1. Six texts. Different texts, same genre
Language : the text and its shadows
Focalization : who sees and what they know
Desire confronts knowledge
Home and away : essential doubleness
2. Exploring assumptions. Reading as an adult
Making choices : exploring representativeness
3. Children's literature as a genre. Defining children's literature
Different but not distinct
Literature for boys and literature for girls
Middle-class subjectivity
Simplicity and sublimation
A comprehensive statement
4. The genre in the field. Sameness and difference
The sameness of children's literature
Different children's literatures : the effects of personality and history
Different children's literatures : the effects of nationality
Distinctive texts in the genre
Conclusion : children's literature as nonadult.