ABSTRACT
Children’s literature is an ideal object of analysis for comprehending cultural norms. As comparatist Emer O’Sullivan asserts, “Adults… assign texts to children and, in the process, transmit dominant morals, values, and ideals.” 1 But such norms, of course, have to do with an enormous range of complex topics, making it necessary for the researcher to limit the scope of the investigation in some way. This book focuses on gender identity, a constitutive element of children’s developing sense of self. Children absorb primal conceptions about gender roles and expectations through lived experience, and also through reading books. Psychologists Carole Kortenhaus and Jack Demarest note that “there can be no doubt that the characters portrayed in children’s literature mold a child’s conception of socially accepted roles and values, and indicate how males and females are supposed to act.” 2
