ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how books sold to Ho Chi Minh City’s affluent classes attempt to cultivate a distinctly middle-class disposition in young readers that is both urban and global. Using bestselling global titles and local folktales as an analytical lens, this chapter explores reading decisions among the urban middle class. The texts expose children to magical and technologically determinist ideas with which child protagonists enact far-reaching change. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts, this chapter argues that the reading of these texts has the potential to foster a community of globally engaged young people with the power to enact social change.
