Children's literature is increasingly exposed to critical debate in England and America. There are indeed a number of histories and surveys of children's literature, but few works exist which discuss the contexts, ideologies and narrative structures of children's stories in a serious and detailed manner, or examine particular case-histories to see how the different forces interact. This is what this collection of essays attempts to do. The topics range from Little Women to Winnie the Pooh and from story forms such as 'The Adventure Story' to 'Fantasy'.