Females and Harry Potter is a deconstruction of the representations of women's agency in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Using critical discourse analysis and focusing on five themes (rule following and breaking, intelligence, validating and enabling, mothering, and resistance), Mayes-Elma explores the construction of traditional gender roles in the book. Additionally, the author locates the foundations of feminist epistemology--binary oppositions, gender boundaries, and woman as "other"--that is deeply embedded within the book's themes. Traditional gender constructions of both men and women are found throughout the Sorcerer's Stone. Ultimately, the book explores the sexism inherent in the Harry Potter series: a hero and his male friends are the focus and center of activity and the female characters are enablers--at best. Passive and invisible female characters exist only as bodies, "bound" by traditional gender conventions; they resist evil, but never gender stereotypes. Mayes-Elma concludes with a discussion of the implications for development of school curricula that enable students to critically deconstruct these texts.

Now available in paper, The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter is the first book-length analysis of J. K. Rowling's work from a broad range of perspectives within literature, folklore, psychology, sociology, and popular culture. A significant portion of the book explores the Harry Potter series' literary ancestors, including magic and fantasy works by Ursula K. LeGuin, Monica Furlong, Jill Murphy, and others, as well as previous works about the British boarding school experience. Other chapters explore the moral and ethical dimensions of Harry's world, including objections to the series raised within some religious circles. In her new epilogue, Lana A. Whited brings this volume up to date by covering Rowling's latest book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Elizabeth is upset to learn that the Harmony Farms Corporation may take over her parents' farm, until Gaia, the living embodiment of the Earth, gives Elizabeth special powers to help her family.

Miho's backyard had always been the sea. The creatures within it were an endless source of fascination. But when the sea steals away her small family, she finds herself the ward of an uncle she has never met and submerged in a world she has never known: Japan. From the city of Nagoya to the seaside town of Goza, Miho struggles to fit in and navigate the language, the culture and her own grief. It is in Goza that she discovers her surprising family history and finds new teachers. She is befriended by an old man who becomes her Sensei and teaches her Sho-do, The Way of the Brush. And it is there she meets Gaia, the living entity of the Earth. Gaia grants her amazing powers to connect with the "minds in the water" and Miho is given access and understanding to all the world's oceans. Will she be able to use her powers to help balance the traditions of the past with the demands of the present? Can she overcome her outsider status to help others understand The Way of Water?

This book explores the myth of Persephone and Demeter as it informs the development of a long discourse about civilization, the development of children, child psychology, and fantasy literature. The pattern in the myth of girls who descend into underworlds and negotiate a partial return to the earth is a marked feature of girls’ literature, and the cycle also reflects the change of seasons and fertility/death. Tracing the parallel between the myth and girls’ literature enables an understanding of how female development is mourned but deemed necessary for the reproduction of culture. Blackford looks at the function of toys in children’s literature as a representation of the myth’s narcissus, combining this approach with classic interpretations of the myth as expressive of female psychology, mother-daughter object-relations, hieros gamos (fertility coupling) rituals, transition from matriarchal to patriarchal order, and excursions into the creative/artistic unconscious. The story of Persephone’s separation from her mother and abduction into the underworld is explored as an expression of ambivalence about female development in works such as Hoffmann’s Nutcracker and Mouse King, Alcott’s Little Women, Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, Burnett’s The Secret Garden, White’s Charlotte’s Web, Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Meyer’s Twilight, and Gaiman’s Coraline. With this book, Blackford offers a consideration of how literature for the young squares with broader canons, how classics flexibly and uniquely speak through novels that enjoy broad appeal, and how female traditions are embedded in novels by both men and women.

This beautifully illustrated collection tells the awe-inspiring stories of 50 women who have pushed the boundaries of human excellence and endeavour. Standing out for their achievements in sport, science, the arts, politics, and history, these women have made huge contributions to today's society. Featuring incredible women from the past and present such as Beyoncé, Sheryl Sandberg, Mary Anning, Emmeline Pankhurst and Malala Yousafzai. The Anthology of Amazing Women is a wonderful read for anyone wanting to read up on the incredible women who have lived and changed our lives.

Including more than 300 alphabetically listed entries, this 2-volume set presents a timely and detailed overview of some of the most significant contributions women have made to American popular culture from the silent film era to the present day. The lives and accomplishments of women from various aspects of popular culture are examined, including women from film, television, music, fashion, and literature. In addition to profiles, the encyclopedia also includes chapters that provide a historical review of gender, domesticity, marriage, work, and inclusivity in popular culture as well as a chronology of key achievements. This reference work is an ideal introduction to the roles women have played, both in the spotlight and behind it, throughout the history of popular culture in America. From the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age to the chart toppers of the 2020s, author Laura L. Finley documents how attitudes towards these icons have evolved and how their influence has shifted throughout time. The entries and essays also address such timely topics as feminism, the #MeToo movement, and the gender pay gap.

Are some of the world's most talented writers of children's books essentially children themselves? In this engaging series of essays, Pulitzer prize-winning author Alison Lurie considers this theory, exploring children's classics from many eras and relating them to the authors who wrote them, including Louisa May Alcott, creator of Little Women, and Salman Rushdie and his Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Dr Seuss and J. K. Rowling. In analysing these and many other authors, Alison Lurie shows how these gifted writers have used children's literature to transfigure sorrow, nostalgia and the struggles of their own experience.

Read about inspiring women and their extraordinary achievements! DK Reader Amazing Women is a close-up look at the lives of extraordinary women from the past and present, from Cleopatra to Michelle Obama. DK's innovative range of levelled readers combines a highly visual approach with non-fiction narratives that children will love reading. DK Reader Amazing Women is a level 4 reader, Reading Alone, offering a delightful narrative for young children to encourage an interest in and desire to read. Simple sentences are used with an emphasis on frequently used words with strong visual clues and labels introducing and reinforcing vocabulary. Explore the world of extraordinary women with DK Reader Amazing Women, packed with facts kids will love reading.