Rulers of Literary Playgrounds: Politics of Intergenerational Play in Children's Literature offers multifaceted reflection on interdependences between children and adults as they engage in play in literary texts and in real life..

Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Wroclaw. She has published among others on utopianism in children's literature and participatory approaches in children's literature studies. She is Director of the Center for Young People's Literature and Culture at the Institute of English Studies (University of Wroclaw).

Irena Barbara Kalla is Associate Professor at the University of Wroclaw, Dutch Studies. She has published on Dutch and Flemish literature, including Huisbeelden in de moderne Nederlandstalige poëzie (2012) and Minoes, Minnie, Minu en andere katse streken (with J. Van Coillie, 2017). She is Coordinator of the Centre for Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature at the University of Wroclaw.

Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak, University of Wroclaw with Irena Barbara Kalla, University of Wroclaw

Introduction: The Playground of Children's Literature

Part One: Social and Political Contexts of Play

Chapter 1 Birgitte Beck Pristed (Aarhus University, Denmark)

The ABC of Late Soviet Wastepaper for Pioneers and Their Parents

Chapter 2 Jan Van Coillie (KU Leuven, Belgium)

How Delightful is a Child at Play? Play in Children's Literature in Flanders during the Nineteenth Century: A Systemic Approach

Chapter 3 Sarah Hoem Iversen (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway)

'When you have said your les-sons well, then you shall go out to play': Play, Gender, and the Child Addressee in Nineteenth-century Children's Dictionaries

Chapter 4 Yoo Kyung Sung (University of New Mexico, USA)

Transnationalism and Play in Mexican Children's Childhood and Multicultural Children's Literature in the United States

Chapter 5 Sally Sims Stokes (Catholic University of America, USA)

Requiem for a Rabbit Scut: The Playful Encounter in Streatfeild and Hutton's Harlequinade

Chapter 6 Blanka Grzegorczyk (University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

Girls, Boys, Bombs, Toys: Terror and Play in Contemporary Children's Fiction

Part Two: Constructs of Children's Agency in Play Representations of Childhood and Play

Chapter 7 Elliot Schreiber (Vassar College, USA)

Branching out from the Family Tree: Fairy Tales, Imaginative Play, and Intergenerational Relations in Works by the Brothers Grimm, Ludwig Tieck, and Hans Christian Andersen

Chapter 8 Ilaria Filograsso (University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy)

Language Play in Adult-Child Relationships: Gianni Rodari's Pedagogical and Literary Concepts

Chapter 9 Elisabeth L. Nelson (University of Glasgow, UK)

Recollecting Childhood: Writing the Child at Play

Chapter 10 Taraneh Matloob Haghanikar (University of Northern Iowa, USA) & Linda M. Pavonetti (Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, USA)

Representations of Play in Caldecott Medal and Honor Books during 1938-1949 and 2001-2014

Part Three: Materialities of Play

Chapter 11 Jennifer Farrar (University of Glasgow, UK)

Encounters with Metafiction: Playing with Ideas of What Counts When It Comes to Reading

Chapter 12 Zofia Zasacka (National Library and the Educational Research Institute, Poland)

Playing and Reading Together: The Beginnings of Literary Socialization

Chapter 13 Elzbieta Jamróz-Stolarska (University of Wroclaw, Poland)

Crossing Boundaries in Children's Books: The Role of the Author, Illustrator and Publisher in Creating Playful Books for Young Readers

Coda

Chapter 14 Jean Webb (University of Worcester, UK)

Reflection on Playing and Puzzling with Alice and Tom