List of Illustrations Introduction 1. Should Children Read Fairy Tales? / Dennis Butts 2. What Makes a Children's Classic? / Peter Hunt 3. Why Were there no Nursery Rhymes before 1744? / Dennis Butts 4. Who Wrote Little Goody Two-Shoes? / Dennis Butts 5. What (and Where) Are the Secret, Lost Books of Childhood - and Why Do They Matter? / Peter Hunt 6. The Curious History of Three Bears . and a Lamb / Dennis Butts 7.

Charles Kingsley: Christian Socialist, Evangelical Storyteller, or Sexual Sadist? / Dennis Butts 8. Who Was the Real William Brighty Rands? / Dennis Butts 9. Why Are there so many Dead Parents in Children's Books? / Peter Hunt 10. Was Lorna Doone really Married? / Dennis Butts 11. Whatever Happened to God in Children's Books? / Peter Hunt 12. Whose Side Was Henty really on in the American Civil War? / Dennis Butts 13. What Do Children's Books Do about Christmas? / Peter Hunt 14. Is Little Lord Fauntleroy a Children's Story - and Does the Subplot Work? / Dennis Butts 15.

Why Was Billy Bunter never really Expelled from Greyfriars School? / Dennis Butts 16. Why on Earth Are there Children's Books about War? / Peter Hunt 17. Biggles: Tough Guy or Romantic Hero? / Dennis Butts 18. Why Is there Nobody Nice at St Clare's? / Peter Hunt 19. Were there Two Flutes? Time Present and Time Past at Green Knowe / Dennis Butts 20. Why Does C.S. Lewis Annoy so many People? / Peter Hunt 21.

What Happened Next? The Problem of Sequels / Dennis Butts 22. To See Ourselves . What Image of the British Do Children's Books Give the World? / Peter Hunt 23. Why Is there no such Thing as Children's Poetry? / Peter Hunt 24. Which Are the Best 100 Children's Books? / Dennis Butts 25. And Which Is the Best? The Carnegie Medal and other Awards / Peter Hunt 26. A Mystery Solved: How Adults Read Children's Books / Peter Hunt Notes Index.