Understanding Children's Literature

by Peter Hunt (Editor)

Edited by Peter Hunt, a leading figure in the field, this book introduces the study of children's literature, addressing theoretical questions as well as the most relevant critical approaches to the discipline.

The fourteen chapters draw on insights from academic disciplines ranging from cultural and literary studies to education and psychology, and include an essay on what writers for children think about their craft. The result is a fascinating array of perspectives on key topics in children's literature as well as an introduction to such diverse concerns as literacy, ideology, stylistics, feminism, history, culture and bibliotherapy.

An extensive general bibliography is complemented by lists of further reading for each chapter and a glossary defines critical and technical terms, making the book accessible for those coming to the field or to a particular approach for the first time.

In this second edition there are four entirely new chapters; contributors have revisited and revised or rewritten seven of the chapters to reflect new thinking, while the remaining three are classic essays, widely acknowledged to be definitive.

Understanding Children's Literature will not only be an invaluable guide for students of literature or education, but it will also inform and enrich the practice of teachers and librarians.

Genres: Nonfiction, Childrens, Criticism, Academia, Reference, Academic

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 1998

About the author

Peter Hunt (born 1945) is a British scholar who is Professor Emeritus in Children's Literature at Cardiff University.

Hunt's books include works of criticism, novels, and stories for younger children. The Children's Literature courses that he ran at Cardiff were the first to treat children's literature as a subject of academic study in the UK. He has lectured on the subject at over 120 universities in 20 countries, from Finland to New Zealand; the International Society for the Fantastic in the Arts presented him with its Distinguished Scholarship Award in 1995, and 2003 he won the International Brothers Grimm Award for services to children's literature from the Institute for Children's Literature, Osaka.

He has edited or is editing the Oxford University Press World's Classics editions of Bevis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and The Wind in the Willows. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Persian, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a basic overview of various ways of reading children's lit, with every chapter covering a different topic. There's some really interesting stuff in here, and some really boring stuff too. The best part might be the never-ending bibliographies, indicating hundreds of ways to go deeper into any given topic.
I think my two favourite chapters were the one on Bibliotherapy (Can Stories Heal?) and on children as critics.
Super good, worth the read. Peter Hunt, the editor, is widely known in the field, and the first chapter was written by my old professor (and is one of the more difficult chapters to get through).

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of these chapters were insufferably dull. I hate when contributors to text books feel compelled to use as much jargon and communicate in as erudite a way as possible.

[Emma]

Every student of children's literature should start by reading this text

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great volume for seeing how you can apply different modes of analysis and schools of thought and theory to the study of children's literature. A really helpful introduction to my grad school career.