This extensively illustrated collection of essays by twenty leading scholars explores a wide range of topics from the behavior of children in early modern England and the development of French fairy tales and nursery rhymes, to the work of classic authors such as Lewis Carroll, Kenneth Grahame, Beatrix Potter, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and some of the diaries and magazines written by children themselves. The contributors include Brian Alderson, Gillian Avery, Giles Barber, John Batchelor, John Bayley, Alan Bell, Julia Briggs, Hugh Brogan, Humphrey Carpenter, A.O.J. Cockshut, Barbara Everett, Kate Flint, Clive Hurst, Alison Lurie, Neil Philip, W.W. Robson, William S. Clair, Nigel Smith, Keith Thomas, and Jack Zipes.