They Also Write for Kids - Cross-Writing, Activism, and Children's Literature

Outside the world of children''s literature studies, children''s books by authors of well-known texts "for adults" are often forgotten or marginalized. Although many adults today read contemporary children''s and young adult fiction for pleasure, others continue to see such texts as unsuitable for older audiences, and they are unlikely to cross-read children''s books that were themselves cross-written by authors like Chinua Achebe, Anita Desai, Joy Harjo, or Amy Tan. Meanwhile, these literary voices have produced politically vital works of children''s literature whose complex themes persist across boundaries of expected audience. These works form part of a larger body of activist writing "for children" that has long challenged preconceived notions about the seriousness of such books and ideas about who, in fact, should read them.

They Also Write for Kids: Cross-Writing, Activism, and Children''s Literature seeks to draw these cross-writing projects together and bring them to