While children's books are on the periphery of literature they are central to cultural mores. In Australia in the 1950s children's books reasserted the dominance of the bourgeoisie and its claim to intellectual and moral superiority. However, contemporary issues prevail—for girls, gender assumes a new salience. To encourage women to return to the home, romance takes on a Hollywood perspective and consumerism, again in American terms, emerges as a female pre-occupation. In a period of the silent U.S. take-over of the Anglo-Australian economy, the children's books of the 1950s attempt to convince girls to deny themselves careers for the sake of living happily ever after in their dream home.
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