Abstract

This essay argues that war stories for adults and for children approach wartime violence from different angles but for the same purpose: to reestablish the place of embattled individuals within the unstable social and political circumstances of a nation at war. Employing heroes and fantasy to describe timeless, archetypal battles between Good and Evil, children’s literature offers a space within which to explore the present, specific battles of a child’s life in wartime. The essay examines children’s literature from the Second World War to the present, raising questions about the representation of 9/11 and its aftermath in contemporary children’s fiction.

pdf

Share