About Deirdre Baker
Deirdre Baker is Assistant Professor of English Literature at the University of Toronto, where she teaches children’s literature. She reviews and writes regularly for the Horn Book Magazine and has published various articles on children’s literature; she has been the children’s book reviewer for the Toronto Star since 1998. She is the author of the children’s novel Becca at Sea (2007) and Becca Fair and Foul (2018). She is the co-author with Ken Setterington of A Guide to Canadian Children’s Books (2005).
The story of fantasy in relation to children’s literature is one of forceful contradictions: it is criticized for being fraudulent, irrational, frightening, and overly imaginative; for being formulaic, escapist, and not imaginative enough; for being suitable only for children and for being suitable only for adults. The seeds of this energetic debate take us into the very source of story making: imagination and reason.