A concise but comprehensive overview of developments in children's literature over the past 100 years.

'In anyone's terms this is a virtuoso and scholarly tour de force analysis of the past 100 years of children's fiction.'
Times Higher Educational Supplement
'..a very useful book in an area where a short pithy introduction like this is badly needed.'
Times Educational Supplement
'a constantly thoughtful and thought-provoking book with the importance of literature and the needs of real children as its constant concerns. There are some remarkable insights into the history of children's literature.'
The School Librarian
'a fascinating, scholarly examination of the dialectical relationship between children's literature and attitudes towards children and childhood.'
The Reader's Guide to Literature.
'Reynolds..has approached the task in an original and potentially illuminating fashion..'
Folly

Dr Kimberley Reynolds lectures in English and Women's Studies at the Roehampton Institute, where she also runs the Children's Literature Research Centre. Her previous books include Victorian Heroines: Readings in Femininity and its Representations in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Art (Harvester, 1993), Girls only? Gender and Popular Juvenile Fiction in Britain 1880-1910 (Harvester, 1990) and An Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms (Ebury Press, 1981).