Focussing on the major literary movements from Romanticism to Postmodernism, Thacker and Webb examine the concerns of each period and the ways in which these concerns influence and are influenced by children's literature.

Preface and Introduction Section One: Romanticism: 1. Imagining the Child 2. The King of the Golden River 3. Closing the garret door: a feminist reading of Little Women Section Two: Nineteenth-Century Literature: 4. Victorianism, Empire and the Paternal Voice 5. Reality and Enigma in The Water-Babies 6. Alice as Subject in the Logic of WonderlandSection Three: The Fin de Siecle 7. Testing Boundaries 8. The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz: Pleasure without Nightmares 9. Romanticism vs Empire in The Secret GardenSection Four: Modernism 10. New Voices, New Threats 11. Connecting with Mary Poppins 12. Spinning the Word: Charlotte's Web 13. Real or Story?: The BorrowersSection Five: Postmodernism: 14. Playful Subversion 15. Clockwork, A Fairy tale for a postmodern time 16. a postmodern reflection of the genre of fairy tale: The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales Bibliography