Children's Literature and British Identity: Imagining a People and a Nation, and: Time of Beauty, Time of Fear: The Romantic Legacy in the Literature of Childhood (review)

KNUTH, REBECCA Children's Literature and British Identity: Imagining a People and a Nation. Scarecrow Press, 2012 209p ISBN 978-0-8108-8516-5 $75.00

Analyzing the works of a myriad British authors including J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and J.K Rowling, Knuth (LIS professor at the University of Hawaii) explores the impact of children's literature on the shaping of a national identity and how children's books act to normalize social mores and foster national unity. Her research covers nearly two and half centuries of British literature and history, from the beginnings of books published especially for young people in the eighteenth century to modern Harry Potter phenomenon. An extensive bibliography and index are both provided. KQG

MCGAVRAN, JAMES HOLT, JR., ed. Time of Beauty, Time of Fear: The Romantic Legacy in the Literature of Childhood. University of Iowa Press, 2012 237p ISBN 978-1-60938-100-4 $39.95

Tracing the development of the Romantic notion of the child and childhood in Western literature, this collection of essays examines specific texts from three literary eras: Romantic, Victorian, and modern/postmodern. Contributors include familiar names such as Roderick McGillis, Jan Susina, and Claudia Mills (also well known as an author of children's literature), while topics range from the impact of Wordsworth on early children's literature to the contradictory moral standards for the Victorian child depending on gender to the influence of Rousseau's Emile on modern homeschooling practices. Each essay concludes with works cited, and an overall index is provided. KQG