Reviews 2015
Ethics and Children’s Literature
Ethics and Children’s Literature. Ed. Claudia Mills. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2014. 248 pages. $109.95 (hardback).
Ethics and Children’s Literature is part of the Ashgate series (Ashgate Studies in Childhood, 1700 to the Present, edited by Claudia Nelson) devoted to the interdisciplinary and comparative approach to current children and young adult literature. In accordance with thus defined mission, the volume of essays compiled by Claudia Mills attempts to elucidate chosen ethical problems in texts addressed to young readers.
The book is divided into four parts. The first one, The Dilemma of Didacticism: Attempts to Shape Children as Moral Beings, comprises three essays. The opening essay by Claudia Nelson deals with Golden Deeds books, showing their relevance to modern American attitudes towards sacrifice. Emma Adelaida Otheguy provides a comparative analysis of ethnicity-determined approaches to didacticism on the basis of the 19th-century New York English- and Spanish-language children’s magazines. The dilemmas of American librarians connected with de-segregating literature for children (1930-45) are the subject of an engaging article by Moira Hinderer. The fact that the readings are rooted in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century initiates the discussion of ethics in children’s literature in times when children were seen as passive recipients of ideas.
The second part of the book, Ethical Themes in Classics and Contemporary Texts, is by far the longest and the most varied one. The first three essays address some not much discussed ethical problems appearing in classical children’s text. Emmanuelle Burton’s praiseworthy effort to validate the underappreciated Prince Caspian contains a nuanced presentation of moral discernment. The concreteness of the circumstances in which one has to make moral decisions is foregrounded not only in Burton’s essay but also in Mary Jeanette Moran’s discussion of embracing the evil Other in Madeleine L’Engle’s fiction. Finally, Bakhtinian “ethics of the ordinary” (89) is discussed by Niall Nance-Carroll in reference to the Winnie-the-Pooh books. The following two essays, by Jani L. Barker and Andrea Mei-Ying Wu, are focused on the presentation of children as “virtuous transgressors” (Barker 106). Whereas Barker constructs her argument around well-known modern Anglophone classics (e.g. Holes [1997], Harry Potter [1997-2007]), Andrea Mei-Ying Wu provides a detailed account of a similar trend in Taiwanese juvenile fiction of the 1960s (e.g. Bing-Ying Xie’s Lin Lin [1966]). In contrast to the previous part, all of the articles present the main heroes as active moral agents, which indicates that child-readers themselves can be perceived in the same manner.
The third part, Ethical Criticism in Children’s Literature, comprises three articles discussing how children’s moral attitudes are shaped by stories that offer them very concrete, though veiled, perspectives on such issues as motherhood, race, war, or social prejudices for example towards certain professions. Lisa Rowe Fraustino looks into the implications of anthropomorphization in picture books like The Giving Tree (1964) by Shel Silverstein and The Rainbow Fish (1992) by Marcus Pfister, deconstructing veiled anti-feminist and racist messages with the use of the conceptual metaphor. Suzanne Rahn attempts to show the superiority of J.R.R. Tolkien over C.S. Lewis in the complexity of the portrayal of wars (based on their fantasy works as well as their non-fiction), pointing out that the attitudes learnt from their fantasy classics may be carried on to the reality of adult warfare, leading to the one-sided validation of violence. Claudia Mills’s chapter shows how books written with an explicit didactic purpose, such as The Janitor’s Boy (2000) by Andrew Clements or Just Call Me Stupid (1993) by Tom Birdseye, run the risk of inculcating the very prejudice they are striving to uproot or undermine the value they supposedly teach.
The fourth part, Ethical Responses to Children’s Literature: Identification, Recognition, Adaptation, Conversation, contains four articles. Leona W. Fisher examines the importance of the reader’s identification with the narrator for the dissemination of the author’s worldview, underlining the crucial role of first-person narratives for young adult fiction. The essay is followed by Ramona Caponegro’s interesting discussion of the niche Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, which singles out juvenile texts for their treatment of ethical issues. Martha Reinbolt focuses on Hunger Games (2008-2010) as a series with an overt agenda and convincingly shows the shifts in moral development of Katniss in the books as compared to the movies. Lastly, Sara Goering devotes her article to the presentation of her experience with teaching philosophy to children, particularly the question of death, which is usually considered a taboo topic.
The volume successfully brings together a variety of approaches to studying ethics in children’s literature. It conveys an important message that the quite overt manipulation to which children were subject in the past, e.g. in the segregation era, has been replaced by more subtle snares to be disentangled by critical reading. The “conversation” – and the name of Bakhtin brought up more than once – suggests the authors’ belief in the child reader’s polyphonic relation with textual, authorial and parental voices. Paradoxically, although there is a marked insistence on the child as an active agent, in the development of the conscious reading the child is still subdued to the powerful (adult) voices of authority.
If the collection leaves something to be desired, it is the significant lack of contemporary issues connected with the burgeoning bioethical and technoethical problems which are being currently undertaken by children and young adult literature. Instead of striving to show the relevance of 19th-century texts to the modern system of values, the essays could focus more on books that in fact reflect contemporary ethics. The examples on which the moral aspect of warfare is discussed (the Narnia Chronicles [1950-1956], The Hunger Games [2008-2010]), although interesting in themselves, could perhaps be replaced by books actually foregrounding the topic (e.g. Ness’s Chaos Walking [2008-2010]). Instead, the essays are limited to the problems of pedagogy, didacticism and children’s moral agency.
Of course, the concerns presented above stem largely from the vastness of possible approaches to such a broad field of study. The collection delineates many inspiring paths to take while talking about ethics in children and young adult texts. The gaps show only how fraught this type of literature is with ethical problems and leave space for future research in the field.
Anna Bugajska
Tischner European University, Poland
Technology and Identity in Young Adult Fiction: The Posthuman Subject by Victoria Flanagan. Review by Noga Applebaum.
Henry James’s Enigmas: Turning the Screw of Eternity? by Jean Perrot. Review by Beata Williamson.
Pričanja o djetinjstvu. Život priča u svakodnevnoj komunikaciji [Narratives of childhood. Life of stories in everyday communication] by Jelena Marković. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Fairy Tale and Film: Old Tales with a New Spin by Sue Short. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Children’s Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture edited by Karin Beeler and Stan Beeler. Review by Xavier Mínguez-López.
The Middle Ages in Children's Literature by Clare Bradford. Review by Sara Van den Bossche.
Ad usum Delphini. O szkolnej edukacji literackiej – dawniej i dziś [Ad usum Delphini: On literary education in schools then and now] by Dorota Michułka. Review by Krystyna Zabawa.
Educational Institutions in Horror Film: A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams by Andrew L. Grunzke. Review by Anna Arnman.
Pixar’s Boy Stories: Masculinity in a Postmodern Age by Shannon R. Wooden and Ken Gillam. Review by Mateusz Świetlicki.
U carstvu životinja. Animalističko čitanje hrvatskih dječjih časopisa [In the animal kingdom: An animalistic reading of Croatian childrenʼs magazines] by Ana Batinić. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Libri per diventare italiani. L’editoria per la scuola a Milano nel secondo Ottocento [Books that Made the Italians: Educational Publishers in Milan in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century] by Elisa Marazzi. Review by Katarzyna Biernacka-Licznar.
The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature: Essays on Stories from Grimm to Gaiman edited by Joseph Abbruscato and Tanya Jones. Review by Terri Doughty.
Marvelous Transformations: An Anthology of Fairy Tales and Contemporary Critical Perspectives edited by Christine A. Jones and Jennifer Schacker. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales by Ann Schmiesing. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
British Children’s Poetry in the Romantic Era: Verse, Riddle, and Rhyme by Donelle Ruwe. Review by Morag Styles.
Colonial Girlhood in Literature, Culture and History, 1840-1950 edited by Kristine Moruzi and Michelle J. Smith. Review by Blanka Grzegorczyk.
Children’s Games in the New Media Age: Childlore, Media and the Playground edited by Andrew Burn and Chris Richards. Review by Richard Shakeshaft.
Gospođi Alisinoj desnoj nozi. [Alice’s right foot] by Ljiljana Pešikan Ljuštanović. Review by Ivana Mijić Nemet.
The Middle Ages in Children’s Literature by Clare Bradford. Review by Ashley N. Reese.
Prstenovi koji se šire: junačka potraga u djelima J. R. R. Tolkiena [Widening rings: heroic quest in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien] by Petra Mrduljaš Doležal. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Child Saviours in English Fantasy Fiction for Children and Young Adults by Anne Klaus. Review by Catherine Posey.
Channeling Wonder: Fairy Tales on Television edited by Pauline Greenhill and Jill Terry Rudy. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Literary Conceptualizations of Growth: Metaphors and Cognition in Adolescent Literature by Roberta Seelinger Trites. Review by Marek Oziewicz.
Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children’s Literature edited by Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris. Review by Susan Tan.
American Environmental Fiction, 1782-1847 by Matthew Wynn Sivils. Review by Lydia Kokkola.
Fantasy and the Real World in British Children’s Literature: The Power of Story by Caroline Webb. Review by Karyn Huenemann.
Modern Children’s Literature: An Introduction edited by Catherine Butler and Kimberley Reynolds. Review by Valerie Coghlan.
Discourses of Postcolonialism in Contemporary British Children’s Literature by Blanka Grzegorczyk. Review by Yasmine Motawy.
Virginity in Young Adult Literature After Twilight by Christine Seifert. Review by Lydia Kokkola.
Ethics and Children’s Literature edited by Claudia Mills. Review by Anna Bugajska.
Researching Literacy Lives: Building Communities between Home and School by Teresa Cremin, Marilyn Mottram, Fiona M. Collins, Sacha Powell, and Rose Drury. Review by Sara K. Sterner.
Potjehovi hologrami. Studije, eseji i kritike iz književnosti za djecu i mladež. [Holograms of Quest: articles, essays and reviews of children’s and young adult literature] by Diana Zalar. Review by Nada Kujundžić.
Picturebooks: Representation and Narration edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer. Review by Betsie van der Westhuizen.
Audacious Kids: The Classic American Children’s Story by Jerry Griswold. Review by Taraneh Matloob.
Fictions of Adolescent Carnality: Sexy Sinners and Devious Delinquents by Lydia Kokkola. Review by Victoria Flanagan.
Children’s Literature and Learner Empowerment: Children and Teenagers in English Language Education by Janice Bland. Review by Victoria de Rijke.
