The years stretching from the American Civil War to World War I are regarded as a 'Golden Age of Children's Books'. In this first ever book-length study of the classics of American children's literature, Jerry Griswold analyses twelve tales - including Little Women, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Pollyanna, The Wizard of Oz, and The Secret Garden - discovering that these secular parables all tell essentially the same story, and pointing out the extent to which they emphasize motifs that are distinctively American.