Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Boston : Little, Brown, c1990.
Description
Most of the enduring works of great children's literature are subversive in one way or another, maintains the author. In this book she looks at authors who have written with dangerous directness to the young.
User reviews
LibraryThing member kaelirenee
Of all the hundreds of childrens books that have been written (especially in the last 150 years by British authors), the ones best loved, remembered, and still shared are those that have subversive undertones. Rather than stories about good boys and girls always getting the best rewards and naughty
Lurie examines a few of the more ground-breaking examples of this kind of literature, including the works of Beatrix Potter, the stories about Peter Pan, and Kate Greenway's works. She examines the lives of the authors, the influences of their works, and what exactly makes them so subversive. She also shows the history of children's literature-from fairy stories and folklore to a unique set of stories explicetly for children created because of the rise in the importance of childhood in Victorian England. Because of this, a vast majority of the works examined were written by British authors after the American Civil War and before WWI. This leads to some (in my opinion) glaring ommissions. Though she alludes to Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, she does not give their works the examination given to the other authors. Nor does she consider stories like Brair Rabbit, the works of E.B. White, Judy Blume, or Beverly Cleary (or any American, I'd like to point out-this is a strictly British book, aside from a few slight mentions of the Americans)-or more current authors like Roald Dahl. Obviously, since this book was written in 1990, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling are not included, however, reading this book can help an adult reader understand the long history and important story-telling devices these authors use to create stories that children use to help themselves understand the strange world around them.
Despite all the criticisms I listed, this is an excellent and entertaining examination of children's lit and reminds the reader of how important these stories are to children and why they must be told and created. This is very useful for educators, child psychologists, children and young adult librarians, and anyone interested in remembering the thrill of reading about how much fun naughty Peter Rabbit got into.
Edit...
I just noticed the author published a more recent book and it appears this one is covering some of her glaring omissions-at least this time she's got Louisa May Alcott, Frank Baum, and Dr. Seuss in the mix!
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children always punished, we keep turning back to the clever children who get into trouble but still go out and explore even more, where adults aren't always right and the world is rarely fair.Lurie examines a few of the more ground-breaking examples of this kind of literature, including the works of Beatrix Potter, the stories about Peter Pan, and Kate Greenway's works. She examines the lives of the authors, the influences of their works, and what exactly makes them so subversive. She also shows the history of children's literature-from fairy stories and folklore to a unique set of stories explicetly for children created because of the rise in the importance of childhood in Victorian England. Because of this, a vast majority of the works examined were written by British authors after the American Civil War and before WWI. This leads to some (in my opinion) glaring ommissions. Though she alludes to Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, she does not give their works the examination given to the other authors. Nor does she consider stories like Brair Rabbit, the works of E.B. White, Judy Blume, or Beverly Cleary (or any American, I'd like to point out-this is a strictly British book, aside from a few slight mentions of the Americans)-or more current authors like Roald Dahl. Obviously, since this book was written in 1990, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling are not included, however, reading this book can help an adult reader understand the long history and important story-telling devices these authors use to create stories that children use to help themselves understand the strange world around them.
Despite all the criticisms I listed, this is an excellent and entertaining examination of children's lit and reminds the reader of how important these stories are to children and why they must be told and created. This is very useful for educators, child psychologists, children and young adult librarians, and anyone interested in remembering the thrill of reading about how much fun naughty Peter Rabbit got into.
Edit...
I just noticed the author published a more recent book and it appears this one is covering some of her glaring omissions-at least this time she's got Louisa May Alcott, Frank Baum, and Dr. Seuss in the mix!
Show Less
LibraryThing member debnance
Little biographical and psychological sketches of well-known children's authors. Not as edgy as I'd hoped; closer to a series of lectures by a university professor on children's literature.
LibraryThing member raizel
I occasionally disagree with her, but not drastically, and I'm learning a lot about authors, some that I know and, regretfully, others that I have never heard of. Now I have to find their stories and read them.
LibraryThing member ljhliesl
Alison Lurie's collection of essays is entertaining and at times thought-provoking, but mostly her analyses were too Freudian for me. And inconsistent: she says death was absent from children's literature until the 20th century. In context, it's possible she meant absent in the first half of that
After, say, 1960, the morbidity rate for mothers rises sharply. A friend of mine lamented the dead mothers in contemporary books for her daughter, and she's right: many Newbery medalists including Voigt and Creech, lots of Joan Aiken, the Penderwicks, the Traveling Pants series, and Harry Potter of course. Probably because all the girl protagonists have Electra complexes.
More about authors than power to the pipsqueaks, but okay.
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century, but she's not clear and says this just after mentioning Little Women. People die left and right in Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, L.M. Montgomery, and Elizabeth Enright, and even Nancy Drew's mother is dead. Granted, most of the deaths happen off the page, at the very beginning to establish the setting, or to background characters you've never met -- like the Melendys' mother and Nancy's. Beth is an exception, but a glaringly contradictory one.After, say, 1960, the morbidity rate for mothers rises sharply. A friend of mine lamented the dead mothers in contemporary books for her daughter, and she's right: many Newbery medalists including Voigt and Creech, lots of Joan Aiken, the Penderwicks, the Traveling Pants series, and Harry Potter of course. Probably because all the girl protagonists have Electra complexes.
More about authors than power to the pipsqueaks, but okay.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
A little dated and a little dry (academic) but still interesting. Some of the essays speak about universality of the themes of children's stories, or the need of children for them; other essays focus on a particular author, usually emphasizing one work but mentioning the others.