The aim of this thesis is to shed light onto the vastly unexplored subject of meta-texts aimed as children, as well as their effects. Children's meta-narratives have been mostly ignored in literary and cultural studies, and even more so in effects research. However, considering the narratological potential of self-referential texts, especially when aimed at children, it only seems reasonable to examine them more thoroughly to gain more insights into the narratological structure of such texts as

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... well as their possible effects on young readers. Specifically, this discussion has a closer look at two unusual examples even more children's meta-narratives, namely the television series Doug Langdale's The Weekenders and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Both texts do not just aim to make aware of their own constructedness but seem to go a step further and use reader involvement so as to give readers the impression their texts might be real. In order to prove this, this thesis uses method mix to help take into consideration two side of the discussion, namely that of literary as well as cultural studies, but also social studies in the form of effects research. One the one hand, text analysis of the two texts have been carried out with the help of narratological concepts by Nikolajeva (2005) and cross-media models by Withalm (2007) and Ryan (2009) to show both texts' unique characteristics. On the other hand, an empirical study has been conducted in the form of qualitative focus interviews with four preteenagers, to find evidence for possible effects created by these two texts. Indeed, the study suggests that the children who had more experience with meta-texts before the interview, also seemed to identify and enjoy meta-elements more quickly and were more likely to believe in parts of the reality illusion set up by the works. In addition, it has also become evident that there might be a correlation between children's enjoyment of meta-narratives and their ability to be more critical of societal norms prese [...]