Is Children's Lit Subversive?

Absolutely. For one thing it appeals to and educates children, the most silent of majorities. Children are VERY oppressed, just ask one who is grounded until s/he cleans his/her room. The children in fairy tales are almost always either smarter or more virtuous than the adults. The first motif my group was assigned was the Clever Thief, an excellent example of this subversion: Stealing is ok, it's getting caught that's the real danger. Just be smarter than the mark! Abandoned Children foil the schemes of their parents and assorted villains by being clever and more observant. I can't imagine this subversion was intentional, or at the very least it was not meant to be directed at children. Intrigue, blood, and sex all have been stripped away from folk tales in an attempt to sanitize the tales for kids, so maybe these are the remains of far more inappropriate stories?