Adulthood in Children's Literature

This scholarly work offers a groundbreaking examination of how adulthood is constructed within children's literature, shifting critical focus from child protagonists to the often-overlooked adult characters who populate these stories. Vanessa Joosen employs age studies as her analytical framework to explore how children's books portray adulthood as a developmental stage through adult characters and their relationships with childhood constructions. The book covers a remarkable range of literary examples, demonstrating how these narratives shape young readers' understanding of grown-up life. Joosen's approach reveals the complex ways children's literature mediates intergenerational relationships and concepts of maturity.

What distinguishes this academic study is its innovative repositioning of scholarly attention toward the adult presence in children's books, making it particularly valuable for children's literature scholars, educators, and advanced students in literary studies. The work provides fresh critical perspectives that challenge conventional readings of children's texts while offering sophisticated tools for analyzing age representation in literature. This thoughtful exploration of adulthood's literary construction will undoubtedly influence future scholarship in children's literature and age studies.