Becoming a reader : the experience of fiction from childhood to adulthood

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1990. 1st edition. Hardcover. Near fine cloth copy in a very good if slightly edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust-wrapper. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: x, 228 pages : 24 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: Mapping the terrain -- Reader-oriented theory - Reading and psychological development -- Five roles readers take -- Part I: Early childhood: the reader as player -- The young child's world -- The cognitive account of fantasy -- The affective power of fantasy -- Fantasy, play, and trust -- Part II: Later childhood: the reader as hero and heroine -- The young reader's world -- What children read -- Narrative structure: cognitive aspects -- Narrative structure: affective aspects -- Character -- Fiction and information: two points of view -- A process of growth -- A note on sex roles -- Part III: Adolescence: the reader as thinker -- An adolescent's world -- What adolescents read -- Involvement and identification -- Realism -- Thinking -- Reading and studying literature -- Part IV: College and beyond: the reader as interpreter -- Two students reading -- The transparent text -- The problematic text -- The intelligible text -- The text theorized -- Irony -- Part V: Adulthood: the pragmatic reader -- Elizabeth -- adulthood -- The uses of reading -- Escaping -- Searching for truth -- Discovering usable images. Subjects: Reader-response criticism; Criticism Psychological aspects; Developmental psychology; Reading; Books and reading; Fiction Psychological aspects; Reading, Psychology of.