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Books

Under Harry Potter’s spell: most children’s books have become shamelessly derivative, says Melanie McDonagh

Melanie McDonagh enjoys browsing Daniel Hahn’s new Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, but wishes it had pictures

11 April 2015

9:00 AM

11 April 2015

9:00 AM

The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature Daniel Hahn

OUP, pp.668, £30, ISBN: 9780199695140

Go to any bookshop — always supposing you’re fortunate enough to have any left in your neck of the woods — and chances are that lots of window space will be given over to two genres — children’s books and cookbooks. Step inside, and the children’s books are under your nose.

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