Child-animal encounters are omnipresent in literature, but the fact that these interactions are sometimes marked by violence remains rather underrepresented in literary studies. Thus, this volume examines the complex interplay of childhood, animality and violence in European literatures. The contributors show that animal-child conflicts are often representative of larger issues such as social and intergenerational inequalities, deeply embedded in broader ideological and social frameworks: whether read through the lens of colonialism, capitalism or communism these encounters negotiate fundamental questions about hierarchy, dominance, and agency.