The Crossover Novel
Contemporary Children's Fiction and Its Adult Readership
Published on 21. October 2008
280 pages
978-1-135-86501-6 (ISBN)
Description
"Highly recommended" by Choice
While crossover books such as Rowling's Harry Potter series have enjoyed enormous sales and media attention, critical analysis of crossover fiction has not kept pace with the growing popularity of this new category of writing and reading. Falconer remedies this lack with close readings of six major British works of crossover fiction, and a wide-ranging analysis of the social and cultural implications of the global crossover phenomenon. A uniquely in-depth study of the crossover novel, Falconer engages with a ground-breaking range of sources, from primary texts, to child and adult reader responses, to cultural and critical theory.
While crossover books such as Rowling's Harry Potter series have enjoyed enormous sales and media attention, critical analysis of crossover fiction has not kept pace with the growing popularity of this new category of writing and reading. Falconer remedies this lack with close readings of six major British works of crossover fiction, and a wide-ranging analysis of the social and cultural implications of the global crossover phenomenon. A uniquely in-depth study of the crossover novel, Falconer engages with a ground-breaking range of sources, from primary texts, to child and adult reader responses, to cultural and critical theory.
Reviews / Votes
"Well written and documented, this accessible volume, with its extensive bibliography, will be valuable for those interested in children's literature - highly recommended" -- Choice, March 2009"The Crossover Novel is an exhaustively researched and deeply theoretical approach to the phenomenon of crossover literature...provides an excellent groundwork for further study in this arena of children's literature."
-- Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Summer 2009, Vol. 34, No. 2
"[Falconer] seems genuinely interested in getting to the heart of profound questions of readership....What makes Falconer's book so strong is that, although she may invoke her voracious child-reader self, she doesn't settle for easy answers." --The Lion and the Unicorn 33 (2009) '... Detailed understanding of the crossover phenonmenon... astute associations between Calvino and Freud... dizzying array of scholarship... The Crossover Novel is an exhaustively researched and deeply theoretical approach to the phenomenon of crossover literature in which Falconer undoubtedly draws on her own background in classical and contemporary theory... highly applicable to numerous areas of scholarship... provides an excellent groundwork for further study.' - Children's Literature Association Quarterly
'Falconer's book provides a very strong and very interesting discussion of why crossover fiction has become so popular in the recent decade... What makes Falconer's book so strong is that, although she may invoke her voracious child-reader self, she doesn't settle for easy answers... genuinely interested in getting to the heart of profound questions of readership, best illustrated in her self-reflective discussion of The Silver Chair... convincingly elucidates how th[e] child's gaze is not simply a traditionally innocent one, but a complex one... It will be Falconer's [book] that ultimately enriches the critical field.' - The Lion and the Unicorn
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
File size
3,58 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-135-86501-6 (9781135865016)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
12/2009
1st Edition
Routledge
€73.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Book
08/2008
1st Edition
Routledge
€232.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Rachel Falconer is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Sheffield. She has published criticism in the areas of classical, early modern, and contemporary literature and narrative theory. Her recent books include Hell in Contemporary Literature, and Face to Face: Mikhail Bakhtin in Russia and the West.
Content
Series Editor's Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction A Decade of Border Crossing
Chapter 1 Kiddults at Large
Chapter 2 Harry Potter, Lightness and Death
Chapter 3 Coming of Age in a Fantasy World:
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials
Chapter 4 Seeing Things Big:
Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Chapter 5 Adolescence and Abjection:
Geraldine McCaughrean's The White Darkness
Chapter 6 The Search for Roots:
David Almond's Clay
Chapter 7 Re-reading Childhood Books:
C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair
Conclusion Crossing Thresholds of Time
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction A Decade of Border Crossing
Chapter 1 Kiddults at Large
Chapter 2 Harry Potter, Lightness and Death
Chapter 3 Coming of Age in a Fantasy World:
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials
Chapter 4 Seeing Things Big:
Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Chapter 5 Adolescence and Abjection:
Geraldine McCaughrean's The White Darkness
Chapter 6 The Search for Roots:
David Almond's Clay
Chapter 7 Re-reading Childhood Books:
C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair
Conclusion Crossing Thresholds of Time
Notes
Bibliography
Index
