The Courage to Imagine: The Child Hero in Children's Literature

by Roni Natov

Overview

The act of imagining lies at the very heart of children's engagements with literature and with the plots and characters they encounter in their favorite stories. The Courage to Imagine is a landmark new study of that fundamental act of imagining. Roni Natov focuses on the ways in which children's imaginative engagement with the child hero figure can open them up to other people's experiences, developing empathy across lines of race, gender and sexuality, as well as helping them to confront and handle traumatic experience safely. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical approaches from the psychological to the cultural and reading a multicultural spectrum of authors, including works by Maya Angelou, Louise Erdrich, Neil Gaiman and Brian Selznick, this is a groundbreaking examination of the nature of imagining for children and re-imagining for the adult writer and illustrator.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474221238
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/30/2017
Series:	Bloomsbury Perspectives on Children's Literature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Roni Natov is Professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, USA. A multi-award winning teacher and scholar, she is the founding editor of The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children's Literature and her previous publications include The Poetics of Childhood (2005).
Roni Natov is Professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, USA. A multi-award winning teacher and scholar, she is the founding editor of The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children's Literature and her previous publications include The Poetics of Childhood (2005).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Landscapes of Childhood
Pastoral: the forest, the sky, and the river
Internal Landscapes, Private Spaces

2. The Construction of the Creative Child

3. The Freedom to Imagine: Childhood Creativity and Socialization in the Work of William Steig

4. Imagining Difference and Diversity
The Picture Book and Life Story
Difference and the Species
The Young Adult Novel and the Cultural “Other”

5. Re-Imagining Fear and Trauma
Bearing Witness
Art, Creativity, and Agency
Fear and Denial
The Role of Nature in Healing from Sexual Trauma
The Trauma of Death: the Ultimate Loss
Contextualizing Trauma: Beyond Individual Trauma
- The Culture of Bullying
- The Culture of Racism
- The Culture of Domestic Violence

6. New Heroes: New Visions of Childhood
Setting the Stage: Alice, Jim Hawkins, Huck, and Dorothy
New Heroes:
- Girl Power: Pippi and Matilda
- Children's Ways of Knowing: Louise Erdrich's Historical Fiction
- The Child Writer Hero: Mina
- Challenging Political and Social Institutions: King Matt and Totto-Chan
- Stories of Community: a New Heroic

7. Imagine Empathy: Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

8. New Ways of Imagining the Picture Book: States of Mind, States of Feeling
Shaun Tan
Brian Selznick
Peter Sis

Epilogue: Surviving Childhood

Notes
Works Consulted
Permissions
Index

Editorial Reviews

Natov pulls from a variety of children's and young adult books, including Dahl's Matilda, Myers' Monster, and Selznick's The Inventions of Hugo Cabret, to explore how diversity and difference, trauma, empathy, politics, and identity in literature can encourage young readers to engage with experiences both similar to and different from their own.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

“[A]ttractive and enjoyable both for professional and non-professional readers.” —International Research in Children's Literature

“Roni Natov's The Courage to Imagine: The Child Hero in Children's Literature is a splendid study of the vital role imagination plays in contemporary international children's literature. Given the vast socio-political changes in childhood that often create anxiety and ambiguity, Natov argues that children need a serious literature that will encourage them to become self-reliant and hopeful. It is from the imaginative stories of such authors as David Almond, Julius Lester, Louise Erdrich, Walter Dean Myers, Kate DiCamillo and such illustrators as Shaun Tan, Brian Selznick, and Peter Sis that Natov points to alternative ways about heroic action that can serve as models for young readers. Her book is an engaging defense of the potential of the imagination to transform the lives of children.” —Jack Zipes, Professor, University of Minnesota, USA

“An illuminating look at how children's literature emboldens children to imagine, and thereby to embrace complexity, diversity, and challenge. A timely account of how and why children's books matter, recommended for specialists and nonspecialists alike.” —Kenneth Kidd, Professor of English, University of Florida, USA

“The Courage to Imagine takes an original focus on children's creativity as it is reflected in books for the young. It offers a unique blend of literary analysis with personal stories and touches of creative writing. The entire book breathes a love of children, art and literature and shows convincingly how creativity can give agency and hope to child characters and young readers.” —Vanessa Joosen, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Antwerp, Belgium

From the Publisher