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Children's Literature

A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter

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About this listen

Ever since children have learned to read, there has been children's literature. Children's Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop's fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter. The only single-volume work to capture the rich and diverse history of children's literature in its full panorama, this extraordinary book reveals why J. R. R. Tolkein, Dr. Seuss, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, and many others, despite their divergent styles and subject matter, have all resonated with generations of readers.

Children's Literature is an exhilarating quest across centuries, continents, and genres to discover how, and why, we first fall in love with the written word. The book is published by University of Chicago Press.

©2008 University of Chicago Press (P)2010 Redwood Audiobooks Literary History & Criticism Classics Magic Users Middle Ages

Critic reviews

"Lerer has accomplished something magical. Unlike the many handbooks to children's literature that synopsize, evaluate, or otherwise guide adults in the selection of materials for children, this work presents a true critical history of the genre.... Scholarly, erudite, and all but exhaustive, it is also entertaining and accessible. Lerer takes his subject seriously without making it dull." (Library Journal)
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This is a learned and broad history of childrens literature. I was surprised by the breath of the analysis. It really runs as a history of literature.

amazing study

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