1st Edition

Sticks and Stones The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter

By Jack Zipes Copyright 2001
    228 Pages 2 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    240 Pages 2 Color Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Have children ever really had a literature of their own? In Sticks and Stones , Jack Zipes explores children's literature, from the grissly moralism of Slovenly Peter to the hugely successful Harry Potter books, and argues that despite common assumptions about children's books, our investment in children is paradoxically curtailing their freedom and creativity. Sticks and Stones is a forthright and engaging book by someone who cares deeply about what and how children read.

    Chapter 1 The Cultural Homogenization of American Children; Chapter 2 Do You Know What We Are Doing to Your Books?; Chapter 3 Why Children's Literature Does Not Exist; Chapter 4 The Value of Evaluating the Value of Children's Literature; Chapter 5 Wanda Gág's Americanization of the Grimms' Fairy Tales; Chapter 6 The Contamination of the Fairy Tale; Chapter 7 The Wisdom and Folly of Storytelling; Chapter 8 The Perverse Delight of Shockheaded Peter; Chapter 9 The Phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why All the Talk?;

    Biography

    Jack Zipes is Professor of German at the University of Minnesota. Among his many publications are Don't Bet on the Prince (Routledge), Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (Bantam), and most recently the Oxford Companion to the Fairy Tale.

    "If [Zipes'] scholarship could be spread over several curricule vitae, the breadth and quality of it could certainly bring tenure to three or four scholars." -- Donald R. Hettinga