Synopses & Reviews
Many children learn from a very young age about the importance of always telling the truth. They also learn that telling lies is necessary if they are to survive in a world that paradoxically values the truth but practises deception. Secrets, Lies and Children's Fiction demonstrates how this paradox is played out in texts for children and young adults, how secrets and lies may be a necessary means for survival and adaptation, and how mendacity may have its virtues.
Kerry Mallan examines a wide selection of international texts, spanning several decades, including picture books, novels, and films. By drawing on diverse fields of scholarship, Mallan makes important connections between children's literature, philosophical and moral complexities, and cultural and social tensions. Secrets, Lies and Children's Fiction provokes thinking about what passes as 'the truth', the consequences of truth telling and lying, and the sacrificial arbitrariness of scapegoating.
Review
'As Mallan's discussions demonstrate, in terms of moral takes on the value of truth-telling or lying, children's fiction is much more versatile than one first might think... Secrets, Lies and Children's Fiction is, truly, a thought-provoking work.' - Sanna Lehtonen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
'Kerry Mallan's Secrets, Lies and Children's Fiction is an important study of books that introduce young readers to the complexities of truth. Mallan offers a theoretically informed treatment of the ethical issues relating to how we communicate truthfully and duplicitously in both the private and the public spheres. She takes her theoretical acumen into her close readings of a range of contemporary (and a few more time-honoured) texts for child and young adult readerships. Her choice of texts to scrutinize includes several of the most important recent books by the likes of Brian Selznick, Daniel Handler, Suzanne Collins, and Cory Doctorow. This is a major achievement.' - Roderick McGillis, Emeritus Professor of English, the University of Calgary, Canada
Synopsis
Many children learn from a young age to tell the truth. They also learn that some lies are necessary in order to survive in a world that paradoxically values truth-telling, but practises deception. This book examines this paradox by considering how deception is often a necessary means of survival for individuals, families, governments, and animals.
About the Author
Kerry Mallan is Professor and Director of the Children and Youth Research Centre at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Her previous books include Gender Dilemmas in Children's Fiction (2009) and New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature: Utopian Transformations (with Clare Bradford, John Stephens, and Robyn McCallum, 2008).
Table of Contents