boxcar Children"--this earlier edition calls attention to the original cultural…

One prevalent practice of multicultural education is enlisting multiple perspectives for teaching. Oftentimes, these perspectives enter classrooms via digital texts, simulations/scenarios, primary documents, and debates. Children's and young adult literature play a critical role in these comparisons. However, these multiple perspectives are…

This paper uses data from children's literature and classroom narratives to consider hyperactivity, inattention, and other non-normative behaviors in children. It encourages educational thinkers and childhood mental health professionals to take a historical perspective on children's badness rather than consigning it to the realm of pathology.…

A limited number of studies have examined Asian American children's literature over the last half century. While the selection and availability of this literature has increased substantially in the last two decades, many of these texts continue to perpetuate stereotypes (Morgan, 2012), such as the overachieving model minority (Loh-Hagen, 2014) and…

In the face of the worldwide ecological crisis, ecocriticism, "the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment" as "an earth-centered approach to literary studies" has become an important part of contemporary literary theory (Glotfelty in "The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary…

This article will focus on sociolinguistic aspects in Terry Pratchett's "The Wee Free Men." In particular we will deal with the interplay of standard and non-standard British English by which the writer highlights cultural stereotypes as well as narrative ones; creating a children's tale with a distinctively adult-like character set.…

The use of literary criticism has served to provide different lenses to analyze, evaluate, and interpret the content and context of the written text in all its forms and varieties, especially in children's and young adult (YA) literature. This study was aimed at analyzing the way in which "Feminist Criticism" may be applied to young…

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…

This paper considers the issue of child agency in Mildred D. Taylor's 1976 novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" using a critical corpus linguistics framework based on Halliday's systemic functional linguistics. The novel has long received praise for its portrayal of child agency in a hostile racist society as well as its depiction of a…