Includes bibliographical references (p. [359]-377) and index.

1. Six texts. Different texts, same genre -- Language : the text and its shadows -- Focalization : who sees and what they know -- Desire confronts knowledge -- Home and away : essential doubleness -- Variation -- Summary -- 2. Exploring assumptions. Reading as an adult -- Making choices : exploring representativeness -- Assumptions about genre -- Genre and field -- Genre and genres -- 3. Children's literature as a genre. Defining children's literature -- No genre -- Different but not distinct -- Literature and children -- For the good of children -- Literature for boys and literature for girls -- Middle-class subjectivity -- Doubleness -- Specific markers -- About children -- The eyes of children -- Simplicity and sublimation -- The hidden adult -- Narrator and narratee -- Showing, not telling -- Happy endings -- Achieving utopia -- Binaries -- Repetition -- Variation -- A comprehensive statement -- 4. The genre in the field. Sameness and difference -- The sameness of children's literature -- Different children's literatures : the effects of personality and history -- Different children's literatures : the effects of nationality -- The genre in the field -- Distinctive texts in the genre -- Conclusion : children's literature as nonadult.