Karen J. Renner
books & edited collections
"an encyclopedic survey of the supernatural and ‘supernormal’ young that haunt our popular culture . . . a terrific resource for childhood scholars who may want to research and teach representations of the bad and the ugly alongside the good"
--Journal for the History of Children and Youth
"Karen J. Renner's provocative book, Evil Children in the Popular Imagination, explores two interesting questions . . . (i) In what ways do cultural texts (books, films, television shows) portraying the ‘evil child’ operate as representations of the moral value of youth; and (ii) How are these representations shaped by larger understandings of childhood in the ‘popular imagination’ (i.e. the contexts in which they are produced)?"
--Children and Society
Selected for the Featured Book Series at Society for the History of Children and Youth.
". . . delightfully easy to read, very entertaining, and extremely clear. . . . [T]he concision, precision and limpidity of all the chapters in the book immediately place it astride two markets–academic and non-academic. It is to be hoped, in fact, that Routledge's austere packaging does not put off lay readers of popular non-fiction, as they would surely benefit from this intelligent, up-to-date and very readable volume."
--International Research Society for Children's Literature
"The essays’ authors explore a diverse array of themes and topics. . . . Although the book casts a wide net, its usefulness to scholars will be found not in an encyclopedic survey of the genre, but in its application of contrasting critical theories"
--The Journal of Popular Culture
". . . an excellent introduction to the subject of childhood evil, and a valuable tool for students and researchers alike. . . . Embracing the open-ended nature of this trope, and acknowledging the powerful ambivalence that often permeates narratives of evil children, The 'Evil Child' is a strong and well-edited volume, whose chapters comprise a lucid and thoughtful contribution to the field"
--International Research in Children's Literature
"This book does a fascinating job depicting cultural, social, and religious differences in describing the idea of the evil child by using nationally and internationally recognized movies from Hollywood and Bollywood cinema."
--Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry