Although L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published one hundred years ago, literary critics and historians continue to discover new approaches to the fantastic world of Oz. The second in a new series of anthologies sponsored by the Children's Literature Association, this collection of essays represents some of the most interesting of these new approaches. Beginning with a glance back over the entire history of research and commentary on the Oz books, this work is organized in three main sections. Essays in the "Origins of Oz" examine Frank Baum's personal history and unlock the...

Celebrating 100 years of Peter Pan, this fourth volume in the Centennial Studies series explores the cultural contents of Barrie's creation and the continuing impact of Peter Pan on children's literature and popular culture today, especially focusing on the fluctuations of time and narrative strategies. This collection of essays on Peter Pan is separated into four parts. The first section is comprised of essays placing Barrie's in its own time period, and tackles issues such as the relationship between Hook and Peter in terms of child hatred, the similarities between Peter and Oscar Wilde,...