The present third edition of the book Introduction to the theory and critique of children's literature aims to incorporate basic rearrangements and newer directions of research on children's books both internationally and in Greece. The modern theory of children's literature has made significant progress in recent decades, and it is natural for today's researcher to aspire to introduce, compare, and combine them with their own theoretical concerns.

This book is a kind of handbook, with a clear practical character that succinctly presents the basic theoretical issues that concern modern research on children's literature. It addresses timeless questions such as "what is a child," "what are its characteristics that differentiate it from adults," "if these particular characteristics determine its reading preferences and what do we know about them," which generally fuel the discussion about children's literature and children's books in general.

The exploration of theoretical issues follows their historical evolution as well as their genre categorization, making the book concise, scientifically substantiated, and accessible to a more specific audience, namely students of Education Departments for Preschool and Primary Education, teachers, kindergarten teachers, and librarians, as well as to any reader who has discovered or is looking to discover the enjoyment in stories for children.