'The Poetics of Childhood is a Sterling contribution to the internationally renowned Children and Culture series... Natov's commanding work... demonstrates for me the power of the fine art of close reading in the hands of an experienced reader and writer of literary criticism.' - Children's Literature Association Quartely, Vol.28, No. 3'This important, provocative book adds to the literature of the continuing war between the purveyors of light and of darkness, and critically centers the conflict in our earliest experiences, where perhaps all must be won or lost.' - Leo Zanderer, The Lion and the Unicorn