AustLit

Bradford introduces this edition of Papers by engaging with Peter Hunt's representation of current research and teaching practices in children's literature. Drawing attention to the binarized approach which frames Hunt's descriptions, Bradford argues that Hunt tends to over-generalize and oversimplify the variety and scope of children's literature scholarship, stating '...the study of boooks of the past, far from being 'essentially abstract and inward looking' (Hunt, 202), is capable of informing our understanding of the practices, ideologies and cultural formations which produced these books and which teach us about the implied child reader...' (4). Bradford challenges Hunt's categorisation with a short but concise discussion of A Mother's Offering to Her Children (1841).