In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Children’s Literature and Critical Theory
  • Peter Hunt (bio)
Jill P. May, Children’s Literature and Critical Theory. Reading and Writing for Understanding. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Reviewing books on children’s literature requires perhaps more professionalism from both reviewer and reviewee than in many other disciplines: it’s a small world. And so if Perry Nodelman or Margaret Meek think that Karín Lesnik-Oberstein’s Children’s Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child is a very poor book, or Brian Alderson thinks that Peter Hunt’s An Introduction to Children’s Literature is a disaster, then those are professional judgments. Most of us know each other, and we can respect each other’s opinions, even if we don’t much like those opinions, without it becoming a matter of personalities.

Now, I bring all this up because I know and like the author of the book I’m dealing with here, and I might normally let the book pass in polite silence. But this book is different: it has had a remarkable impact in the U.K. It has reduced at least one British lecturer in children’s literature, quite literally, to tears of rage and frustration; it has provoked at least two British lecturers in children’s literature to the unprecedented step of writing to the publishers requesting that the book be withdrawn from sale; and it has led the lecturer who runs the largest children’s book course in the U.K. to warn his students against reading it or buying it.

The reason for these apparently extreme reactions is not far to seek. In the U.K., many of us involved in teaching children’s literature have for years been struggling to establish its credibility as a subject, in the face of skepticism from other academics. We are not, of course, alone in this, but the U.K. has perhaps one fiftieth of the number of academics that North America has and so there is little room to maneuver, few places to hide. In [End Page 387] particular, critical theory has been harnessed to, or integrated with, children’s literature studies so that it has become a fundamental part of all the taught MAs in the U.K. and of many other courses. This integration has, in turn, demonstrated the weight and legitimacy of the subject of children’s literature. Equally, children’s literature is seen as the province of parents and teachers and librarians, and it seems vital that critical theory be mediated to these people the better to equip them to deal with the subject.

We have come a long way—but we are still involved in a balancing act—building an academically viable subject area, using the best available theory, while making that theory accessible and acceptable to non-academics.

Now along comes Children’s Literature and Critical Theory, a beautifully produced book from the prestigious Oxford University Press, which on the face of it seems to be just what we need. Not only must it be ideal for our students and attractive for the practitioners who need to know about the fundamentals of critical theory, but it will quite probably be seized upon by mainstream critical theorists to see what we are about: to see whether children’s literature is as interesting as it claims to be—to see, in fact, whether our intellectual claims are valid. In short, a book with this title and these production values could do untold good in recruiting what has been one of the most politically and academically powerful of academic phalanxes to our side. Jill May’s target audience may be more specifically the practitioners, but her stated intent seems to be very promising:

I have written [this book] to encourage adults to explore criticism, consider why they should be concerned with what happens in a typical elementary school classroom, and how they can view literature and its applications in the world of the child.

(vii)

The rage and frustration in the U.K. comes partly from the fact that, despite this declaration, Children’s Literature and Critical Theory will be of little use to students and practitioners...

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