Children's literature has recently produced a body of criticism with a highly distinctive voice. The book consolidates understanding of this area by including some of the most important essays published in the field in the last five years, demonstrating the links between literary criticism, education, psychology, history and scientific theory. It includes Peter Hollindale's award- winning essay on Ideology and Children's Literature, topics from metafiction and post-modernism to fractal geometry, and the examination of texts ranging from picture books to The Wizard of Oz and the the Australian classic Midnite. Sources are as disparate as Signal and the Children's Literature Association Quarterly, and the international community is represented by writers from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and Germany. Each essay is set in its critical context by extensive quotation from authoritative articles.