Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature

Book Presentation and Reading

Julia Mickenberg, author of: "Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature" will read from her anthology of radical children’s literature.

tales for little rebels“Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature” (NYU Press, 2008) offers a portrait of many progressive concerns of the 20th century, including labor and civil rights, gender equality, and the environment, through the lens of children’s literature.

Rather than teaching children to obey authority, to conform, or to seek redemption through prayer, twentieth-century leftists encouraged children to question the authority of those in power. Tales for Little Rebels collects forty-three mostly out-of-print stories, poems, comic strips, primers, and other texts for children that embody this radical tradition.

Julia L. Mickenberg is associate professor of American Studies at UT-Austin. She is the author of Learning from the Left: Children's Literature, the Cold War, and Radical Politics in the United States.