British author Diana Wynne Jones has been writing speculative fiction for children for more than thirty years. A clear influence on more recent writers such as J.K. Rowling, her humorous and exciting stories of wizard's academies, dragons and griffins, many published for children but read by all ages, are also complexly structured and thought provoking critiques of the fantasy tradition. This book will be of interest to Jones's many admirers and to those who study fantasy and children's literature. With the rise in interest in "Harry Potter", there has been an accompanying renaissance of critical interest in Jones's work. This book, however, is the first sustained, single-author study of Jones's work, written by a renowned science fiction critic and historian. In addition to providing an overview of her work, Farah Mendlesohn also examines Jones's important critiques of the fantastic tradition's ideas about childhood and adolescence.