No Kids Allowed

Michelle Ann Abate is a professor of literature for children and young adults at The Ohio State University. She is the author of five books, including Tomboys: A Literary and Cultural History, Bloody Murder: The Homicide Tradition in Children's Literature, and Funny Girls: Guffaws, Guts, and Gender in Classic American Comics.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction. A Is for Adult: Coloring Books, Bedtime Stories, and Picture Books for Grown-Ups1. "A Book for Obsolete Children": Dr. Seuss' You're Only Old Once! and the Rise of Children's Literature for Adults2. Off to Camp: Mabel Maney's The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, and Fanfiction3. Material Matters: Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers as a Board Book4. Baby Talk: Barbara Park's MA! There's Nothing to Do Here!, Fetal Personhood, and Child Authorship 5. Learning Left from Right: Goodnight Bush, Don't Let the Republican Drive the Bus!, and the Broadside Tradition6. Not Kidding Around: Go the F**k to Sleep and the New Adult Honesty about ParenthoodConclusion. Both Radical and Reinforcing: The Complicated Cultural Significance of Children's Literature for AdultsNotesWorks CitedIndex

[Abate's] most foundational argument is that the genre of children's literature for adults exists at all. Abate's study moves well beyond the genre itself to include cultural analysis of the shifting, often contradictory boundaries of childhood and adulthood."—American Literary History