Children and Their Books is a collection of essays brought together to celebrate the research of Iona and Peter Opie in this field. Twenty contributors explore a wide range of topics, from the behaviour of children in early modern England to the development of French fairy tales and nursery rhymes; from the work of classic authors such as Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Beatrix Potter, and J.R.R.Tolkien to some of the diaries and magazines written by children themselves. The book offers a blend of the entertaining and the scholarly and is extensively illustrated. The contributors are Brian Alderson, Gillian Avery, Giles Barber, John Batchelor, John Bayley, Olivia and Alan Bell, Julia Briggs, Hugh Brogan, Humphrey Carpenter, A.O.J.Cockshut, Barbara Everett, Kate Flint, Clive Hurst, Alison Lurie, Neil Philip, W.W.Robson, William St Clair, Nigel Smith, Keith Thomas, and Jack Zipes. Proceeds from this book will be used to preserve the Opie collection of children's books in the Bodleian Library.