Bøger i Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies serien

Trafficked children are portrayed by the media - and even by child welfare specialists - as hapless victims who are forced to migrate from a poor country to the United States, where they serve as sex slaves. But as Elzbieta M. Gozdziak reveals in Trafficked Children in the United States, the picture is far more complex.

In the early years of the twentieth century, Americans began to recognize adolescence as a developmental phase distinct from both childhood and adulthood. This title explores the girls' organizations that sprang up in the first half of the twentieth century from a socio-historical perspective.

The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a surge in the publication and popularity of autobiographical writings about childhood. Linking literary and cultural studies, Drawing on trauma and memory studies and theories of authorship and readership, this title offers commentary on the triumphs, trials, and tribulations that have shaped this genre.

The author's 46 interviews with the families of children with chronic illness gives an understanding of how the children comprehend their illnesses and how parents struggle daily to care for their kids while trying to give them a ""normal"" childhood.

Focuses on the girls' experiences of violence and the inequities of the criminal justice system. Offering a critical assessment of what she describes as a gender-insensitive juvenile justice system, the author takes us inside female detention centers and explores the worlds of those who are incarcerated.

Armies of the Young argues against the assumption that child soldiers are simply a hideous manifestation of adult criminal exploitation. Using specific examples it shows how children are not always passive victims, but often make rational decisions that the one thing worse than fighting is not fighting. It urges a reconsideration of the issue.

Examines the theme of children in major religions of the world. This volume addresses a range of topics, from the sanctity of birth to a child's relationship to evil, showing that issues regarding children are central to understanding world religions and raising significant questions about our own conceptions of children.

Children are often patronized or idealized by adults. Rarely do we look for strengths that can serve as foundations for growth and development. In this volume, 20 contributors provide a multidisciplinary view of childhood by listening and understanding the ways children shape their own futures.

Writing about children on the school playgrounds of working-class Belfast, Northern Ireland, Donna M. Lanclos uses their own words to show how they shape their social identities. She explores their ideas about gender, family, adult-child interactions, and Protestant/Catholic tensions.

This text takes the reader inside children's classrooms and reveals the lessons about race that are communicated there, both implicitly and explicitly. It examines how ideas about race and racial inequality take shape and are passed along in the classroom and schoolyard.

Examines the centrality of girlhood in shaping women's lives. Scholars study how age and gender, along with a multitude of other identities, work together to influence the historical experience. Spanning a broad time frame from 1750 to the present, thematically-arranged essays and case studies illuminate the various continuities and differences in girls' lives across culture and region.

Draws on the author's daily observations of working children in Hanoi and argues that the youngsters are misunderstood by the majority of agencies that seek to support them. Looking at the experiences of children in contemporary Vietnam, she provides an analysis of how internationally led human rights agendas are often received on the local level.

Whether First Communion or bar mitzvah, religious traditions play a central role in the lives of American children. This book presents a collection of essays that reveal how various religions interpret and mediate their traditions to help guide children and their parents in navigating the opportunities and challenges of American life.