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"Exploring the ethical questions posed by, in, and about children's literature, this collection examines the way texts intended for children raise questions of value, depict the moral development of their characters, and call into attention shared moral presuppositions. Even as children's literature has evolved in opposition to its origins in didactic Sunday school tracts and moralizing fables, authors, parents, librarians, and scholars remain sensitive to the values conveyed to children through the texts they choose to share with them" --
List of contents
Introduction
Part I The Dilemma of Didacticism: Attempts to Shape Children as Moral Beings
1 Transmitting Ethics through Books of Golden Deeds for Children Claudia Nelson
2 Sermonizing in New York: The Children's Magazines of Mary Mapes Dodge and Jose Marti Emma Adelaida Otheguy
3 Talking to Children about Race: Children's Literature in a Segregated Era, 1930-1945 Moira Hinderer
Part II Ethical Themes in Classic and Contemporary Texts
4 Discernment and the Moral Life in Prince Caspian and the Later Narnia Chronicles Emanuelle Burton
5 Making a Difference: Ethical Recognition through Otherness in Madelein L'Engle's Fiction Mary Jeanette Moran
6 A Prosaics of the Hundred Acre Wood: Ethics in A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner Niall Nance-Carroll
7 Virtuous Transgressors, Not Moral Saints: Protagonists in Contemporary Children's Literature Jani L. Barker
8 Model Children, Little Rebels, and Moral Transgressors: Virtuous Childhood Images in Taiwanese Juvenile Fiction in the 1960s Andrea Mei-Ying Wu
Part III Ethical Criticism of Children's Literature
9 The Rights and Wrongs of Anthropomorphism in Picture Books Lisa Rowe Fraustino
10 Lewis, Tolkien, and the Ethics of Imaginary Wars Suzanne Rahn
11 Heeding Rousseau's Advice: Some Ethical Reservations about Addressing Prejudice through Children's Literature Claudia Mills
Part IV Ethical Responses to Children's Literature: Identification, Recognition, Adaptation, Conversation
12 The Ethics of Reading Narrative Voice: An Anti-Bakhtinian View Leona W. Fisher
13 Prizing Social Justice: The Jane Addams Children's Book Award Ramona Caponegro
14 Katniss Everdeen's Emerging Moral Consciousness in The Hunger Games Martha Rainbolt
15 Using Children's Literature as a Spark for Ethical Discussion: Stories that Deal with Death Sara Goering
About the author
Claudia Mills is Associate Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. She is the author of many books for children, most recently Zero Tolerance (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).
Summary
Exploring the ethical questions posed by, in, and about children's literature, this collection examines the way texts intended for children raise questions of value, depict the moral development of their characters, and call into attention shared moral presuppositions.
