Even with advances in technology challenging our understanding of texts and literacy, we continue to expect books to be the main source of children's reading. This text considers the multiple images of children as readers within children's literature in English and brings together a group of distinguished children's literature scholars, literacy and media specialists to explore how this portrayal reflects the power and purpose of texts and literacy.

Part One: Reading for life: How do books shape the readers we become? 1. "Everybody knew that books were dangerous": Cognitive and affective responses to representation of books and reading 2. Taken as Read: Readers in Books and the Importance of Reading, 1744-2003 3. All for Love: The relationship between love-stories and reading as a cultural activity Part Two: Reading and its consequences: How dangerous is reading? 4. Spellbinding Books in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction 5. Of Readers and Vermin: The consequences of literacy for 'parasites' 6. The Forbidden Word: Readers in dystopia 7. Reading as Protection and Enlightenment in Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief Part Three: Reading in new ways: Who's in control? 8. 'What Else Can This Book Do?' Picturebooks as stage sets for acts of reading 9. Reading fictions and lessons in meaning-making in the digital age 10. Readers' perceptions of a writer: Jacqueline Wilson's persona and her relationship with her readers 11. "This is my show!" Beyond reading to envisioning and enacting