The second book edition of Louisa May Alcott's Hospital Sketches eliminated jokes about drinking and religion. Although these were small changes, the edgy theme of drinking and religion as topics that could and sometimes should be taken lightly (even by a writer who also considered both topics as serious) interested Alcott throughout her career.…

In "Skellig," "Kit's Wilderness," and "Clay", David Almond employs various types of intertextuality to enrich his narratives. Through the use of allusion, adaptation, collage, and mise-en-abyme, he encourages his adolescent readers to seek out precursor texts and to consider the interrelationships between these texts and his own. By so doing, he…

The authors of picture books who write especially melodic language are doing more than simply offering up work that is pleasing to the ear. They are accessing more of the whole child. In this article five picture books will be discussed for their musical attributes: "Now One Foot, Now the Other", by Tomie dePaola, "The Cat in the Hat", by Dr.…

Argues that, in "Island of the Blue Dolphins," Scott O'Dell offers a skeleton main character (Karana). Contends that O'Dell has sketched Karana as a stereotype and that readers complete her characterization, filling out the skeleton by perpetuating the stereotypes. Points out this trading of stereotype for true character development in his other…