Philosophy in Children's Literature ed. by Peter R. Costello (review)

Editor Peter Costello presents eighteen new essays on the relationship between children's literature and the academic study of philosophy. In the course of the book we are encouraged to consider philosophy in various relationships to literature generally, and children's literature specifically. Matthew F. Pierlott argues in chapter seven that there are three ways in which children's literature and philosophy may be related: we can ask philosophical questions about what children's literature is and should be; we can explore the dialogue between philosophical texts and ideas and those presented in works of children's literature; and we can examine ways in which children's literature opens up philosophical reflection. All are in play in this book.

Like any editor who endeavors to place two separate traditions in juxtaposition, Professor Costello provides a good deal of justification for this project. He says that the book tries to "build upon the movement to take children's literature seriously" (xiii), and acknowledges the work already done by scholars of children's literature, people "who have already set up a discipline, who have already used philosophy in small doses" (xv). Scholars of children's literature will be introduced to applications of philosophy to this field not usually found in its journals (though the linguistic and gender approaches will be familiar); philosophy students will be exposed to the richness of children's texts as vehicles for understanding those philosophies. Happily, this book is not guilty of pretending to discover children's books as a subject of study, which we see from time to time.

The book is divided into three sections: "Picture Books," "Chapter Books," and "Multiple Avenues of Criticism." The first and longest section contains nine essays on picture books. The essays succeed in illuminating both the children's book and the philosophy employed in reading it. Notables include the first two essays in the section; first, Kirsten Jacobson consults Heidegger and Winnicott in discussing the nature of reality in The Velveteen Rabbit. Jacobson chooses ten "sites" in the book to show how it achieves "an astute working-through of the themes and issues that do, in fact, have to be recognized and negotiated in developing the ability to experience the world as 'real'" (4). The Velveteen Rabbit, she posits, values a subjective view of reality and shows the limitations of closing one's mind to possibilities. Next, Claudia Mills's reading of The Rainbow Fish through a Nietzschean lens provides the reader with an understanding of why the book inspires either admiration or disdain, based on the difference between "master morality" and "slave morality." Mills concludes that Pfister's book embraces slave morality, the celebration of universal mediocrity. Among the other essays in this section, Carl F. Miller's reading of Seuss's Horton books, especially Horton Hears a Who!, shows how the narrative is structured around various dimensions of truth discovery. Matthew F. Pierlott uses Silverstein's The Missing Piece and its sequels to discuss the nature of completeness as understood through Aristophanes, Plato, Žižek, and Lacan. Finally, Peter Costello provides a clear and interesting reading of the complicated nature of friendship in Lobel's Frog and Toad books by considering Derrida's discussion of the paradox of the gift in light of that relationship.

The five essays in the section each explore a particular chapter book or series: in succession, these are Ramona the Pest, Harriet the Spy, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, The Cricket in Times Square, and Pollyanna. Oona Eisenstadt explains the tensions between Levinas's and Blanchot's respective theories of ethics and shows how Harriet's approach to ethics is Blanchotian rather than Levinasian. Robert O'Brien's daughter Sarah O'Brien Conly considers her father's book in order to challenge the thesis that greater intelligence can lead to a better society. She contrasts Kant's and Hume's respective positions on reason and emotion as guides to ethical behavior. Court Lewis reads George...