This book offers insights into the typically overlooked perspectives of children and children's culture in Europe, North America and the Global South, and Australia during the period around the First World War, engaging with developments in Children's Literature, War Studies, and Education. Essays visit a network of social, cultural, and political contexts as they are played out in nurseries all over the world in war toys and games. Perspectives on German, British, Australian, and Canadian children's fiction offer an unprecedented account of the lives, stories, games, and toys of children during the First World War, and of how those lives were constructed, reconstructed, and changed.

Introduction Lissa Paul, Rosemary Ross Johnston, and Emma Short Section 1: Writing War 1. Churchill's War Horse: Children's Literature and the Pleasure of War Paul Stevens 2. 'Flying the Flag': Artuto Rossato's First World War Fantasy Novel, L'Aeroplano di Girandolino Lindsay Myers 3. On the Italian Front: Salvator Gotta's Piccolo Alpino (1926) Francesca Orestano 4. A 'Revolutionary' First World War: Girls Writing Girls in America's St. Nicholas Magazine Andrea McKenzie 5. War, the Black Diaspora, and Anti-Colonialist Journalism: The Case of Our Boys and Girls Katharine Capshaw 6. Germanic Power and Uncle Sam's Orders: Immigrant Experience of the First World War in Swedish-American Writings for Youth Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bienkowska Section 2: Propaganda & Experience 7. Schoolgirls and Female Youth in Germany during the First World War Andrew Donson 8. 'The Eastern glow where the big sons go': Arnold Wilson, Clifton College and the First World War Barbara Cooke 9. Australia and Wartime Chorography: Showing and Telling the Story of Home Rosemary Ross Johnston 10. The Building of Boys for War: The Militarization of Boys' Work in the Canadian and American YMCAs Jonathan Weier 11. 'A Salesman Soldier for Uncle Sam': Images of Childhood in US Food Conservation, 1914-1919 Justin Nordstrom Section 3: Education & Play 12. Fun and Military Games: The War in German Picture Books, 1914-1915 Emer O'Sullivan 13. 'A very cruel thing': Canadian Children, The First World War and the Grain Grower's Guide Kristine Moruzi 14. 'How Merrily the Battle Rages': Props for Make-Believe in the Edwardian Nursery Rosie Kennedy 15. Playing Soldiers? War, Boys, and the British Toy Industry Rachel Duffett Section 4: Activism 16. Girl Volunteers: Empowerment through Stories Margaret R. Higonnet 17. Scouting for Rebels: Na Fianna Éireann and Preparation for the Coming War, 1909-1918 Marnie Hay 18. A Child's Army of Millions: The American Junior Red Cross Branden Little 19. 'Leagues of Love' and 'Column Comrades': Children's Responses to War in late-Victorian and Edwardian England Siân Pooley Afterword: Prophesying War: The Hidden Agendas of British Children's Literature, 1900-1914 ... and 2015 Peter Hunt

Rosemary Johnston is Professor of Education and Culture at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Lissa Paul is Professor in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, Canada.

Emma Short is Research Associate in the School of English Literature, Language, and Linguistics at Newcastle University, UK.