Treasure Islands: Studies in Children's Literature

Books built round conference proceedings do not always make compelling reading, but this Irish-produced volume is something of an exception. Taking up the ubiquity of islands in children’s literature, it contains some excellent contributions. In her chapter, Marnie Hay discusses Irish nationalist propaganda aimed at children and youth, 1910-16. The quotation she includes describing how some upright Fianna scouts walk out of a cinema showing British filth (‘a ballet girl’ whose antics ‘were not only indecent but shocking’) is both hilarious and thought-provoking. Children’s literature has often been pressed into contemporary political service in other countries, but such clear examples of this within what was still the British Isles make for particularly interesting reading. There are also sympathetic examinations by David Rudd and Jane O’Hanlon of the various functions of islands in the adventure stories of Enid Blyton. Other contributors trace the way that islands in children’s fiction pass from providing eighteenth-century heroes with an opportunity to demonstrate general superiority and resourcefulness to a time when the island itself challenges castaways to the extent that they sometimes lose any sense of self in favour of becoming animals themselves. Richly sourced and often making use of comparatively unfamiliar material, this academic study could make quite a good desert island book in itself.