Abstract
The myth of home is what distinguishes children’s literature from adult novels (Wolf 1990). Nodelman and Reimer (The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, 2003) write that while “the home/away/home pattern is the most common story line in children’s literature, adult fiction that deals with young people who leave home usually ends with the child choosing to stay away” (pp. 197–198). In a critical content analysis of recent award-winning middle reader novels from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, a new pattern was observed. This pattern, called a postmodern metaplot, begins with the child being abandoned, rather than the child leaving the home. The child’s journey is to construct a home within a postmodern milieu complete with competing truths and failed adults. Ultimately, the child’s postmodern journey ends with very modern ideal of the child leading the adults to a hopeful ending, a home. The article explores the changing roles of childhood and adulthood in children’s literature and questions if the mythology of home can be undone.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avi. (2004). Crispin: Cross of Lead. New York: Hyperion.
Bates, Laura R. (2007). “Sweet Sorrow”: The Universal Theme of Separation in Folklore and Children’s Literature. The Lion and the Unicorn, 31(1), 48–64.
Baum, L. Frank. (1900). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Chicago: George M. Hill.
Beach, Richard, Enciso, Patricia, Harste, Jerome, Jenkins, Christine, Raina, Seemi Aziz, Rogers, Rebecca, Short, Kathy G., Sung, Yoo Kyung, Wilson, Melissa Beth, & Yenika-Agbaw, Vivian. (2009). Exploring the “Critical” in Critical Content Analysis of Children’s Literature. In Kevin Leander, Deborah Rowe, David Dickinson, Melanie Hundley, Robert Jimenez, & Vicki Risko (Eds.), 58th Yearbook of the National Reading Council (pp. 129–143). Oak Creek, WI: National Reading Conference.
Boyce, Frank Cottrell. (2004). Millions. New York: HarperCollins.
Cannella, Gaile Slone. (2002). Deconstructing Early Childhood Education: Social Justice and Revolution. New York: Peter Lang.
Carroll, Lewis. (1865). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. New York: Macmillan.
Chappell, Drew. (2008). Sneaking Out after Dark: Resistance, Agency, and the Postmodern Child in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series. Children’s Literature in Education, 39, 281–293.
Clark, Dorothy G. (2001). Edging Toward Bethlehem: Rewriting the Myth of Childhood in Voigt’s Homecoming. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 25(4), 191–202.
Coats, Karen S. (2001). Keepin’ It Plural: Children’s Studies in the Academy. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 26(3), 140–150.
Cook, Timothy E. (1985). The Newbery Award as Political Education: Children’s Literature and Cultural Reproduction. Polity, 17(3), 421–445.
Coontz, Stephanie. (1992). The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap. New York: Basic Books.
Creech, Sharon. (2002). Ruby Holler. New York: Harper Trophy.
Dewey, John. (1938). Experience and Education. New York: Simon and Schuster.
DiCamillo, Kate. (2006). The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, and a Spool of Thread. New York: Candlewick.
Fensham, Elizabeth. (2005). Helicopter Man. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Galbraith, Mary. (2001). Hear My Cry: A Manifesto for an Emancipatory Approach to Children’s Literature. The Lion and the Unicorn, 25(2), 187–205.
Hollindale, Peter. (1997). Signs of Childness in Children’s Books. London: Thimble Press.
Hunt, Peter. (1992). Ideology and the Children’s Book. In Peter Hunt (Ed.), Literature for Children: Contemporary Criticism (pp. 18–40). Routledge: New York.
Hunt, Peter. (2004). Children’s Literature and Childhood. In Mary Jane Kehily (Ed.), An Introduction to Childhood Studies (pp. 39–58). London: Open University Press.
Kehily, Mary Jane (Ed.). (2004). An Introduction to Childhood Studies. London: Open University Press.
Kidd, Kenneth. (2007). Prizing Children’s Literature: The Case for Newbery Gold. Children’s Literature, 35, 166–190.
Kincheloe, Joe L. (1997). The Advent of the Postmodern Child. In Shirley R. Steinberg and Joe L. Kincheloe (Eds.), Kid-Culture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood (pp. 31–52). New York: Westview.
Kokkola, Lydia. (2003). Representing the Holocaust in Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge.
Marcus, Leonard S. (2008). Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs and the Shaping of American Children’s Literature. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
McCallum, Robyn, & Stephens, John. (2010). Ideology and Children’s books. In Shelby Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso, & Christine Jenkins (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature (pp. 359–371). New York: Routledge.
McDowell, Kelly. (2002). Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: A Culturally Specific, Subversive Concept of Child Agency. Children’s Literature in Education, 33(3), 213–225.
Mills, Sara. (1997). Discourse. London: Routledge.
Nikolajeva, Maria. (2005). Aesthetic Approaches to Children s Literature: An Introduction. Toronto: Scarecrow Press.
Nodelman, Perry. (2000). Pleasure and Genre: Speculations on the Characteristics of Children’s Fiction. Children’s Literature, 28, 1–14.
Nodelman, Perry. (2008). The Hidden Adult: Defining Children’s Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Nodelman, Perry, & Reimer, Mavis. (2003). The Pleasures of Children’s Literature (3rd ed.). New York: Allyn and Bacon.
Novinger, Sue, & Compton-Lilly, Catherine. (2005). Telling Our Stories: Speaking Truth to Power. Language Arts, 82(3), 195–203.
Patron, Susan. (2006). The Higher Power of Lucky. New York: Atheneum Books.
Sendak, Maurice. (1988). Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper Collins.
Tatar, Maria. (1992). Off with Their Heads: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Travisano, Thomas. (2000). Of Dialectic and Divided Consciousness: Intersections between Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies. Children’s Literature, 28, 22–29.
Vanderpool, Clare. (2010). Moon over Manifest. New York: Delacorte.
Vinson, Kevin D., & Ross, E. Wayne. (2003). Image and Education: Teaching in the Face of the New Disciplinarity. New York: Peter Lang.
Walkerdine, Valerie. (2004). Developmental Psychology and the Study of Childhood. In Mary Jane Kehily (Ed.), An Introduction to Childhood Studies (pp. 96–107). London: Open University Press.
Wilkinson, Carole. (2003). Dragon Keeper. New York: Hyperion Books.
Wilson, Melissa Beth. (2009). Constructions of Childhood Found in Award-Winning Children’s Literature. Doctoral Dissertation. Retrieved from ProQuest Disserations and Theses (Accession Order No. ATT 3369209).
Wolf, Virginia L. (1990). From the Myth to the Wake of Home: Literary Houses. Children’s Literature, 18, 53–67.
Zornado, Joseph L. (2001). Inventing the Child: Culture, Ideology, and the Story of Childhood. New York: Garland Publishing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Melissa B. Wilson is a lecturer at the University of the West Indies in Barbados. Her research areas include investigating the constructions of childhood found in children’s literature, evaluating international Holocaust literature for children, and developing the emerging methodology called critical content analysis. She has presented at many international conferences and has published in Voices from the Middle, WOW Review, and the National Reading Conference Handbook.
Kathy G. Short is a professor at the University of Arizona. Her work has focused on global literature, literature circles, curriculum as inquiry, and collaborative learning environments for teachers and children. She is a professor in the program of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona and has worked extensively with teachers to develop curriculum that actively involves students as readers and inquirers. She has co-authored many books, including Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers, Learning Together through Inquiry, Literature as a Way of Knowing, Talking about Books, Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children’s Literature, and Essentials of Children’s Literature. She is director of Worlds of Words (wowlit.org), an initiative to build bridges across global cultures through children’s literature and is President of the U.S. national section of IBBY, the International Board of Books for Young People (www.ussby.org).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wilson, M.B., Short, K.G. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Challenging the Mythology of Home in Children’s Literature. Child Lit Educ 43, 129–144 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-011-9138-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-011-9138-z