In mainstream Western cultures where bedtime means isolation and separation from adults, picture books about bedtime are cultural artifacts created especially for this transitional process of separation. In a culture such as Taiwan where children often sleep with their parents, siblings, or other caregivers until elementary school, the need for…

The Canadian young adult novel "The Maestro" by Tim Wynne-Jones foregrounds the relationship between imagination and subjective agency. While Burl uses his imagination at the beginning to protect himself from his abusive father, his fantasies become dress rehearsals for small performances that allow him to try on new identities and exercise…

Jenny Robson's "Savannah 2216 AD", a dark, futuristic novel for young adults, provides a strong critique on much of the world's predilection for saving Africa's animals at the expense of those human communities who are perceived to be in the way of the preservation of the continent's remaining wild spaces. Using Robson's novel as template, this…

This article examines the way that weddings are portrayed in contemporary series fiction for girls, in particular Ann M. Martin's "The Baby-sitters Club" and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "Alice" books. It argues that, while weddings in these novels offer the protagonists supporting roles in compelling family dramas, they also provide few…

The article examines Cate Tiernan's "Wicca" series. This series and the "Circle of Three" books by Isobel Bird explore the experiences of teenage girls who embrace the pagan religion, Wicca. The texts reflect the growing interest in spirituality expressed by many young people and extend the literary representation of witchcraft. Tiernan produces…

We are made up of stories: the stories we hear, the stories we tell. Intertextual connections form through repeatedly hearing stories, many of which stem back to childhood. This paper foregrounds a teachers-as-readers literature circle in which a group of Indigenous teachers in Canada discussed, among other titles, Rafe Martin's "The Rough Face…

Russell Hoban has compared himself as a writer to a shaman--willing to admit the unseen and making himself a medium for the quality of the unseen in his novels. This article explores Hoban's highly-regarded "The Mouse and His Child" (1967) with this comparison in mind. The writer interweaves Mircea Eliade's study of shamanism with an examination…

Reconstructed fairy tales provide a different point of view and challenge the assumptions of a common set of values; for that reason, these stories provide a medium in which to examine power relationships in texts by applying a critical multicultural analysis (Botelho & Rudman, forthcoming, 2008, "A critical multicultural analysis of children's…

To compensate for her feelings of anger and helplessness over her mother's abandonment and subsequent displacements, the foster child Gilly Hopkins seeks power and agency through the primary means at her disposal: through the use of language and fairy tales. She constructs a Cinderella fantasy of an idealized mother who will rescue her. She also…

The anecdotes of Nasreddin Hodja, who lived in Anatolia in the 13th century, have always attracted people due to the humour they contain, but this discussion also focuses on exploring the educational value of the anecdotes. According to teachers who contributed to this study, the anecdotes stimulate students' interest in language work, create a…

This article examines the utilization of racial humor in Christopher Paul Curtis' novel, "The Watsons Go To Birmingham--1963." The theoretical perspectives that inform the analysis include critical race theory and humor theory. The results of the analysis reveal that the use of humor in this book is influenced to a significant degree by race and…

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.…

This paper sees Neil Gaiman's "Coraline" as following a darker tradition in children's literature, most commonly found in the fairy tale. It explores some of the existential issues that concern us all: to do with identity, sex, death, ontology, evil, desire and violence. The article takes a largely psychoanalytical approach, showing how Freud's…

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.…