Beverly Lyon Clark (1948–2021)

Clark's study is a cultural history of the reception of children's literature in America from about 1850 to the present. It does not really discuss the themes of children's books or the way they were received by readers; rather, Clark focuses on how the literary establishment of book reviewers, librarians, academicians, and cultural critics have discussed, deified, or dismissed certain children's books from Little Lord Fauntleroy to Harry Potter. (Fascinatingly, this book was published in show more 2003, therefore probably written around 2001, and at that time the author notes there were only 10 published scholarly essays on Rowling's work!)

The book is quite interesting, but it wasn't really what I was expecting. The main argument is that the markets for adult and juvenile fiction used to be more intertwined but that the modernist literary elite and their offshoots worked hard starting around 1900 to segregate adult and juvenile fiction for a variety of reasons having to do with form, gender, popularity, etc. This argument is interesting and I think was made convincingly as regards the 20th century.

Fortunately for those who find value in children's fiction, the decade since this book was published has seen the reverse of that trend. Reading children's and YA fiction is no longer seen as a badge of arrested development, and the great value, depth, and morality of the best "kiddie lit" is discussed in academic, popular, and literary circles. There are still many guardians of culture who think adults should be "ashamed" to read such books, and yes, there's probably a lot of junk written for kids. But after reading through this book, it was sort of vindicating to think that many of the attitudes Clark writes about now, perhaps, lie in the past. show less

Specifically, 4½**** to the Norton Critical Edition, although the novel itself is probably 5*****. One of the NCE articles (Hendler, "Masculinity and the Logic of Sympathy") is far too theoretical; and Gannon's article on the True Williams illustrations, though interesting, is too difficult to follow without the illustrations themselves. But Revard's article on the racism of Tom Sawyer (no, not as to Blacks, but as to the character of Injun Joe) is particularly illuminating, and the other show more articles are all quite good. Hence 4½****, because with an NCE the value of the book is more the supplementary material than the otherwise easily available main text. show less