Children's Literature: A Reader's History from Aesop to Harry Potter by Seth Lerer

I picked up this book since the subject of children's literature has been near and dear to my heart for so many years and I was interested if it had anything new to offer. Most of the book is a sort of philological approach to children's literature and wasn't of supreme interest to me. However, there was a chapter on literature for girls called 'Theaters of Girlhood: Domesticity, Desire, and Performance in Female Fiction,' which I think is a must read for anyone interested in children's literature and/or gender theory.

( Some meditations on the difference between theatricality and absorption, particularly in terms of female narratives. )