Teaching children to read beyond the words is an important pedagogy, but one must consider the level of cognition of the audience. Trites uses young adult and childrens' literature to highlight her points. But her analagies and metaphors are leaps and bounds beyond the realm of understanding of youth. In fact, many of her examples are difficult for graduate students to comprehend. Only a few analogies are comprehensible to a youthful audience. She is a genius at literary analysis, but she needs to consider an age appropriate curriculum. I will not refer to this text in the future, nor will I recommend it to others.

Trites' book is a must read for college students, teachers, parents, everyone... Her language is very accessible. I used this book as the main source for my senior thesis, and found it to be extremely helpful as well as enlightening.

The previous reviewer criticizes the book for not being accessible to youthful audiences. It's quite clear that Trites is writing for a professional, adult audience. In doing so, she provides a thoughtful, intelligent, convincing analysis of feminist children's literature. Potential readers should not be mislead by the previous comments as the reviewer has misunderstood the intended audience for the book. The book is essential reading for any adult interested in feminist children's literature.