Coming of Age in Children's Literature

An examination of personal development, maturation and rites of passage in children's literature, this title surveys the theme across a number of genres and analyses the work of key writers. It aims to answer the question "What is a classic?".
Edited by Morag Styles and written by an interational team of acknowledged experts, this series provides jargon-free, critical discussion and a comprehensive guide to literary and popular texts for children. Each book introduces the reader to a major genre of children's literature, covering key authors, major works and contexts in which those texts are published. Margaret Meek and Victor Watson provide a profound and revealing examiniation of the treatment of personal development, maturation and rites of passage in literature written for children and adolescents. Including a broad survey of the theme across a number of genres and an in-depth analysis of the work of key writers, the authors work towards an answer to the question What is a classic? Margaret Meek is Reader Emeritus at the Institute of Education in London. Victor Watson is Assistant Director of Research at Homerton College, Cambridge.