Nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Scholarly/Academic Book.

Some of the most popular and influential comics have been single-panel titles.  

This book examines one-panel comics in the United States from the 19th century through the present day.

Chapters include discussions of the following titles:

• Gary Larson's The Far Side

• Bil Keane's The Family Circus

• Jackie Ormes's Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger

• Marge's Little Lulu

• Peter Arno's New Yorker cartoons

• Tom Wilson's Ziggy

• Thomas Nast's political cartoons

Received Honorable Mention for the Charles M. Hatfield Book Prize from the Comics Studies Society.

Good Grief!  It's an entire book about Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts, Charlie Brown!

Each chapter spotlights a different beloved character from the beloved series.  

Chapter discussions include the following:

• Charlie Brown and the possible hidden symbolism of his zig-zag shirt

• the line-shading of Franklin and Pig-Pen

• Snoopy and his unexpectedly feline qualities

• Woodstock and the 1969 Woodstock Festival

• Lucy and television sitcoms in the 1950s

• Schulz's diagnosis with essential tremor and disability

American comics from the mid-twentieth century are commonly regarded as a "boys' club": they were largely created by male cartoonists, featured young male protagonists, and read by an audience of boys.

This book examines the long, rich, and overlooked history of young female characters in U.S. comics from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Chapters include discussions of the following tiles:

• Little Orphan Annie

• Little Lulu

• Nancy

• Li'l Tomboy

• The Harvey Girls

Both individually and especially as a group, these characters did much more than just make their readers laugh, they made them think about important issues like traditional gender roles, social norms, and American childhood.

Children's literature isn't just for children anymore.

No Kids Allowed examines the growing genre of narratives that use a literary format that is commonly associated with children--picture books, bedtime stories, alphabet books, etc--but they are intended for a readerships of adults.

Chapters include discussions of the following:

• Dr. Seuss's You're Only Old Once!

• the adult coloring book craze

• Go the F*ck to Sleep

• Picture book parodies including Goodnight Keith Moon and Don't Let the Republican Drive the Bus!

• Cherry Aimless, Nancy Clue, and The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse

"Off With Their Heads!" 

Books intended for young readers seem like an unlikely place for stories featuring murder.  However, homicide has a long tradition in children's literature.

Chapters include discussion of the following titles:

• "Snow White"

• The Outsiders

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

• Nancy Drew

• Tarzan of the Apes

• Walter Dean Myer's Monster

Books for children commonly offer conservative social messages: obey your parents, eat your vegetables, follow the rules, etc.

Raising Your Kids Right examines narratives for young readers that possess a conservative political perspective as well.  

Embodying an alternative and even counterpoint to beliefs in the liberal nature of contemporary children's literature, right-leaning books for young readers are a growing and influential genre in the United States.

Chapter discussions include the following titles:

• William Bennett's The Book of Virtues

• The O'Reilly Factor for Kids

• Lynne Cheney's A is for America: A Patriotic Primer

• Left Behind series for kids

• Help! Mom! There's Liberals Under My Bed! and its sequels

The rise of the internet and the divisiveness over contentious socio-political issues has changed not simply American culture in recent years, but its narratives for young readers as well.

The Big Smallness examines the surge in amateur-authored, independently-published, and niche-market picture books during the opening decades of the twenty-first century. 

I explore how titles such as My Parents Open Carry (about gun laws), It’s Just a Plant (about marijuana policy), and My Beautiful Mommy (about the plastic surgery industry) occupy important battle stations in ongoing partisan conflicts, while they are simultaneously changing the landscape of American children’s literature. 

Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBTQ Studies.

If you weren't a tomboy growing up, then you likely knew one.  

This book examines the literary and cultural history of tomboyism in the United States from the 1840s through the 1990s, paying special attention to issues of race and class.

Chapters include discussions of the following books and films:

• Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

• Nancy Drew and Harriet the Spy

• Films from the 1970s/1980s such as Paper Moon, Little Darlings, The Bad News Bears, and Times Square

• Lesbian pulp fiction from the 1950s and 1960s

• Hollywood movies from the 1990s, including Fried Green Tomatoes and A League of Their Own

• Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding

• New Queer Cinema from the 1990s, such as Go Fish , The Watermelon Woman, and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love