A brilliant series of readings.”-Diane Purkiss, Times Literary Supplement Read more “There are dazzling chapters on John Locke and Empire, and nonsense, and Darwin, but Lerer’s most interesting chapter focuses on girls’ fiction. We are made, he suggests, by the books we read.”- San Francisco Chronicle With his vast and multidimensional knowledge of literature, he underscores the vital role it plays in forming a child’s imagination. “Lerer’s history reminds us of the wealth of literature written during the past 2,600 years. Lerer takes his subject seriously without making it dull.”- Library Journal (starred review) Scholarly, erudite, and all but exhaustive, it is also entertaining and accessible. Unlike the many handbooks to children’s literature that synopsize, evaluate, or otherwise guide adults in the selection of materials for children, this work presents a true critical history of the genre. “Lerer has accomplished something magical. Children’s Literature is an exhilarating quest across centuries, continents, and genres to discover how, and why, we first fall in love with the written word. Seuss, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beatrix Potter, and many others, despite their divergent styles and subject matter, have all resonated with generations of readers. The only single-volume work to capture the rich and diverse history of children’s literature in its full panorama, this extraordinary book reveals why J. Children’s Literature charts the makings of the Western literary imagination from Aesop’s fables to Mother Goose, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Peter Pan, from Where the Wild Things Are to Harry Potter. Ever since children have learned to read, there has been children’s literature.

Children's Literature by Seth Lerer