Textual Transformations in Children's Literature

Strengths of the work are its inclusion of genres little known to a North American audience (Indian graphic novels, Vietnamese folktales, Polish versions of Cinderella, or the Chalet School series), and its diversity of critical approaches (cultural identity, otherness, queer theory, postcolonial theory, among others). The contributors underscore how these stories help readers develop a burgeoning social consciousness. Summing Up: Recommended. - V. A. Murrenus Pilmaier, University of Wisconsin Sheboygan in CHOICE A strong collection. . . . Lefebvre has found an admirable mixture of studies situated - like the contributors themselves - in a variety of cultural contexts, and at many productive points within adaptation studies and children's literary studies. His eclectic approach celebrates the expansion of a field in the act of leaping across traditional borders. - Paul Tiessen, Wilfrid Laurier University in Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures With this volume, Lefebvre . . . provides a rich starting place for children's literature scholars to enter existing interdisciplinary discussions about how stories evolve across cultures and genres in this age of rapid globalization. . . . The essays . . . provide an introduction to translating adaptation theory into practice in new and exciting ways that can serve as models both to experienced scholars who seek to think beyond fidelity criticism and to students who are just starting to think about the implications of adaptation across history, genre, and culture. - Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Eastern Connecticut State University in Children's Literature Lefebvre focuses this collection on the various ideologies encouraged by and concealed within the cultural translations required by adaptation. Considered together, these eleven thought-provoking essays thus begin to provide a global, transformational account of the ways in which textual transformations for children must comprehend and contend with difference, marginality, borderlands, migration, alterity, and other cultural collisions. - Balaka Basu, University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Children's Literature Association Quarterly A solid and varied study on textual transformations as they relate to gender, historical context, and cultures. . . . Textual Transformations in Children's Literature is a book that represents an impressive and wide range of works, which provide a foundational and introductory framework for a conceptualization of the relationship between the text and its transformative forces. - Maria Fernandez-Lamarque, Texas A&M University-Commerce in International Research in Children's Literature The considerable intellectual creativity, freedom, and attention to diversity demonstrated in Textual Transformations opens a much-needed forum on adaptation in children's literature studies. . . . Chapter after chapter demonstrates how a clearer understanding of adaptation theory furthers our understanding of even our most familiar texts. - M. Tyler Sasser, University of Southern Mississippi in The Lion and the Unicorn Both children's literature and adaptation studies are well served by this collection. Besides providing many stimulating critical discussions, virtually every contribution in Textual Transformations is imaginative, highly informative, and well written. It is likely to inspire many a student of children's literature. - Larissa Rudova, Pomona College in The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms