Description
Book SynopsisChildren's literature isn't just for children anymore. This original study explores the varied forms and roles of children's literaturewhen it's written for adults. What do Adam Mansbach's Go the F**k to Sleep and Barbara Park's MA! There's Nothing to Do Here! have in common? These large-format picture books are decidedly intended for parents rather than children. In No Kids Allowed, Michelle Ann Abate examines a constellation of books that form a paradoxical new genre: children's literature for adults. Distinguishing these books from YA and middle-grade fiction that appeals to adult readers, Abate argues that there is something unique about this phenomenon. Principally defined by its form and audience, children's literature, Abate demonstrates, engages with more than mere nostalgia when recast for grown-up readers. Abate examines how board books, coloring books, bedtime stories, and series detective fiction written and published specifically for adults question the boundaries of gen
Trade Review[Abate's] most foundational argument is that the genre of children's literature for adults exists at all. Abate's study moves well beyond the genre itself to include cultural analysis of the shifting, often contradictory boundaries of childhood and adulthood."
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American Literary HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction. A Is for Adult: Coloring Books, Bedtime Stories, and Picture Books for Grown-Ups
1. "A Book for Obsolete Children": Dr. Seuss' You're Only Old Once! and the Rise of Children's Literature for Adults
2. Off to Camp: Mabel Maney's The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse, the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, and Fanfiction
3. Material Matters: Art Spiegelman's In the Shadow of No Towers as a Board Book
4. Baby Talk: Barbara Park's MA! There's Nothing to Do Here!, Fetal Personhood, and Child Authorship
5. Learning Left from Right: Goodnight Bush, Don't Let the Republican Drive the Bus!, and the Broadside Tradition
6. Not Kidding Around: Go the F**k to Sleep and the New Adult Honesty about Parenthood
Conclusion. Both Radical and Reinforcing: The Complicated Cultural Significance of Children's Literature for Adults
Notes
Works Cited
Index
