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This paper considers publishers of children's literary fiction in the UK between 1995 and 2004. Using a combination of statistical analysis and interviews, it explores the different ways in which independent publishing houses and media conglomerates compete in a rapidly changing marketplace. While shifts in the commercial climate since 1995 appear to have favoured large media groups, their advantages of scale often come with commensurate costs. The second section of the paper looks in depth at two newly established publishers, David Fickling Books and The Chicken House. It concludes that as children's book publishing continues to transform itself, new models for publishers are needed; that of smaller entities working independently within the construct of larger ones, or alternatively, that of larger conglomerates seeking ways to break down their operations into more purposeful and responsive units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on late nineteenth-century juvenile literature in Great Britain. Sale and publication of certain boys' periodicals known as 'penny dreadfuls' that allegedly encouraged anti-social attitudes and criminal behavior in the young; Focus of topics on bizarre and supernatural figures.

This essay examines the children's literature parodies Five on Brexit Island (by Bruno Vincent, 2016), Five Escape Brexit Island (by the same, 2017), Alice in Brexitland (by Leavis Carroll, 2017), and the Ladybird spoof The Story of Brexit (by Jason A. Hazeley and Joel P. Morris, 2018) through the lens of 'BrexLit,' focusing on the politicization of these texts whose originals each capture an idealized British past. Beginning with a juxtaposition of the pastiches with their original counterparts, this essay moves through the different facets of Enid Blyton's Britain as Brexit's Britain, and the subversion of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland into a delusional Brexitland, before focusing on The Story of Brexit. Paying particular attention to the publication and reception history of the Ladybird series, this essay engages intertextually with the parody's reproduced illustrations of the allegedly simpler life pictured in formative Ladybird books of the 1960s and 1970s and performs a close reading of the accompanying text. In each case, the parodies function as humorous coping mechanisms for a Brexit reality, but they also expose how the nostalgia associated with the charm of the originals becomes a political and social commentary for the 2016 Brexit campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in the 1960s, British children's literature began to include sympathetic representations of people from outside the dominant culture. Greater numbers of Jewish characters appeared as part of this trend. In the succeeding decades, the British publishing industry has continued to encourage cultural sensitivity in children's books, but this article argues that, despite this, in the twenty-first century constructions of Jews and Judaism increasingly resemble the stereotypical images common in works from previous eras. The paper goes on to contend that although these stereotypes were acknowledged and challenged in historical fiction for children of the 1960s and 1970s in order to promote tolerance, authorial intent in employing such images in more recent historical novels is often unclear, and as a result the texts convey ambivalent messages to today's young readers about the place of Jews in British society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the eighteenth century, language-experts were increasingly concerned with correctness and appropriate social expression. As a result, English grammar went through several attempts to codify and prescribe rules for correct usage, so that the number of these works increased rapidly from the 1760s onwards and reached a notable peak in the 1790s. In order to find a place in an increasingly saturated marketplace, authors, editors and publishers variously resorted to selling strategies that included, for instance, adding value to the English grammar by incorporating rich prefatory or post-main-text matter. This paper deals with author(itie)s and sources explicitly mentioned in the prefatory matter of eighteenth-century English grammars for children, with a focus on metacomments aimed at endorsing the book with reliability and validity for teachers and young learners. The study is based on acknowledged author(itie)s and sources so as to identify which were most commonly cited in the material examined, on the one hand, and to discuss the different reasons articulating this practice, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harvey Darton's definition of children's books as "works produced ostensibly to give children spontaneous pleasure and not merely to teach them" no longer holds good in contemporary children's literature today since the emphasis in contemporary children's literature has shifted from merely giving pleasure to offering children insights into the complexities of life. Till the 1970's, Britain's writers of children's fiction have been creating comfort zones for their readers by basing their books on pure fantasy. The paper