Mystery in children’s literature

Mystery in children’s literature -from the rational to the supernatural
The first book to assess critically mystery in children's literature, this collection charts a development from religious mystery through rationally solved detective fictions to insoluble supernatural and horror mysteries. Written by internationally recognised scholars in the field, these thirteen original essays offer challenging and innovative readings of both classic and popular mysteries for children. This volume will be essential and stimulating reading for anyone with an interest in children's literature or in mystery fiction.
Contents:
Notes on the Contributors
Mystery in Children's Literature from the Rational to the Supernatural: An Introduction; A.E.Gavin & C.Routledge
'so great and beautiful that I cannot write them': Religious Mystery and Children's Literature; P.Pinsent
Nancy's Ancestors: The Mystery of Imaginative Female Power in The Secret Garden and A Little Princess; M.J.Moran
The Juvenile Detective and Social Class: Mark Twain, Scouting for Girls, and the Nancy Drew Mysteries; T.Boone
Children's Detective Fiction and the 'Perfect Crime' of Adulthood; C.Routledge
Digging up the Family Plot: Secrets, Mystery, and the Blytonesque; D.Rudd
Plotting the Past: The Detective as Historian in the Novels of Philippa Pearce; V.Krips
The Secret Development of a Girl Writer: Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy; R.A.Morris
Apparition and Apprehension: Emergent Womanhood and Supernatural Mystery in Novels for Children by Women Writers; A.E.Gavin
Possessed by the Beast: Subjectivity and Agency in Pictures in the Dark and Foxspell; C.Bradford
'There are Worse Things than Ghosts': Reworking Horror Chronotopes in Australian Children's Fiction; J.Stephens & R.McCallum
The Mysteries of Postmodern Epistemology: Stratemeyer, Stine, and Contemporary Mystery for Children; K.Coats
Harry Potter and the Mystery of Ordinary Life; C.Routledge
Enigma's Variation: The Puzzling Mysteries of Avi, Ellen Raskin, Diana Wynne Jones, and Chris Van Allsburg; A.E.Gavin
Index
Author Biographies:
ADRIENNE GAVIN is Senior Lecturer in English at Canterbury Christ Church University College, Kent. She has written entries on a number of children's writers for The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English.
CHRISTOPHER ROUTLEDGE is a full-time writer who has previously taught English and American literature, including children's literature, at several UK universities and colleges. He has published articles on detective fiction and popular culture topics and has written on education issues for The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.
Printing of the book is limited to 10 pages per day.

Nyckelord: children's stories, criticism, english fiction, detective stories, mystery stories, rationalism, American fiction, 20th century, horror tales