This book explores how the concept of childhood in the late 18th century was constructed through the ideological work performed by children's literature, as well as pedagogical writing and medical literature of the era. Andrew O'Malley ties the evolution of the idea of "the child" to the growth of the middle class, which used the figure of the child as a symbol in its various calls for social reform.

"I would cetainly recommend this work to anyone interested in the history of childhood and its literatures. The scholarship is exemplary, and I was constantly discovering things that I should have known but did not. The theory is sound and not so obstrusive as to detract from the analysis it supports, and what the argument lacks in scope it makes up for in detail." --John Morgenstern, Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada