The Family in English Children's Literature

From the trials of families experiencing divorce, as in Anne Fine s Madame Doubtfire, to the childcare problems highlighted in Jacqueline Wilson s 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 s Literature, Ann Alston argues that this is far from the case. She suggests that despite the tales of family woe portrayed in children s literature, the desire for the happy, contented nuclear family remains inherent within the ideological subtexts of children s literature. Using 1818 as a starting point, Alston investigates families in children s 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 s study are not so much the contrasts that exist between periods, but rather the startling similarities of the ideology of family intrinsic to children s literature. The Family in English Children s Literature sheds light on who maintains control, who behaves, and how significant children s literature is in shaping our ideas about what makes a family "good."

Ann Alston lectures at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, with a focus in Welsh Children’s Literature and nineteenth-century constructions of the child. She received her Ph.D in Children’s Literature at Cardiff University, Wales, in 2005.