Advertisement

Children's Literature in Education

, Volume 43, Issue 2, pp 129–144 | Cite as

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Challenging the Mythology of Home in Children’s Literature

  • Melissa B. Wilson
  • Kathy G. Short
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

The myth of home is what distinguishes children’s literature from adult novels (Wolf 1990). Nodelman and Reimer (The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, 2003) write that while “the home/away/home pattern is the most common story line in children’s literature, adult fiction that deals with young people who leave home usually ends with the child choosing to stay away” (pp. 197–198). In a critical content analysis of recent award-winning middle reader novels from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, a new pattern was observed. This pattern, called a postmodern metaplot, begins with the child being abandoned, rather than the child leaving the home. The child’s journey is to construct a home within a postmodern milieu complete with competing truths and failed adults. Ultimately, the child’s postmodern journey ends with very modern ideal of the child leading the adults to a hopeful ending, a home. The article explores the changing roles of childhood and adulthood in children’s literature and questions if the mythology of home can be undone.

Keywords

Critical content analysis Postmodern childhood Plot structures Constructions of childhood Award winning middle readers Home in children’s literature 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Avi. (2004). Crispin: Cross of Lead. New York: Hyperion.Google Scholar
  2. Bates, Laura R. (2007). “Sweet Sorrow”: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature. The Lion and the Unicorn, 31(1), 48–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Baum, L. Frank. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: George M. Hill.Google Scholar
  4. Beach, Richard, Enciso, Patricia, Harste, Jerome, Jenkins, Christine, Raina, Seemi Aziz, Rogers, Rebecca, Short, Kathy G., Sung, Yoo Kyung, Wilson, Melissa Beth, & Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian. (2009). Exploring the “Critical” in Critical Content Analysis of Children’s Literature. In Kevin Leander, Deborah Rowe, David Dickinson, Melanie Hundley, Robert Jimenez, & Vicki Risko (Eds.), 58th Yearbook of the National Reading Council (pp. 129–143). Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.Google Scholar
  5. Boyce, Frank Cottrell. (2004). Millions. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
  6. Cannella, Gaile Slone. (2002). Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
  7. Carroll, Lewis. (1865). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
  8. Chappell, Drew. (2008). Sneaking Out after Dark: Resistance, Agency, and the Postmodern Child in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series. Children’s Literature in Education, 39, 281–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Clark, Dorothy G. (2001). Edging Toward Bethlehem: Rewriting the Myth of Childhood in Voigt’s Homecoming. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 25(4), 191–202.Google Scholar
  10. Coats, Karen S. (2001). Keepin’ It Plural: Children’s Studies in the Academy. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 26(3), 140–150.Google Scholar
  11. Cook, Timothy E. (1985). The Newbery Award as Political Education: Children’s Literature and Cultural Reproduction. Polity, 17(3), 421–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Coontz, Stephanie. (1992). The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
  13. Creech, Sharon. (2002). Ruby Holler. New York: Harper Trophy.Google Scholar
  14. Dewey, John. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
  15. DiCamillo, Kate. (2006). The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, and a Spool of Thread. New York: Candlewick.Google Scholar
  16. Fensham, Elizabeth. (2005). Helicopter Man. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar
  17. Galbraith, Mary. (2001). Hear My Cry: A Manifesto for an Emancipatory Approach to Children’s Literature. The Lion and the Unicorn, 25(2), 187–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Hollindale, Peter. (1997). Signs of Childness in Children’s Books. London: Thimble Press.Google Scholar
  19. Hunt, Peter. (1992). Ideology and the Children’s Book. In Peter Hunt (Ed.), Literature for Children: Contemporary Criticism (pp. 18–40). Routledge: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Hunt, Peter. (2004). Children’s Literature and Childhood. In Mary Jane Kehily (Ed.), An Introduction to Childhood Studies (pp. 39–58). London: Open University Press.Google Scholar
  21. Kehily, Mary Jane (Ed.). (2004). An Introduction to Childhood Studies. London: Open University Press.Google Scholar
  22. Kidd, Kenneth. (2007). Prizing Children’s Literature: The Case for Newbery Gold. Children’s Literature, 35, 166–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Kincheloe, Joe L. (1997). The Advent of the Postmodern Child. In Shirley R. Steinberg and Joe L. Kincheloe (Eds.), Kid-Culture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (pp. 31–52). New York: Westview.Google Scholar
  24. Kokkola, Lydia. (2003). Representing the Holocaust in Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  25. Marcus, Leonard S. (2008). Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs and the Shaping of American Children’s Literature. New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
  26. McCallum, Robyn, & Stephens, John. (2010). Ideology and Children’s books. In Shelby Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso, & Christine Jenkins (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (pp. 359–371). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  27. McDowell, Kelly. (2002). Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Culturally Specific, Subversive Concept of Child Agency. Children’s Literature in Education, 33(3), 213–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Mills, Sara. (1997). Discourse. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  29. Nikolajeva, Maria. (2005). Aesthetic Approaches to Children s Literature: An Introduction. Toronto: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
  30. Nodelman, Perry. (2000). Pleasure and Genre: Speculations on the Characteristics of Children’s Fiction. Children’s Literature, 28, 1–14.Google Scholar
  31. Nodelman, Perry. (2008). The Hidden Adult: Defining Children’s Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
  32. Nodelman, Perry, & Reimer, Mavis. (2003). The Pleasures of Children’s Literature (3rd ed.). New York: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
  33. Novinger, Sue, & Compton-Lilly, Catherine. (2005). Telling Our Stories: Speaking Truth to Power. Language Arts, 82(3), 195–203.Google Scholar
  34. Patron, Susan. (2006). The Higher Power of Lucky. New York: Atheneum Books.Google Scholar
  35. Sendak, Maurice. (1988). Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
  36. Tatar, Maria. (1992). Off with Their Heads: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
  37. Travisano, Thomas. (2000). Of Dialectic and Divided Consciousness: Intersections between Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies. Children’s Literature, 28, 22–29.Google Scholar
  38. Vanderpool, Clare. (2010). Moon over Manifest. New York: Delacorte.Google Scholar
  39. Vinson, Kevin D., & Ross, E. Wayne. (2003). Image and Education: Teaching in the Face of the New Disciplinarity. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
  40. Walkerdine, Valerie. (2004). Developmental Psychology and the Study of Childhood. In Mary Jane Kehily (Ed.), An Introduction to Childhood Studies (pp. 96–107). London: Open University Press.Google Scholar
  41. Wilkinson, Carole. (2003). Dragon Keeper. New York: Hyperion Books.Google Scholar
  42. Wilson, Melissa Beth. (2009). Constructions of Childhood Found in Award-Winning Children’s Literature. Doctoral Dissertation. Retrieved from ProQuest Disserations and Theses (Accession Order No. ATT 3369209).Google Scholar
  43. Wolf, Virginia L. (1990). From the Myth to the Wake of Home: Literary Houses. Children’s Literature, 18, 53–67.Google Scholar
  44. Zornado, Joseph L. (2001). Inventing the Child: Culture, Ideology, and the Story of Childhood. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Education, Faculty of Humanities and EducationThe University of the West IndiesBridgetownBarbados, West Indies
  2. 2.Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies, College of EducationUniversity of ArizonaTucsonUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options