The second edition of this established introductory text has been thoroughly revised, updated and expanded to reflect current issues in the field. It features new chapters by leading names on key topics such as canon formation, fantasy, and technology, and includes an essay on children's poetry by the former Children's Laureate, Michael Rosen.

List of Contributors List of Boxes List of Figures Acknowledgements Introduction; Catherine Butler PART I: MAPPING THE TERRITORY 1. The Classic and the Canon in Children's Literature; Peter Hunt 2. Fantasy in Children's Fiction; Farah Mendlesohn 3. Psychoanalytic Approaches to Children's Literature; David Rudd 4. Reading Contemporary Picture Books; Judith Graham 5. Poetry for Children; Michael Rosen PART II: TEXTS AND GENRES 6. Family, Identity and Nationhood: Family Stories in Anglo-American Children's Literature, 1930-2000; Lucy Pearson 7. Theories of Genre and Gender: Change and Continuity in the School Story; Pat Pinsent 8. Literature of War: Comparative and Autobiographical Approaches; Gillian Lathey 9. Language, Genres and Issues: The Socially Committed Novel; Pat Pinsent 10. Past Settings, Contemporary Concerns: Feminist Historical Fiction in the Late Twentieth Century; Peter Bramwell 11. Postmodernism, New Historicism and Postcolonialism: Some Recent Historical Novels; Pat Pinsent PART III: APPROACHES AND ISSUES 12. Chronotopes and Heritage: Time and Memory in Contemporary Children's Literature; Lisa Sainsbury 13. Childhood, Youth Culture and the Uncanny: Uncanny Nights in Contemporary Fiction for Young People; Lisa Sainsbury 14. Magic and Maturation: Uses of Magic in Fantasy Fiction; Peter Bramwell 15. Supermen, Cyborgs, Avatars and Geeks: Technology and the Human in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction; Richard Shakeshaft 16. Voicing Identity: The Dilemma of Narrative Perspective in Twenty-First-Century Young Adult Fiction; Maria Nikolajeva Further Reading Index.