Images of the Child

This collection of articles on images of the child offers an excellent range of perspectives on an equally wide range of concerns, including advertising, girls' book series, rap music, realistic fiction, games, dolls, violence, and movies. Taken together as a book, this collection confirms the complexity of the world of childhood, and demonstrates how strongly images of the child reflect the entire culture. For example, in the traditional nursery rhyme: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; / Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; / All the king's horses and all the king's men; / Couldn't put Humpty together again. Father Gander, a popular rewriting of the traditional nursery rhymes meant to remove what some highly vocal adults see as negative sexual, classist, and violent images, changes it: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; / Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; / All of the horses, the women and men; / Helped put Humpty together again. In the meantime, a current playground version goes: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; / Humpty Dump had a great fall; / All the king's horses and all the king's men; / Stepped on him. Thus, the images of the child become ever more elusive. What does the future hold?