ABSTRACT
All the writers in this book share an unspoken conviction that children’s literature is worth reading, worth discussing, and worth thinking about for adults. Aidan Chambers has summed up the motivation of many ‘liberal humanist’ teachers and writers:
I belong to the demotic tradition; I believe literature belongs to all the people all the time, that it ought to be cheaply and easily available, that it ought to be fun to read as well as challenging, subversive, refreshing, comforting, and all the other qualities we claim for it. Finally, I hold that in literature we find the best expression of the human imagination, and the most useful means by which we come to grips with our ideas about ourselves and what we are.