seeks to establish how the new children's narrative is cognate in form and style with the modern psychological novel with its complex techniques and its emphasis on the inner workings of the mind and the character's search for his/her identity. This has become the preferred form of children's narrative today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how the children's books written by two nineteenth-century female writers, Eliza Tabor and Mary Martha Sherwood, when they accompanied their husbands to India, enabled them to navigate this new environment and their position as respectable middle-class women while revealing how India was deemed a place where British childhood was impossible. Just as many women took up botanical study to legitimise their 'otherwise transgressive presence in imperial spaces' (McEwan 219), writing for children enabled others to engage with the masculine world of travelling and earning money without compromising their femininity. Addressing their work to children also seems to have helped both writers to deal with the absence of their own children: the Indian climate made it impossibly challenging for most British infants and children. In this way their writing gives expression to what might be termed a crisis of imperial motherhood. Underlying the texts is an anxiety relating to British settlement and an attempt to comprehend and control a place that threatened their maternal roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Britain in the period 1760–1845 the debate on the relative merits of public (school) versus private (home) education remained unresolved and was vigorously debated in many media. It was in this same period that children’s literature began to flourish: a much wider variety of books were published in much greater numbers. The new children’s literature generally took domestic life for its subject; its authors often claimed that their books had emerged from domestic practice; and the books were often marketed as being for domestic use. It can seem, therefore, that the new children’s literature was, in essence, a materialisation in print of domestic pedagogy, a product developed to supply a growing demand for didactic materials to use in the home. This essay will test the hypothesis, considering some real-life pedagogical practices and examining a wide range of later eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century children’s texts (both print and manuscript). This evidence will show in fact that the boundaries between private and public education were blurred. Moreover, some children’s books were themselves interventions into the debate on private versus public schooling. They presented a utopian, if still practical, vision of how the advantages of both models could be combined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What should children and young adolescents read? Recent changes in the English curriculum have once again shifted the focus towards more canonical texts, but does featuring such texts on the course necessarily equate to rigorous teaching and in-depth learning? Through a self-examination of her own reading history, the author argues for a dialogic approach to reading and text selection instead, so that students may negotiate better understandings of themselves and their own socio-cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article looks at how four British-based poets born in the Caribbean exploit the rich language repertoire available to them in their work for children and young people. Following initial consideration of questions of definition and terminology, poetry collections by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols and Valerie Bloom are discussed, with a focus on the interplay and creative tension between the different varieties of Caribbean creoles ('Bad Talk') and standard English evident in their work. Variation both between the four poets' usage and within each individual poet's work is considered, and a trend over time towards the inclusion of fewer creole-influenced poems is noted. These and other issues, such as the labelling of the four poets' work as 'performance poetry' and the nature of the poets' contribution to British children's literature, are considered in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain's Children's Laureate Scheme has now been running for 14 years. This article asks Quentin Blake, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Anthony Browne, Michael Rosen and Julia Donaldson for their views on their own experience of taking up this post. It concludes with a discussion of the recurring issues raised by these Laureates along with a look at possible future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article critiques several books from the Blade book series by Tim Bowler, including "Fighting Back," "Breaking Free," and "Playing Dead." The Victorian-era books "Jessica's First Prayer" by Hesba Stretton, "Sybil, or The Two Nations" by Benjamin Disraeli, and "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens are analyzed in comparison to the Blade series. The British underclass in popular culture, street children, and childhood innocence are also discussed as represented in the works of literature.

