ABSTRACT
What children can read, want to read, and actually do read has long been underestimated, much the way children themselves have been underestimated in the history of Western culture. Until very recently, academic courses in children’s literature were rarely offered by English literature departments where, it might be assumed, the focus would be on the texts of the literary canon. When taken by education majors, the function of such courses is often to survey materials available for approved use at the primary school level. Theoretical approaches to the subject are rare and sometimes even discouraged. Such an approach is short-sighted, however, because, at the very least young readers are future consumers of literature, and books are the essential cultural commodities that shape our collective future in a society duty-bound to script and print. Young readers and those who teach and read to them, therefore, play a crucial role in choosing, transmitting, and shaping the literary canon and creating the “classic.”
