Lois Rostow Kuznets is a professor emeritus of English at San Diego State University

San Diego State University

San Diego State University , founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, is the largest and oldest higher education facility in the greater San Diego area , and is part of the California State University system...

, specializing in children's literature

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...

. Her best-known book, When Toys Come Alive, studies narratives featuring living toys such as Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his...

 and Winnie the Pooh, arguing that the toys function as transitional objects that mediate between childhood and adult desires. The book won multiple awards. http://childlit.sdsu.edu/faculty/kuznets.htm. She was also President of the Children's Literature Association

Children's Literature Association

The Children's Literature Association is a non-profit scholarly association dedicated to studying children's literature. Begun in the 1970s to generate interest in children's literature as an academic discipline and to provide a place for those studying children's literature to share ideas, the...

.