Particles in Suspension

Lured by Pullman, Rowling, and Galloway, a literary theorist becomes a convert to children's literature recognizing the possibilities of using this corpus to theorize everything from postmodernism to parody, from irony to adaptation. Children's books are often about adaptation to the loss of a parent or home. The adaptation of children's fiction to other media flourishes today in everything from films and television to computer games and theme parks. Like the adapted novels and stories, these adaptations too are "crossover" works aimed at a double audience the adult experiencing with the child or the adult the child become.