Sexuality in Literature for Children and Young Adults

Paul Venzo is a senior lecturer in the School of Communications and Creative Arts at Deakin University. Paul has published widely on literature for young people, with a particular focus on representations of identity and sexuality. His writing can be found in publications such as the Journal of Homosexuality and the Journal of LGBT Youth, including the recent article ‘Mums, dads and the kids: representations of rainbow families in children’s picture books’ (2020). Kristine Moruzi is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication and Creative Arts at Deakin University. She published Constructing Girlhood through the Periodical Press, 1850–1915 in 2012. Her second monograph, From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Children’s Literature (1840–1940), with Michelle J Smith and Clare Bradford, was published in 2018.

• Chapter 1: Introduction - Kristine Moruzi and Paul VenzoShaping Sexual Subjectivities Chapter 2: ‘Just a little cut’: Censorship and preadolescent sexuality in Philip Pullman’s His dark materials – Auba Llompart Pons Chapter 3: That ‘tingly feeling’: Sex and sexuality in children’s nonfiction picture books – Paul Venzo Chapter 4: Trans and nonbinary teen voices and memoir: (Non-)traditional mirrors of (non-) traditional lives – Robert Bittner Chapter 5: ‘Can gay boys have bromances?’: Regulating masculinity and sexuality in gay young adult literature – Troy Potter Rethinking Sexuality and Girlhood Chapter 6: Postfeminism and sexuality in the fiction of Sarah J. Maas - Elizabeth Little and Kristine Moruzi Chapter 7: Graphic sexualities: Visual negotiations of queer girls’ sexuality and desire in graphic narratives – Lara Hedberg and Rebecca Hutton Chapter 8: ‘Are you sure we’re witches and not Puritans?’: Sexual flexibility and unrealised desire in Netflix’s Chilling adventures of Sabrina – Debra Dudek The Politics of Sexuality and Desire Chapter 9: ‘You two seem to be the same person’: Death, sexuality and female doubles in Chinese young adult fiction and film – Cathy Yue Wang Chapter 10: Reading rape culture, drinking, and compulsory heterosexuality in young adult literature – Amber Moore and Elizabeth MarshallChapter 11: On the straight and narrow: The homonormalising of Australian queer YA literature in the age of marriage equality – Adam Kealley

"[The book] offers both children's literature scholars and a general audience an insight into the representaion of sexuality in literature for young people and can certainly provide an interesting springboard for further research into the field." - Claudia Söffner, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature