Radical Children's Literature: Future Visions and Aesthetic Transformations in Juvenile Fiction [Hardcover]

This book reappraises the place of children's literature, showing it to be a creative space where writers and illustrators try out new ideas about books, society, and narratives in an age of instant communication and multi-media. It looks at the stories about the world and young people; the interaction with changing childhoods and new technologies.List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Author's Note Breaking Bounds: The Transformative Energy of Children's Literature Breaking the Frame: Picturebooks, Modernism and New Media And None of it was Nonsense Useful Idiots: Interactions between Youth Culture and Children's Literature Self-harm, Silence and Survival: Despair and Trauma in Children's Literature Baby, You're the Best: Sex and Sexuality in Contemporary Juvenile Fiction Frightening Fiction: TheTransformative Power of Fear Back to the Future? New Forms and Formats in Juvenile Fiction Conclusion: The Foundations of Future Fictions Bibliography Index

Winner of the 2007 Book Award by the Children's Literature Association

'Radical Children's Fiction is a long overdue rethinking of the status of children's fiction, showing that it is not the cosy, outdated backwater that some earlier critics have suggested. Rather, it is vibrant and multiform, often cutting-edge and subversive. Covering a huge geographical and historical range, Reynolds examines both traditional and less traditional literary forms (visual media, computer games, fan fiction etc), effortlessly combining insightful close readings with an enviable theoretical acumen. This book is destined to become a classic in the field.' - Dr David Rudd, University of Bolton, UK

'...[A] groundbreaking study...The wide range of texts discussed and the new insights offered into the interplay of children's literature with childhood and youth culture will make this book an indispensable study for children's literature scholars.' - Claudia S?ffner, Bookbird, A Journal of Internation