This article constitutes an introduction to the five articles that appear in this special issue. This framing process starts by highlighting the sparse, yet important, work that has been conducted over the past 20 years on children’s literature in the field of stylistics. The focus in the article then turns to a more general discussion on the language of children’s literature. Here, in this chronological overview of language usage in books written for children, an outline is sketched from the writers and philosophers of the enlightenment up to contemporary debates on literacy, cognition and theory of mind. In the section that follows, the five studies that appear in this special issue are briefly synopsized. What becomes apparent is the wide range of methodological approaches that have been taken by the scholars in question to analyze the texts that are under investigation, in both quantitative and qualitative ways. The article ends with a plea for more stylistic work to be conducted in the areas of both children’s literature and young adult fiction. This is especially pertinent because stylisticians possess the key linguistic and analytic skills and tools to help, in interdisciplinary settings, to address current social, emotional and cognitive challenges pertaining to child development through literacy and through reading in particular.

本文构成了对本期特刊中出现的五篇文章的介绍。这一框架过程首先突出了过去 20 年来在文体学领域对儿童文学进行的稀疏但重要的工作。然后，本文的重点转向对儿童文学语言的更一般性的讨论。在这里，在这本按时间顺序排列的儿童读物中语言使用的概述中，勾勒出从启蒙运动的作家和哲学家到当代关于识字、认知和心智理论的辩论的大纲。在接下来的部分中，将简要介绍本期特刊中出现的五项研究。显而易见的是，相关学者采用了广泛的方法论方法，以定量和定性的方式分析正在调查的文本。文章最后呼吁在儿童文学和青年小说领域开展更多风格的工作。这一点尤其重要，因为文体师拥有关键的语言和分析技能和工具，可以在跨学科环境中帮助解决当前与儿童发展相关的社会、情感和认知挑战，尤其是通过识字和阅读。