The Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature

The field of children's literature study is relatively new and represents a conundrum, in that the intended audience is usually neither author nor commentator in the field. Moreover, the genre of literature directly for children is comparatively new, though many of the contributors to this volume delve back several centuries to some interesting examples of early instructional texts and imaginative stories designed to shape young minds.

This collection of articles is grouped into three sections:

So in the first we read of the historical context, the changing understanding of the nature of childhood, picture books and poetry over the centuries...