Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 1. Landscapes of Childhood Pastoral: the forest, the sky, and the river Internal Landscapes, Private Spaces 2. The Construction of the Creative Child 3. The Freedom to Imagine: Childhood Creativity and Socialization in the Work of William Steig 4. Imagining Difference and Diversity The Picture Book and Life Story Difference and the Species The Young Adult Novel and the Cultural “Other” 5. Re-Imagining Fear and Trauma Bearing Witness Art, Creativity, and Agency Fear and Denial The Role of Nature in Healing from Sexual Trauma The Trauma of Death: the Ultimate Loss Contextualizing Trauma: Beyond Individual Trauma - The Culture of Bullying - The Culture of Racism - The Culture of Domestic Violence 6. New Heroes: New Visions of Childhood Setting the Stage: Alice, Jim Hawkins, Huck, and Dorothy New Heroes: - Girl Power: Pippi and Matilda - Children’s Ways of Knowing: Louise Erdrich’s Historical Fiction - The Child Writer Hero: Mina - Challenging Political and Social Institutions: King Matt and Totto-Chan - Stories of Community: a New Heroic 7. Imagine Empathy: Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane 8. New Ways of Imagining the Picture Book: States of Mind, States of Feeling Shaun Tan Brian Selznick Peter Sis Epilogue: Surviving Childhood Notes Works Consulted Permissions Index

Promotional Information

A new study of children’s imaginative engagement with the figure of the child hero, drawing on work by a wide range of multicultural authors from Maya Angelou to Neil Gaiman.

About the Author

Roni Natov is Professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, USA. A multi-award winning teacher and scholar, she is the founding editor of The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children's Literature and her previous publications include The Poetics of Childhood (2005).

Reviews

Natov pulls from a variety of children’s and young adult books, including Dahl’s Matilda, Myers’ Monster, and Selznick’s The Inventions of Hugo Cabret, to explore how diversity and difference, trauma, empathy, politics, and identity in literature can encourage young readers to engage with experiences both similar to and different from their own.
*The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books*

[A]ttractive and enjoyable both for professional and non-professional readers.
*International Research in Children's Literature*

Roni Natov’s The Courage to Imagine: The Child Hero in Children’s Literature is a splendid study of the vital role imagination plays in contemporary international children’s literature. Given the vast socio-political changes in childhood that often create anxiety and ambiguity, Natov argues that children need a serious literature that will encourage them to become self-reliant and hopeful. It is from the imaginative stories of such authors as David Almond, Julius Lester, Louise Erdrich, Walter Dean Myers, Kate DiCamillo and such illustrators as Shaun Tan, Brian Selznick, and Peter Sis that Natov points to alternative ways about heroic action that can serve as models for young readers. Her book is an engaging defense of the potential of the imagination to transform the lives of children.
*Jack Zipes, Professor, University of Minnesota, USA*

An illuminating look at how children’s literature emboldens children to imagine, and thereby to embrace complexity, diversity, and challenge. A timely account of how and why children’s books matter, recommended for specialists and nonspecialists alike.
*Kenneth Kidd, Professor of English, University of Florida, USA*

The Courage to Imagine takes an original focus on children’s creativity as it is reflected in books for the young. It offers a unique blend of literary analysis with personal stories and touches of creative writing. The entire book breathes a love of children, art and literature and shows convincingly how creativity can give agency and hope to child characters and young readers.
*Vanessa Joosen, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Antwerp, Belgium*