Simultaneous Emotions: Entwining Modes in Children’s Books

Critics and teachers tend to pay attention to genre and ignore mode as an area of consideration. This study examines three novels for young readers that are comparable in terms of their entwining opposing modes (irony and romance, comedy and tragedy) as a successful crossover strategy for appeal to readers young and old. I share implications for this phenomenon in terms of the novels themselves, crossover books, course design, and the notion of general audience appeal.