Book excerpt: Despite Kipling's popularity as an author and his standing as a politically controversial figure, much of his work has remained relatively unexamined due to its categorization as 'children's literature.' Sue Walsh challenges the apparently clear division between 'children's' and 'adult' literature, suggesting new directions for postcolonial and childhood studies and interrogating the way biographical criticism on children's literature in particular has tended to supersede and obstruct other kinds of readings.