This article compares the models of subjectivity and identity in William Steig's 1990 picture book "Shrek!" and in DreamWorks' "Shrek" films. Steig presented his ogre hero as a model of the crises of subjectivity all children must face, and then reassured readers by showing how even a hideous figure such as…

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…

The article begins by assessing Enid Blyton's contribution to the Arthurian revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, setting this in the context of longstanding debates about the function of children's literature. It goes on to argue that Blyton's use of the story of Enid in "The Knights of the Round…

Viewing Tolstoy's works from psychological and intellectual perspectives demonstrates his approach to children's literacy and especially the development of reasoning, which he presents in his writing for children and the stories he includes in his "New ABC" book (1875a) and four "Readers" (1875b). This article…

The depictions of cruel witches in Roald Dahl's novel "The Witches" echo the cruel, abusive measures taken by adults in the historical treatment of children. The concept of child-hatred, described by Lloyd Demause and other critics, is an effective lens through which to view the hyperbolized hatred of children described in "The…

The Gospel of John teaches through telling the story of Jesus in light of the familiar Hebrew faith stories. It is an interpretive task that presents Jesus to his audience and teaches them adequate faith. John the Teacher skillfully uses narrative skills to create the familiar-strange effect in his storytelling. Each story is followed by a…

In a study designed to analyze faculty and student perceptions of the value of digital writing in the first year composition classroom, 21 first-year college students and a nationwide sample of 50 college composition teachers participated in conceptualizing digital multimodal composition and defining the benchmarks for first-year college digital…

Historical fiction is a powerful way of transmitting national history to later generations. It emerged in the nineteenth century as a means of building identity and fostering solidarity. This article investigates Dutch historical novels for children. First, it explores the relation between educational ideas and historical novels for children,…

There are relatively few studies of how representations of teachers, schools and educational administrators in popular films and television might be, and are, used in leadership preparation. This paper seeks to add to this small body of work; it reports on an exploratory study of the representation of headteachers in contemporary children's…

Rather than focussing on the relationship between science and literature, this article attempts to read scientific writing as literature. It explores a somewhat neglected element of the story of the emergence of geology in the late eighteenth century--James Hutton's unpublished accounts of the tours of Scotland that he undertook in the years…

Previous research has furnished evidence that alliterative expressions (e.g. "a slippery slope") are comparatively memorable for second language learners, at least when these expressions are attended to as decontextualized items (Lindstromberg and Boers, 2008a; Boers et al., 2012). The present study investigates whether alliteration…

The ability to shift reading position has long been recognised as a means for politically minded readers--particularly those motivated by Marxist, feminist and/or race-related agendas--to read against the grain and uncover the implicit ideologies in the text. Little research has been conducted on how inexperienced and thus less sophisticated…

The article studies in three steps how the fairy tale articulates its normative content and what the educational consequence of this kind of communication is. First, the articulation of normativity in fictional literature in general is discussed. Second, the specific mode in which the fairy tale articulates its normativity is studied according to…

Garth Boomer's thinking influenced many of those working in school English during the time he was alive. The ripple effects of his legacy continue to be felt. For the author, it is Boomer's interests in metaphor and meaning that resonate most. The use of tropes and figure is a distinctive feature of his writing and offers a rich…

This article examines anti-racist strategies employed in Finnish children's literature. The examples from four stories illustrate that certain physical characteristics and cultural markers can become strong signifiers of nationality, that is Finnishness. The characters in these stories have to cope with experiences of exclusion and loneliness…