Research Catalog

Fantasy and the real world in British children's literature : the power of story

Title
Fantasy and the real world in British children's literature : the power of story / Caroline Webb.
Author
Webb, Caroline, 1961-
Publication
New York, NY : Routledge, 2015.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Book/TextUse in library JFE 15-16Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Series Statement
Children's literature and culture
Uniform Title
Children's literature and culture.
Subject
  • Children's literature, English > History and criticism
  • Fantasy fiction, English > History and criticism
  • Narration (Rhetoric)
  • Reality in literature
  • Storytelling in literature
  • Rowling, J. K. > Criticism and interpretation
  • Jones, Diana Wynne > Criticism and interpretation
  • Pratchett, Terry > Criticism and interpretation
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Call Number
JFE 15-16
ISBN
  • 9780415722711 (hardback)
  • 0415722713 (hardback)
LCCN
2014015791
OCLC
YBP 2014015791
Author
Webb, Caroline, 1961- author.
Title
Fantasy and the real world in British children's literature : the power of story / Caroline Webb.
Publisher
New York, NY : Routledge, 2015.
Description
xi, 163 pages ; 24 cm.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Series
Children's literature and culture
Children's literature and culture.
Summary
"This study examines the children's books of three extraordinary British writers - J.K. Rowling, Diana Wynne Jones, and Terry Pratchett - and investigates their sophisticated use of narrative strategies not only to engage children in reading, but to educate them into becoming mature readers and indeed individuals. The book demonstrates how in quite different ways these writers establish reader expectations by drawing on conventions in existing genres only to subvert those expectations. Their strategies lead young readers to evaluate for themselves both the power of story to shape our understanding of the world and to develop a sense of identity and agency. Rowling, Jones, and Pratchett provide their readers with fantasies that are pleasurable and imaginative, but far from encouraging escape from reality, they convey important lessons about the complexities and challenges of the real world - and how these may be faced and solved. All three writers deploy the tropes and imaginative possibilities of fantasy to disturb, challenge, and enlarge the world of their readers"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Research Call Number
JFE 15-16
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