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Nodelman approaches his formidable topic in an original and effective fashion over four chapters.

The wide-ranging discussion throughout the book is helpfully signposted with subheadings and frequent reminders of the point(s) being presented or brought forward from an earlier section. He situates his exhaustive discussion within the broader theoretical context of literary studies and production, drawing on well over four hundred sources and focusing on aspects he argues shape both the field and the genre, which are informed by a matrix of adult social forces forever jostling to maintain some control over the other, the child.

The Hidden Adult’s primary audience is those familiar with or working in the field, as such a discussion demands: it is thorough and comprehensive, particularly the third chapter in which Nodelman engages the major debates and their related concerns that have brought us to the current moment in children’s literature studies. While Nodelman strives to be as clear and accessible as possible, his Pleasures of Children’s Literature is the better starting place for the uninitiated. Beverly Lyon Clark’s statement that “The Hidden Adult is arguably his magnum opus” neatly sums up the significance and authority of Nodelman’s latest critical contribution. Trying to define children’s literature is how we all start out in the field The Hidden Adult is a testament to the wide-ranging and ongoing nature of such work-in Nodelman’s case, the culmination of nearly four decades of prolific scholarly work. This factor explains the length and circuitous nature of Nodelman’s book and its necessary density in many parts. Anyone who has studied children’s literature or has a professional interest in any of the related fields that deal with this complex subject knows that attempts to define what one is dealing with are central and continual and yet answers remain curiously elusive and unsatisfactory as they require seemingly endless qualification and reconsideration. The Hidden Child: Defining Children’s Literature is a definitive discussion of the field and genre of children’s literature.