Reading for Learning

“Nikolajeva brings her wide reading in cognitive literary study into productive interaction with her deep knowledge of children’s literature. The result is a learned and lucid volume, a work of interest to experts in children’s literature and cognitive critics alike. Moreover, Nikolajeva’s conclusions about the value of literary reading extend beyond children’s literature, carrying significant and salutary implications for literary study at all ages.”

“Reading for Learning is part detailed introduction to a rapidly developing discipline (‘literary critics are fascinated by the new vistas opened up by brain research’), part passionate polemic (‘reading is social justice’), part lively analyses of children’s picture books and novels, and part survey of the connections between criticism, psychology and literacy. As an ‘open-ended exploration’ of the rapidly-developing inter-disciplinary field of Cognitive Criticism, it is timely, highly readable, and, like the rest of Nikolajeva’s work, elegantly authoritative.”

“This book offers scholars of children's literature a smart new way of addressing the field's key questions. What do children learn from children's literature? How do we know? An important intervention, and a must-read for anyone interested in not just how we read, but why.”

“Maria Nikolajeva has given us a brilliant and engaging synthesis of cognitive literary criticism. The work is unforgettable in its applications of this criticism to works of children's literature across the ages. She makes a compelling case for the essential role of this literature in the maturation of children's comprehension of themselves and others in the worlds of fiction and fantasy.”

“In this masterful introduction to the possibilities of bringing cognitive criticism into productive conversation with children's literature, Nikolajeva exposes and goes some way to correct a blind spot in each field. In both her theoretical explanations and her close readings of children's texts, she demonstrates that while children's literature can be better understood and interpreted through an understanding of how particular cognitive functions such as memory, perception, attention, and empathy make it possible for young readers to engage with fiction, cognitive criticism itself can be further nuanced by a frank recognition of the cognitive andaffective differences between adult and child readers. Her focus on how and what kinds of knowledge are made available through fiction and her emphasis on the ethics of narrative will invigorate discussions of ideological interpellation and transformation as other scholars will surely be inspired to take up her challenge to enter this crucial conversation. As in all of her previous work, Nikolajeva refines and redefines the field of children's literature criticism, pointing an exciting and vibrant way forward.”

“Maria Nikolajeva gives us the science of cognitive criticism in all itsbreathtaking complexity and applies it to children's literature in ways that enhance rather than diminish the poetry and poetics of narrative art. Taking us to Where the Wild Things Are, Narnia, Oxford, and Panem, she deftly combines evidence with intuition to show how counterfactuals open up minds and rewire our brains. Reading for Learning is as adventurous, engaging, and persuasive as the literary minds and worlds it explores.”