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African American population. Folklorists
and ethnologists will read with interest,
and probably a yearning for more detail,descriptions of the “clear-cut difference thestyle of play and delivery” between whites
and blacks despite their sharing similar
texts (p. 161). In the collection by Soileau
there is less differentiation into developmental stages and the sociopsychologicalanalysis that usually accompanies suchlife-course approaches.
What the Children Said is a goodreminder that folklore is a contemporary form of play that performs various
important social and expressive functions for children. One might assume
that it has been displaced by technology,
but she shows that at least in various oral
and social genres, folklore is active in children’s lives, even if kept secret. It deservesattention and the material in this book—although its presentational format andfunctional interpretation appear dated,or even lacking—can best serve to raisequestions for deeper dives into the complex, diverse societies of the early stages ofhuman development and the situations inwhich children express themselves.
—Simon J. Bronner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
Growing Sideways in TwentyFirst Century British Culture:
Challenging Boundaries
between Childhood andAdulthood
Anne Malewski
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
Company, 2021. List of figures, listof abbreviations, acknowledgments,

introduction, references, index.
229 pp. $143.00, hardcover. ISBN:
9789027210081
Growing Sideways in Twenty-first Century British Culture is a comprehensive,
thoroughly researched monograph into
identifying, contextualizing, and investigating alternative ideas of growth. Theauthor investigates flux in the boundaries
between human childhood and adulthood,in a contemporary society that perpetuates the idea of human growth as a grandnarrative that privileges adulthood. It is
not only a grand narrative that devalues
youth and misses other ways of being, italso devalues and misses other ways ofgrowing. The author concludes that thegrand narrative of growth privileges adulthood by picturing contemporary societythat embraces the ideal of childhood as astate that can (and must) be discarded inorder to attain the state of adulthood. Thevery wide range of sources used to support
the discussions about growing sideways
are well considered and explored meticulously, offering engaging critical analysisof the ideas that pluralize constructionsof childhood and adulthood. The author
states that her study is interested in aparticular, contemporary socio-cultural
moment and in a variety of cultural forms.
The book then goes on to delve deeply andintelligently into these ideas by examining practices around appearance, play,and space the provide alternatives toconventional ideas of growing up and by
establishing that growing sideways is anemerging alternative structure of feeling.
At the heart of this monograph lies thediscourse of adulthood intruding on childhood that emerges alongside a discourse of

Book Reviews

childhood intruding on adulthood. Discussions include instances of blurring age
boundaries, provide examples of growing
sideways as an alternative way of growing
and being, and disassociates the idea fromrigid age categories—all suggesting thatgrowing sideways is as valid as growing up.
The monograph explores whether power
structures around gender affect possibilities of both upwards and sideways growth.
Focusing on children’s literature, televisionseries, films, and participatory events, theauthor provides new models for understanding and navigating growth, exploring
how strategies for sideways growth might
operate. Sideways growth, she suggests,
is a broad cultural phenomenon, traced
through alternative cultural practices, altering affective and other meanings of bodies,clothes, behaviors, attitudes, and spaces.
Sideways growth is a broad cultural
phenomenon, and this research contributes to linking other research on age andchildren, while endeavoring to expand
age studies to concerns other than gerontology. By deconstructing the idea of agrand narrative of the dichotomy between
childhood and adulthood, growing sideways, then, evokes improvised, rather
than rule-governed growth. Through an
exploration of power structures aroundage and gender, the alternative of growing sideways as a distinct alternative discourse about human growth provides a
fresh perspective for supporting young
people mostly unfamiliar with the idea.
This monograph effectively destabilizes
the boundaries between childhood andadulthood by examining a range of socialand political phenomena and a varietyof cultural forms. The author maintains
that this monograph could be considered“a toolkit for identifying, contextualizing and investigating alternative ideas ofgrowth” (p. 196). With a strong theoretical
approach and a thoroughness of investigation, the book clearly meets, if not exceeds,
its intent. Anyone researching sideways
growth or who supports children andyouth comfortably negotiating the processof growing up will find this monographinformative and useful.
—Betty Liebovich, Goldsmiths University,London, United Kingdom
The Infinite Playground:
A Player’s Guide to theImagination
Bernand De Koven with
Holly Gramazio; Celia Pearce and EricZimmerman, eds.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020.
Foreword, introduction, what-if-ing,a lack of conclusion, further reading,contributors. 186 pp. $29.95 paperback.
ISBN: 9780262044073
The Infinite Playground proposes that playful thinking and collective imagining canhave a transformative impact on the world.
Bernard De Koven taught, designed, andpreserved play for over fifty years. His
seminal work, The Well-Played Game
(1978, 2013) continues to inspire students
and designers with its focus on designing
for the play community. The Infinite Playground continues his interest in play andcommunity by examining how collective
play and imagination can transform theworld into a space of possibility.
The volume aims to aid “people in thefields of game design, film, multimedia,

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