Portrayals of Children in Popular Culture

Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic is a reference librarian at the Paul Robeson Library at Rutgers University.Debbie Olson, ABD, is lecturer at University of Texas at Arlington.

• Preface, Vibiana Bowman Cvetkovic and Debbie OlsonPart One. Print and the WebChapter One. "The Girl You've Always Wanted to Be!" Girl Power and Commodification in Teen Magazines, Caryn MurphyChapter Two. Children and Media in Parenting Magazines, Amy FranziniChapter Three. Making Kids Sexy: Sexualized Youth, Adult Anxieties and Abercrombie and Fitch, Stephen GennaroChapter Four. Configuring Childhood on the Web, Katie Elson AndersonPart Two. TelevisionChapter Five. Pearly Whites: The Imagery of Teeth in Peter Pan, Elite Figure Skating, Gymnastics, and Toddler Beauty Pageants, Beth NardellaChapter Six. Conceptualizing Childhood in the Korean Education Broadcasting System (EBS): The Critical Analysis of Pororo, Lena LeeChapter Seven. Accidental Deaths: the Violence of Representing Childhood in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Morgan Genevieve Blue and Lena LeeChapter Eight. "Better Multiculturalism" Through Technology: Dora the Explorer and the Training of the Preschool Viewer(s), Drew ChappellPart Three. FilmChapter Nine. "Making Mischief of One Kind or Another": Turning Literary Rebellion into Film Reminiscence in Where The Wild Things Are, Michelle Ann AbateChapter Ten. "They Don't Really Care What Happens to Me": Divorce, Family Life and Children's Emotional Worlds in 1950s' British Cinema, Janet FinkChapter Eleven. Representations of Children in Pixar Films: 1995-2008, Iris ShepardChapter Twelve. Little Burton Blue: Tim Burton and the Product(ion) of Color in the Fairy Tale Films The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and The Corpse Bride (2005), Debbie OlsonChapter Thirteen. Childhood in War and Violence: Turtles Can Fly and The Kite RunnerLan DongChapter Fourteen. Spelling Out Racial Difference: Moving Beyond the Inspirational Discourses in, Akeelah and the Bee Kathryn E. LinderChapter Fifteen. See St. Louis and Die: Wartime and the Morbid Child Psychology of Meet Me In St. Louis, Vincent Casaregola

This publication is an extraordinary collection of scholarly writing focusing mainly on the contemporary imagery of children over a range of formats, varying from print and online sources to television portrayals and studies of children in film. In some essays there is background from past times for the purposes of illustrating contrasting perspectives regarding children, but the dominant timeframe for analysis is contemporary. Many of the essays have been previously published while some are new. The authors present a rich diversity of backgrounds, expertise, methods of research and styles. ... it is a very engaging, thorough and stimulating collection of researched writing on the subject. It is highly recommended.