Alternating Narratives in Fiction for Young Readers: Twice Upon a Time (Critical Approaches to Children's Literature)

This book is about the implications of novels for young readers that tell their stories by alternating between different narrative lines focused on different characters. It asks: if you make sense of fiction by identifying with one main character, how do you handle two or more of them? Do novels with alternating narratives diverge from longstanding conventions and represent a significant change in literature for young readers? If not, how do these novels manage to operate within the parameters of those conventions? This book considers answers to these questions by means of a series of close readings that explore the structural, educational and ideological implications of a variety of American, British, Canadian and Australian novels for children and for young adults. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Alternating Narratives: An Introduction....Pages 1-20 Alternating Narratives as Puzzles....Pages 21-41 Alternating Narratives and Represented Writing....Pages 43-66 Fictional Collage as Alternating Narratives....Pages 67-87 Distance Education: The Readerly Effects of Alternating Narratives....Pages 89-120 Alternating Narratives as Variations of Each Other....Pages 121-141 Structural Ideologies in Alternating Narratives: Individuality....Pages 143-161 Structural Ideologies in Alternating Narratives: Connection and Community....Pages 163-197 Structural Ideologies in Alternating Narratives: Indigeneity....Pages 199-233 Back Matter....Pages 235-249