The myth of home is what distinguishes children's literature from adult novels (Wolf ). Nodelman and Reimer (The Pleasures of Children's Literature, ) write that while 'the home/away/home pattern is the most common story line in children's literature, adult fiction that deals with young people who leave home usually ends with the child choosing to stay away' (pp. 197-198). In a critical content analysis of recent award-winning middle reader novels from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, a new pattern was observed. This pattern, called a postmodern metaplot, begins with the child being abandoned, rather than the child leaving the home. The child's journey is to construct a home within a postmodern milieu complete with competing truths and failed adults. Ultimately, the child's postmodern journey ends with very modern ideal of the child leading the adults to a hopeful ending, a home. The article explores the changing roles of childhood and adulthood in children's literature and questions if the mythology of home can be undone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a pilot study which aimed to consider the e-book reading experiences of young children and their families, with currently available portable e-reader devices: Amazon Kindle, Nintendo DS-lite and Apple iPod Touch. Three families, each with two children in the 7-12 year age range, experienced an e-reader for a two-week period. They recorded their experiences in a diary and were interviewed at the beginning and end of the study. Key findings include the fact that, of the six children involved, four rate themselves as 'enthusiastic' readers, one 'average' and one 'reluctant'; whilst all six of the parents enjoy reading. At the end of the study, all of the participants chose the Kindle as their preferred device and found it the easiest to use. In addition, there were indications that the one reluctant young reader (a boy aged eight years) was inspired to read by the Kindle. His parents were pleased with this enthusiasm, noting that he was reading rather than watching television, excited by downloading and choosing books and it was the only time they had known him to ask to read voluntarily. When asked whether they prefer printed or electronic books, all of the adults chose printed books, whilst the children were more ambivalent, with half preferring electronic books. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines children's literature in Great Britain in the 19th century. The so-called school story, which is fiction which implicitly or explicitly deals with the private schools known as endowed public schools of that period, is discussed. The book "Tom Brown's Schooldays," by Thomas Hughes, is considered to have been the first work in this genre, which became a highly popular form of children's literature for boys, second only to adventure stories. It is noted that adventure stories usually has as their protagonist a young man who typified the attitudes of the ideals of the public schools of that time. The role of sports in those stories and its part in the educational philosophy of the public schools is examined. It is posited that the school stories sought to illustrate the qualities felt to be required for successful administration of Great Britain's empire.

The article provides information on the role of illustrations in eighteenth-century children's books in Great Britain and France. The author discusses how the books of eighteenth century influenced the minds of young people, what makes it interesting for children to read and how it affects childrens' lives in terms of social interaction with others. The author states that during the century, the special nature of children was recognized, and that it should be guided and molded. The most common theme of the children's books during the century is about obedience to adult and discipline that reminds the children on their position in household and social hierarchy.

The article offers a cultural retelling of World War I through the British children's comic strip "Charley's War" which was published Great Britain in "Battle-Action" between January 6, 1979 and October 4, 1986. This comic strip depicts a particular sort of history and memory. It is also a mediated venue of reengagement with the masculinities of World War I.

The article offers an analysis of several popular children's novels published in Great Britain between 1919 and 1939. It is noted that World War I was a source of inspiration for British children's authors of the 1920s and 1930s. Some of the works in this period include Dorita F. Bruce's "Dimsie Goes to School," A. H. Burrage's "The Idol of St. Moncreeth," and George E. Rochester's "The Flying Beetle 29."

During the Cold War, books and stories for young people became an important weapon in the battle for their hearts and minds. But the propaganda directed at British youth did not suddenly appear as the ‘Iron Curtain’ descended across Europe, for even before the 1917 Revolution Russia had been seen as a major threat to British interests. The Bolshevik Revolution with its expressed intent of world revolution simply intensified that danger. The anti-Soviet writing of a number of authors is examined here, but there is particular emphasis on the novels of Captain W.E. Johns, who from the 1930s to the early 1960s consistently warned his readers of the danger posed by the ‘Red Menace’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the books "The Adventures of Pinocchio" of Italy and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" of Great Britain. Reason for classifying the books as pivotal; Information on how Alice and Pinocchio demonstrate their individuality on first appearance in their stories; Characteristics of the children in the stories.

Focuses on the use of children's books in raising the political consciousness of children in Great Britain. Contribution of the books to the spread of radicalism and dissent; Success of the book "The Infant's Friend," by Eleanor Fenn; Influence of adventure stories on the development of autonomy among children.