Introduction
Establishing children's magazines, 1823/1856. Deacon Willis's Companion
Aunt Maria's Miscellany and the limits of gentility
Commercializing children's magazines, 1857/1873. Perry Mason and sensational gentility
The youth's companion and the Civil War
The cultural custodians
The jack-in-the-pulpit
Sustaining children's magazines, 1873/1918. Tales and the city
Children's magazines and modern childhood
Epilogue.