Children¿s Literature and Intergenerational Relationships: Encounters of the Playful Kind explores ways in which children¿s literature becomes the object and catalyst of play that brings younger and older generations closer to one another. Providing examples from diverse cultural and historical contexts, this collection argues that children¿s texts promote intergenerational play through the use of literary devices and graphic formats and that they may prompt joint play practices in the real world. The book offers a distinctive contribution to children¿s literature scholarship by shifting critical attention away from the difference and conflict between children and adults to the exploration of inter-age interdependencies as equally crucial aspects of human life, presenting a new perspective for all who research and work with children¿s culture in times of global aging.

Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre for Young People's Literature and Culture at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wroclaw, Poland. She published Yes to Solidarity, No to Oppression: Radical Fantasy Fiction and Its Young Readers (2016). She is a Fulbright and Marie Sk¿odowska-Curie fellow. She is the co-editor (with Irena Barbara Kalla) of Rulers of Literary Playgrounds Politics of Intergenerational Play in Children's Literature (2020).

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

Chapter 1. Play, Children's Literature, and Intergenerational Connectivity. - Chapter 2: The Child Reader's Playful Adventures in Wonderland. - Chapter 3. The Nature of Play and Adult-Child Interaction in the Alice Books and Coraline. -Chapter 4. Embracing the Childlike: Play in Picturebook Poetics. - Chapter 5. Intergenerational Encounters in Contemporary Picturebooks. - Chapter 6. Rabindranath Tagore the Grandfather: Shey as a Playful Encounter between a Poet and His Granddaughter. - Chapter 7. How Fictional Representations of Intergenerational Play May Be Important for Child Readers: A Cognitive Approach. - Chapter 8. "How did Child of Light save me?" Engagement with a Children's Multimodal Game Narrative as Adult play and Self-therapy. - Chapter 9. No Adults in the Woods: Relationships between Adults and Children during Outdoor Play in Award-Winning Picturebooks from the United States. - Chapter 10. Don't Tell the Parents! The Illicitness of Intergenerational Play. - Chapter 11. Not Your (Ordinary) Grandma: Old Age in Three Contemporary Dutch Children's Books. - Chapter 12. Barbie Unbound: The Satirical Representation of the Barbie Doll as an Exemplification of Realism and Crossover Attitude in Young Adult Literature. - Chapter 13. Deconstructing Stereotypes through Reading Children's Literature as Intergenerational Play: The Case of the Stepmother. - Chapter 14. Family in Finnish Picturebooks: Playful Books Challenging Normative Representation of Family.