Introduction: A Is for Adult: Coloring Books, Bedtime Stories, and Picture Books for Grown-Ups -- A Book for Obsolete Children : Dr. Seuss' You're Only Old Once! and the Rise of Children's Literature for Adults -- Off to Camp: Mabel Maney's The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, and Fanfiction -- Material Matters: Art Spiegelman's In The Shadow of No Towers as a Board Book -- Baby Talk: Barbara Park's MA! There's Nothing to Do Here!, Fetal Personhood, and Child Authorship -- Learning Left From Right: Goodnight Bush, Don't Let the Republican Drive the Bus!, and the Broadside Tradition -- Not Kidding Around: Go the F**k to Sleep and the New Adult Honesty about Parenthood -- Conclusion: Both Radical and Reinforcing: The Complicated Cultural Significance of Children's Literature for Adults.
Summary:
"The author analyzes what she sees as a new literary genre, emerging in the eighties, which she calls "children's literature for adults": that is, books with the visual format and verbal register of children's books but with a wry and knowing message meant for adults. The author conducts close readings of a series of books in this genre. She contends that the contemporary interest in the genre suggests that an adult's relationship with childhood may be something other than linear"-- Provided by publisher.
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