Not your (ordinary) grandma: old age in three contemporary Dutch children’s books

This chapter offers an analysis of old age and its relationship with childhood in three recent Dutch children’s books, written by Marjolijn Hof, Ted van Lieshout and Bette Westera. They extended the range of topics linked to old age that has been introduced to young readers, addressing among others euthanasia, the gradual abandonment of old people by their loved ones, sexual needs in senescence and gay marriage at old age. The authors thus continue the Dutch tradition of progressive children’s books. All three texts display a remarkably similar ambivalence with regard to ageist stereotypes, reproducing them in such a way that they also invite criticism. One of these stereotypes that the three books play with is the metaphor that “old people are like children.” Sometimes the connection between old and young age is rooted in weakness, but the books discussed in this chapter also show that positive change, play and growth are possible at any age and thus make an important contribution to the progress narrative that age critics find so rare in contemporary Western society, yet so important.

ISBN:978-3-030-67702-2

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Trefwoorden:H1 Book chapter

BOF-keylabel:ja

Toegankelijkheid:Closed