Adult - Children’s Literature and the Adult/Child Binary - Coming of Age

Oct 15, 2026

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This article explores adulthood within children’s literature, focusing on how adult authorship, illustration, and production shape perceptions of childhood and the scope of diverse representation. It examines conflicting portrayals that complicate the boundaries between adults and children, including whether the relationship is one of difference, similarity, or degree. The study challenges adulthood’s privileged moral authority, analyzes “coming of age” as a complex spectrum, and urges scholars to scrutinize their own adult positions within children’s genres.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Adult

How adults construct childhood

Adult–child boundaries and representation

Adult authority and moral reliability

Adulting, transition, and coming of age as a spectrum

Adult Catherine Williams Kansas State University Abstract This article explores the topic of adulthood within children’s literature. Because adults author, illustrate, and produce children’s literature, adults construct what childhood looks like, as well as the degree of diverse representation within children’s texts. The varied, and sometimes conflicting, depictions of child characters reveal the difficulties in defining the boundaries between adults and children, particularly whether their relationship is one of difference, similarity, or degree. Children’s literature also interrogates the privileged moral position of adulthood, calling into question whether or not simply being an adult makes someone a reliable role model. The evolving depiction of adults underscores the difficulties of defining adulthood’s role in children’s texts. Lastly, the article examines the phrase “coming of age” and its relationship to the adult/child binary. By rendering “coming of age” as a complex process, the relationship between childhood and adulthood can be viewed as a spectrum, rather than one of difference. Ultimately, examining adulthood reminds scholars to cultivate an awareness of their assumptions as they negotiate, untangle, and examine their own positions as adults within a genre for children. Keywords: adult; children’s literature; childhood; coming of age; adulting Author Bio: Catherine Williams is a Master’s student in the English department at Kansas State University. She studies children’s literature and cultural studies. Her research interests focus on motherhood, trauma, resilience, and childhood studies. [Email: willicat@ksu.edu](Email: willicat@ksu.edu) The term “adult” derives from the Latin “adultus”, a noun used to signify something that is “full-grown, mature, firmly established,” or a “fully-grown person”(Oxford English Dictionary [OED], 2011) . In its earliest cited usage (1531), the OED locates “adult” beyond the domain of childhood: “Soche persons, beinge nowe adulte, that is to saye, passed theyr childehode”(OED) . If adulthood requires us to pass through childhood, then “adult” defines childhood as a distinctly separate state rather than a transitional phase of life. Though the binary of adult and child certainly still exists, the boundaries between adult and child are becoming increasingly blurred. In contemporary usage,“adult” has become a slang verb, as in “adulting” which means to“behave like an adult,” and to demonstrate “grown-up” skills such as “having a job and living independently [and] also such mundanities as taking clothes to the dry cleaners” (“Adult as a Verb”) . Merriam-Webster reports that the usage of adult as a verb has seen “a six-fold increase”in the first five months of 2016, with over 642,000 mentions of “adulting” within the Lexis-Nexis publication database alone (“Adult as a Verb”). The emergence of “adulting” by English-speaking Millennials indicates a blurring of the lines between adult and child in the twenty-first century. As Marah Gubar (2013) declares,“there is no one moment when we suddenly flip over from being a child to being an adult”(p. 454) . This suggests that young people gradually make the transition towards adulthood by acquiring skills that demonstrate maturity and independence instead of leaping between the binary of child and adult. Adults occupy both a pervasive and perilous position within children’s literature—particularly in terms of its production and distribution. As Beverly Lyon Clark (2011) notes, “children’s literature always has at least a double address: the children who are the ostensible audience and the adults whose decisions make it available”(p. 15) . Adults author, illustrate, and control the publication of children’s texts. Adults also curate the degree of diversity and representation in children’s books, and control which texts receive prestigious accolades such as the Caldecott and Newbery honour awards. Because adults, rather than ch

FAQs

How does adult authorship influence depictions of childhood in children’s literature?

Adults author, illustrate, and produce children’s texts, which shapes how childhood is portrayed and how representation and diversity are curated. Adults also determine which works receive major awards.

Why does the article say that defining the boundary between adults and children is difficult?

It points to varied and sometimes conflicting portrayals of child characters and examines whether adult–child relations are based on difference, similarity, or degrees rather than a strict division.

What does the article argue about “coming of age”?

It treats “coming of age” as a complex process, suggesting that childhood and adulthood function as a spectrum instead of a binary split.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben