Conclusion

Abstract

This book has both shown the central role that story paper reading played in the reading and cultural/social lives of working-class and lower-middle-class children, and mapped the scale of influence of the genre in terms of the business of publishing for children. The success of the story paper genre changed the nature of children’s publishing, shifting the focus to children as purchasers as well as readers, and correspondingly moving towards a diminishing of the role of parents as arbiters of reading choices. By operating a reciprocal model drawing on children’s own patterns of valuing and taking account of their interests in developing narratives and content, story paper producers were able to translate cultural capital into commercial and economic profit, restructuring the field and attracting the investment of new players, both producers and consumers.