Topologies of the Classical World in Children's Fiction

Claudia Nelson has published widely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century British and American children's literature and family studies. Her book Little Strangers: Portrayals of Adoption and Foster Care in America, 1850-1929 (Indiana University Press, 2003) won the Children's Literature Association award for the best scholarly book in the field of children's studies. A professor of English at Texas A&M University, she is a former president of the Children's Literature Association and a former editor of the Children's Literature Association Quarterly.Anne Morey is an associate professor of English at Texas A&M University. Her book Hollywood Outsiders: The Adaptation of the Film Industry, 1913-1934 (University of Minnesota Press, 2003) deals with Hollywood's critics and co-opters, and she has also edited a volume on Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" phenomenon, Genre, Reception, and Adaptation in the 'Twilight' Series (Routledge, 2012). She is currently at work on a book about the Junior Literary Guild and children's reading from 1929-1955 and is co-writing a book with Shelley Stamp on women in American silent cinema.

• Frontmatter List of Illustrations 1: Introduction 1.1: The Models 1.2: Sample Exception #1: Mirroring in Echo Echo 1.3: Sample Exception #2: Insides and Outsides in Bull 1.4: Sample Exception #3: Curves vs. Straight Lines in The Mark of the Horse Lord 1.5: Conclusion 2: HISTORY IS A PALIMPSEST 1: The Layers of Ancient Rome in Puck of Pook's Hill and Its Successors 2.1: Foundations: Puck of Pook's Hill 2.2: Layers for Adults: Three Fantasies 2.3: Layers for Children: Three Fantasies 2.4: Beyond Fantasy: Philip Turner's Yorkshire Palimpsest 2.5: Conclusion 3: HISTORY IS A PALIMPSEST 2: Time Zones, Scars, and Family in (Mostly) Realistic Works 3.1: Magical Rules and Classical Tradition in The Enchanted Castle 3.2: Liminality and Mixed Metaphors in Three Novels by Caroline Dale Snedeker 3.3: Trauma, Family, and History in The Bronze Bow 3.4: Wounding in The Eagle of the Ninth 3.5: Conclusion 4: HISTORY IS A MAP 1: Navigating the Underworld 4.1: A Map Text Without a Map: The Story of the Amulet 4.2: Underworlds and (Platonic) Caves in The Silver Chair 4.3: Underworlds and Returns in Mystery at Mycenae and The Roman Mysteries 4.4: Symbolic Underworlds and Shifting Scripts in the Roman Pony Trilogy 4.5: Mapping the Orpheus Myth in the Jack Perdu Books and the Underworlds Series 4.6: Conclusion 5: HISTORY IS A MAP 2: Carnivals, Grotesquerie, and the Antic(que) Map Text 5.1: Gryllus the Pig and the Playful Attack on Borders 5.2: Spartapuss the Cat and the Repeating and Consuming of Time 5.3: Julius Zebra and Cognitive Connection through Words, Pictures, and Warthogs 5.4: The Dogs of Pompeii and Popular Culture's Alliance with the Past 5.5: Percy Jackson and the Apotheosis of the Comic Didactic 5.6: Conclusion 6: HISTORY IS FRACTAL: Patterns of Conflict in Contemporary Young Adult Fantasies 6.1: Despairing Didacticism: Learning and Misery in Red Shift 6.2: Separate Spheres and If Worlds: Culture Clash in the Fireball and Warriors Trilogies 6.3: Panem et Circenses: Countries, Cats, and Conflict in the Hunger Games Trilogy 6.4: Monsters and Masks: Trust and Treachery in the Ember in the Ashes Series 6.5: Secret Keepers: Manipulating Misprision in The Queen's Thief Sequence 6.6: Conclusion 7: Conclusion Endmatter Works Cited Index

Overall, this is a fascinating book, which examines an impressive array of texts and should be especially commended for its nuanced discussion of contemporary children's literature