What Katy Read focuses on a much neglected area of literary criticism: literature for girls. Written by women for children, such texts have been doubly marginalized by the critical establishment. Shirley Foster and Judy Simons use twentieth-century feminist critical practice to open up fresh perspectives on popular fiction for girls written between 1850 and 1920. The study analyses both American and British novels for girls which have acquired 'classic' status, from the domestic myth to the school story, and considers their scope and influence in providing role models for girl readers.

Acknowledgements - Preface - Introduction - Susan Warner: The Wide, Wide World - Charlotte Yonge: The Daisy Chain - Louisa May Alcott: Little Women - Susan Coolidge: What Katy Did - E.Nesbit: The Railway Children - L.M.Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables - Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden - Angela Brazil: The Madcap of the School - Bibliography - Index