Over the past few decades there have been intense debates in education surrounding childrens literacy achievement and ways to promote reading, particularly that of boys. The Harry Potter book series has been received enthusiastically by very many children, boys and girls alike, but has also been constructed in popular and media discourses as a childrens, particularly a boys, literacy saviour. Childrens Literacy Practices and Preferences: Harry Potter and Beyond provides empirical evidence of young peoples reported literacy practices and views on reading, and of how they see how the Harry Potter series as having impacted their own literacy. The volume explores and debunks some of the myths surrounding Harry Potter and literacy, and contextualizes these within childrens wider reading.
1. Childrens Literacies, Reading Failure, and Gender
2. Enter Harry
Potter: the Series
3. Pottermania: Media Claims and Empirical Studies
4.
Researching Childrens Literacy in Schools
5. Responses to the Harry Potter
Book Series
6. Reading Practices
7. Reading and Learning beyond Harry Potter
8. Fan Practice
9. Boys Literacies?
10. Conclusion
Steven Dempster is a Lecturer in Higher Education in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK.
Jane Sunderland is an Honorary Reader in Gender and Discourse in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK.
Joanne Thistlethwaite has recently gained her PhD in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK.
More info about Taylor & Francis e-books