Subtitled 'Studies in Modern Children's Fiction', this book sets out to explore some of the predominant themes of post-war British and American fiction, from both a psychoanalytic and sociological point of view. The authors, as husband and wife and parents, clearly bring the necessary practical experience and application to their work and their professional roles as Child Psychotherapist in charge of training at the Tavistock Clinic in London, and as professor and head of the Sociology Department at North East London Polytechnic, give the dual theoretical underpinning to the book.

The authors' approach has been to select certain popular modern works of children's fiction and then