This collection takes informed and scholarly readers to the utmost frontier of children s literature criticism, from the intricate worlds of children s poetry, picturebooks and video games to the new theoretical constellations of critical plant studies, non-fiction studies and big data analyses of literature.

Introduction Maria Nikolajeva and Clémentine Beauvais Part I. Contemporary directions in children’s literature scholarship Teaching the conflicts: Diverse responses to diverse children’s books Karen Coats Posthumanism: Rethinking ‘the human’ in modern children’s literature Victoria Flanagan Animal studies Zoe Jaques Spatiality in fantasy for children Jane Carroll A question of scale: Zooming out and zooming in on feminist ecocriticism Alice Curry Age studies and children’s literature Vanessa Joosen Carnality in adolescent literature Lydia Kokkola Cognitive narratology and adolescent fictionRoberta Seelinger Trites Empirical approaches to place and the construction of adolescent identities Erin Spring Picturebooks and situated readers: The intersections of text, image, culture and response Evelyn Arizpe Re-memorying: A new phenomenological methodology in children’s literature studies Alison Waller 　 Part II: Contemporary trends in children’s and young adult literature Canons and canonicity Anja Müller Seriality in children’s literature Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer Counterfactual historical fiction for children and young adults Catherine Butler Pattern, texture and print: New technology, old aesthetic in contemporary picturebook-making Martin Salisbury Telling stories in different formats: New directions in digital stories for children Junko Yokota Multimodality and multiliteracies: Production and reception Margaret Mackey Serendipity, independent publishing and translation flow: Recent translations for children in the UK Gillian Lathey The picturebook in instructed foreign language learning contexts Sandie Mourão 　 Part III: Unmapped territories 20. Next of kin: ‘The child’ and ‘the adult’ in children’s literature theory today and tomorrow Clémentine Beauvais 21. Critical plant studies and children’s literature Lydia Kokkola 22. Health, sickness and literature for children Jean Webb 23 .Evolutionary criticism and children’s literature Maria Nikolajeva 24. The genetic study of children’s literature Vanessa Joosen 25. Distant reading and thin description Eugene Giddens 26. Hogwarts versus Svalbard: Cultures, literacies and game adaptations of children’s literature Andrew Burn 27. Hybrid novels for children and young adults Eve Tandoi 28. Cyberspace and story: The impact of digital media on printed children’s books Victoria Flanagan