Responding to the astonishing success of J. K. Rowling and other contemporary authors, the editors of this timely volume take up the challenge of assessing the complex interplay of forces that have generated, and sometimes sustained, the popularity of children's books. Ranging from eighteenth-century chapbooks to the stories of Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, and from science schoolbooks to Harry Potter, these essays show how authorial talent operates within its cultural context to make a children's classic.