Children’s and Young Adult Fiction

Abstract

Abstract This chapter argues that children’s and young adult (YA) fiction since 1940 has been a site for experimentations with form, genre, and narrative that amplify, and in some cases anticipate, what is happening in “adult fiction.” Children’s literature brings to the fore the importance of thinking about audience in the construction of literary history. The genre is both universal and sharply delineated: every adult reader was once part of its target audience, but eventually is thought to outgrow children’s literature. From picture books through YA novels, children’s literature shapes its readers’ early understanding of the world, and adult readers who return to children’s literature encounter past selves for whom reading happened with a fierce and uncritical passion. The chapter argues that US children’s literature not only performs crucial cultural work, but also challenges traditional conceptions of how and when cultural work is performed.