This book is about the genre of school stories, that is, stories that deal with the education and the educational experiences of boys and girls. The book examines specific authors and specific works from the 1840s to the present, focusing on "crossgendering"--men writing about girls and women writing about boys. The chapters are, as follows: Chapter 1--Introduction: Redressing the School Stories, Crossgendering a Genre; Chapter 2--Anxious Proxies and Independent Girls: Charles Lamb and Other Early Men; Chapter 3--The First Tom Brown: Dorothy Kilner and Other Early Women Writers; Chapter 4--Telling Tales about Telling Tales: E.J. May and Other Talebearers; Chapter 5--At Midcentury: Mary Martha Sherwood and Other Transitional Women; Chapter 6--Crossing Gender with Race: Edward Everett Hale and Other U.S. Writers; Chapter 7--Crossing Gender with Ethnicity: Elizabeth Eiloart and Other British Writers; Chapter 8--Sensationalizing the School Story: Ellen Wood; Chapter 9--Domesticating the School Story: Louisa May Alcott; Chapter 10--Engendering the School Story: Julia A. Mathews; Chapter 11--Policing the Borders, Satirizing the State: H.G. Wells and Other Female Impersonators; and Chapter 12--Approaching High Seriousness: D. Wynne Willson and Other Recent Women. Concludes with a list of works cited and an author and title index. (NKA)