Children's Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child is an original and lucid study of the figure of the 'child' as it is presented in the rapidly expanding field of the criticism of children's literature. The book argues that in fact, this same body of criticism - through oftencontradictory versions of the 'child' - revels the realm of 'childhood' as one constructed by the adult reader. Karin Lesnik-Oberstein demonstrates that both this criticism and the texts it studies are underpinned by the narratives of the liberal arts' educational ideals and their attendantsocio-political and personal ideologies. The author places literary discussion into the current wider debates about childhood in psychology and psychotherapy. This lively polemic represents a significant re-thinking of 'childhood' and approaches to children's literature.

Karin Lesnik-Oberstein is Salvesen Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford.