Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter - Hardcover

Zipes, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415928117 ISBN 13: 9780415928113

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

About this title

Review:

"If [Zipes'] scholarship could be spread over several curricule vitae, the breadth and quality of it could certainly bring tenure to three or four scholars." -Donald R. Hettinga ." . . he gives clear voice to the forces behind the huge boom in children's book publishing since the 1980s, which has served to form a safe veil of promoting literacy that disguises its own truth, namely that children are seen as commodities and used as pawns to increase parental consumerism." -Adolescence, Summer 2002 ..."adult-friendly content and an imposition of order in the imagination of the child, and, consequently, a constriction of the child's imaginative life.." -Susan Perren, "Globe & Mail, Toronto ..."stimulating esssays emphasize the curious status of children's literature as one defined, produced, and marketed not by children but by adults....." -Choice, J.J. Benardete, CUNY Hunter College ..."invaluable chapters treat the 'contamination'...of Grimm's fairy tales in the 20th century, suggesting how such retellings refurbish folklore so as to 'question both past and present social conditions' and show young people how they may 'play creatively with the forces dictating how they are to shape their lives.'." -Choice, J.J. Benardete, CUNY Hunter College

Synopsis:

Have children ever really had a literature of their own? In Sticks and Stones Jack Zipes, translator of the Grimm tales, teacher, storyteller and scholar, explores children's literature, from the grisly moralism of Slovenly Peter to the hugely successful Harry Potter books, and argues that despite common assumptions about children's books, our current investment in children is paradoxically curtailing their freedom and creativity. Sticks and Stones is a forthright and engaging book by someone who cares deeply about what and how children read.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0415928117
• ISBN 13: 9780415928113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240