Children's Literature and its Effects - The Formative Years - by C. Cullingford

Children's Literature and its Effects offers an intriguing insight into the worlds of children's literature. It is distinctive, and consequently richly repays reading for two significant reasons.

First, it focuses on the pleasures children get from their reading. Others have discussed popular children's literature and noted its limitations, both stylistic and referential; scholars have also undertaken ethnographic studies of young readers, often concluding that the reading of popular fiction is a conservative force in their lives. It is much rarer to find a work which examines in such detail the textual delights and gratifications on offer to young readers. Parents and teachers continue to be concerned (whether they have genuine grounds for those concerns is another matter) about children's perceived defection from reading, about the preponderance of other distractions, entertainments and opportunities.
A book which concentrates our attentions, as this book does, on the delights and satisfactions available to children through reading has to offer a different perspective on these pressing questions. The focus elsewhere is so often on reluctant readers - on those who don't rather than those who do. By concentrating here on what it is that reading can offer children we come closer to seeing why some read compulsively. The focus is literary and textual rather than sociological, and attempts to understand the pleasures of reading in terms of the texts rather than in terms of the readers' lives and social experiences. Cullingford recognizes the importance of nurturing these early reading pleasures and offers intelligent advice on encouraging young readers to go further and tackle more challenging texts, without denigrating their current habits or expecting them to forgo their satisfaction in formula fiction. In this respect the work is practical as well as distinctive.

Secondly it is rare to find a survey of children's fiction with such breadth, covering such a range of genres and historical periods. Its compass ranges from the early 1900s to the current day; includes adventure stories, comics, school-fiction, romances and horror; touches on the almost forgotten and the perpetually popular; discusses work aimed at the under 10s through to the mid-teens; books read primarily by boys; by girls, and those which appeal to both genders.

Some fascinating material emerges from this wide-ranging study. Of course there are huge differences between these texts, differences which reflect the different historical, cultural and social contexts in which they were written and read. For example, the contrast the book offers us between the delight taken in food by the Blyton children, the pleasurable disgust it affords in Roald Dahl's work and the straightforward disgust it engenders in the inhabitants of teen romances is most revealing. Nevertheless, the commonalities across these texts are at least as interesting as the differences. This book shows that a desire for security, the management of fear, comedic resolution, the need to categorize the world and its inhabitants, the narrative control of adults, to name but a few factors, seem to persist within much popular children's fiction.

The final point I want to make is that a book like this should be read for enjoyment. It is a book written by an enthusiast. The topic offers maximum scope for presenting the obscure and fascinating drawn from a long forgotten book, for humour and for reliving the pleasures of one's own childhood reading. The author makes the most of these opportunities and immerses us so well in the world of popular children's literature that we are able to get inside our childish minds again and re-experience some of those early reading pleasures.

Overview
While there have been a number of histories of children's literature, they have been mainly uncritical and look at the texts through the eyes of an adult rather than those of a child. At the same time there have been various studies dealing principally with fairy story, but these again take no account of what children really read. Nor has there been any work which systematically analyses the appeak which certain writers hold out to children.

This book rederesses these imbalances. It concentrates on particular authors who are typical of their time, as well as on some of the prevailing themes, Enid Blyton, for example, is often villified, yet children continue to read her - this book tries to explain why. The idea behind the book has been to select material which genuinely appeals to children. In doing so, the author explores popular writers and themes, and explains what is in them that appears to children.

Children's Literature and its Effects is a thought-provoking and revealing study of popular children's literature, which will be of immense use to teachers and parents alike in understanding children's responses to books.

Cedric Cullingford is Professor of Education at the University of Huddersfield.

Editorial Reviews
Booknews
Analyzes the appeal which certain writers hold for children, looking at their work through the eyes of the child and incorporating many quotes from children. Concentrates on particular authors who are typical of their time and on prevailing themes, covering the early 1900s to the present and including genres such as adventure, comics, romance, and horror. Authors discussed include Judy Blume, Enid Plyton, and Roald Dahl. Offers advice on encouraging young readers to tackle more challenging texts without denigrating their current reading habits or expecting them to forego their satisfaction in formula fiction. Works in this series are intended mainly for pre- and in-service teachers.