Abstract
Central issues represented in four recent Norwegian books for children are children's resistance to step-parents, children's attempts to cope with family violence, and inverted relationships where children take responsibility for mentally unstable parents. The literary texts I have chosen as examples are three novels: Ingeborg Arvola's Blod, snørr og tårer (2000) (Blood, Snot and Tears); Kristin A. Sandberg's Verdens ondeste stemor (2004) (The World's Worst Stepmother); Endre Lund Eriksen's Pitbull-Terje går amok (2002) (Pitbull Terrier Runs Amok); and Gro Dahle and Svein Nyhus's picture book Sinna mann (2003) (Angry Man) My aim in this article is to explore how problems and survival strategies of children in troubled families are described and developed in these texts, and what stylistic devices and narrative techniques are employed. My analysis of the representations of nerves, violence and step-parents in four children's books draws on arguments from theories about philosophy and literature in general, children's literature, narrative analysis and attachment theories in child psychology.
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