ebook9781135858568d4325

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From the trials of families experiencing divorce, as in Anne Fine‚Äôs Madame Doubtfire, to the childcare problems highlighted in Jacqueline Wilson‚Äôs Tracy Beaker, it might seem that the traditional family and the ideals that accompany it have long vanished. However, in The Family in English Children‚Äôs Literature, Ann Alston argues that this is far from the case. She suggests that despite the tales of family woe portrayed in children‚Äôs literature, the desire for the happy, contented nuclear family remains inherent within the ideological subtexts of children‚Äôs literature. Using 1818 as a starting point, Alston investigates families in children‚Äôs literature at their most intimate, focusing on how they share their spaces, their ideals of home, and even on what they eat for dinner. What emerges from Alston‚Äôs study are not so much the contrasts that exist between periods, but rather the startling similarities of the ideology of family intrinsic to children‚Äôs literature. The Family in English Children‚Äôs Literature sheds light on who maintains control, who behaves, and how significant children‚Äôs literature is in shaping our ideas about what makes a family “good.”