Children's Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child is an original and lucid study of the figure of the `child' as it is presented in the rapidly expanding field of the criticism of children's literature. The book argues that in fact, this same body of criticism - through often contradictory versions of the `child' - revels the realm of `childhood' as one constructed by the adult reader. Karin Lesnik-Oberstein demonstrates that both this criticism and the texts it studies are underpinned by the narratives of the liberal arts' educational ideals and their attendant socio-political and personal ideologies.

The author places literary discussion into the current wider debates about childhood in psychology and psychotherapy. This lively polemic represents a significant re-thinking of `childhood' and approaches to children's literature.