ABSTRACT
There are many kinds of children’s literature. There are novels, stories, poems, and plays. There are texts of science fi ction, fantasy, mystery, and adventure. There are domestic stories and stories about animals and stories of life in the wilds. And so on and so on. But as the adaptation theories popular with German and Scandinavian children’s literature theorists suggest, the children’s texts of these sorts have clear connections with the adult ones that, usually, pre-existed them. As Torben Weinreich says, “Writers do not primarily adapt because children have other experiences and other knowledge, but because they lack experience and knowledge” (49)—and so, many conclude, children’s literature can best be understood as consisting of adapted-i.e., usually, simplifi ed-versions of adult literary forms.
