AustLit

'From the forests of the tales of the Brothers’ Grimm to Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree, from the flowers of Cicely May Barker’s fairies to the treehouse in Andy Griffith and Terry Denton’s popular 13 Story Treehouse series, trees and other plants have been enduring features of stories for children and young adults. Plants act as gateways to other worlds, as liminal spaces, as markers of permanence and change, and as metonyms of childhood and adolescence. This anthology is the first compilation devoted entirely to analysis of the representation of plants in children’s and young adult literatures, reflecting the recent surge of interest in cultural plant studies within the Environmental Humanities.

'Mapping out and presenting an internationally inclusive　view of plant representation　in texts for children and young adults, the volume includes contributions examining European, American, Australian and Asian literatures　and contributes to the research fields of ecocriticism, critical plant studies and　the study of　children’s and young adult literatures.' (Publication summary)

'Agency and identity are developed in young people through many means, including literacy events. The Our Australian Girl series introduces the reader to significant aspects of Australian history and cultural multiplicity while having the potential of nurturing agency development. This article explores the representations of reading and writing that run like a thread throughout the series alongside comparable acts of creation like storytelling, dancing, and drawing. Reading offers the characters of these novels a chance to understand and question their worlds, and writing offers them a chance to remake them.' (Introduction)