Hungry Cities: a Discussion of Contemporary Approaches Towards the Environment in English Children’s Literature.

An overview of English children’s literature from the mid-nineteenth century to contemporary times sees a growing emphasis on the environment, the child constructed as a responsible subject and the urban as opposed to the rural. Allied with this shift is contemporary concern for the environment and the recognition of the impact made by human action. This paper is a discussion of differing approaches typified in the following texts: Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights (1997), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000) and Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines (2001), which all continue the nineteenth century notion of the city as a corrupting and dehumanising influence: in contrast Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother (2004) and Pullman’s representation of the land of the Mulefa again in The Amber Spyglass which, in differing ways, demonstrate an holistic eco-friendly approach to life. My final text is George Saves the World by Lunchtime (2006) by Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts which is produced in association with the Eden Project and is a fantasy story encouraging environmentally responsible attitudes in children.