'The idea of ​​a child or childhood motivates writers and determines both the form and content of what they write.' -- Hunt The above statement is incomplete, as Hunt not only states that the writer has an idea of ​​the child, but in the concluding part he states that the reader also has his own assumptions and perceptions of the child and childhood. Therefore, to consider Hunt's statement, this essay will examine the different ideologies surrounding the concept of child and childhood, the form and content in which writers inform the reader about their ideas about childhood, concluding with what they state the selected books. childhood in particular gender. The books used are Voices In The Park by Browne, Mortal Engines by Reeve and Little Women by Alcott to illustrate different formats, authorial craft and concepts about childhood. For clarity, the page numbers used in Voices In The Park are ordinal (1-30) starting from Voice 1. The definition of child in the dictionary is a young human being, an immature person and offspring (Oxford, 1976). This idea is reflected in Mead's statement "that children to adults are representative of something weak and helpless that needs protection, supervision, training, role models, skills, beliefs and 'character'" (Montgomery et al, 2003, p vii). Emphasis is placed on adults' concept of a child rather than size or mentality, raising the idea that a child, and therefore childhood, is not only a biological but also an ideological concept (Falconer, 2009). This ideology creates an oxymoron of children's literature according to Rose (Hunt, 2009a) as adults write, publish and buy books and each group of adults has their own ideas about children... at the heart of the paper... , Milton Keynes, The Open UniversityUnicef ​​(2006) [online] www.unicef.org/protection/files/Trafficking.pdf (accessed 21/5/2011)Wadsworth, S. (2009) 'Louisa May Alcott and the Rise of the Gender -Specific Series Books' in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children's Literature Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.39-48Watson, N. (2009) 'Louisa May Alcott , Little Women (1868-9) Introduction', in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children's Literature Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.13-17Whalley, J. ( 2009) 'Texts and Images: A History' in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Classic texts in children's literature and contemporary trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.299-310