This practical guide provides a comprehensive and invitingintroduction to English-language children's literature from theeighteenth-century to 2000.br br The book opens with a discussion of the often controversial theoryand history of this influential and entertaining subject, andexplores the ways in which it can be approached.br br The Guide includes br br Detailed critical surveys of the work of forty major authors, from Mrs Sherwood to J. K. Rowling, Louisa May Alcott to Dr Seuss, Mary Grant Bruce to Margaret Mahy, and Quentin Blake to TedHughes.br br Studies of over twenty key texts, placing each in its historicaland generic context books include the pioneering A Little PrettyPocket Book 1744, classics such as Tom Brown's Schooldays, TheAdventures of Tom Sawyer, and Seven Little Australians, modernclassics from The Hobbit and C. S. Lewis's 'Narnia' books, toCharlotte's Web and Harriet the Spy, as well as influentialtranslations, such as Emil and the Detectives.br br Discussion o