How Picturebooks Work


Book Description

How Picturebooks Work is an innovative and engaging look at the interplay between text and image in picturebooks. The authors explore picturebooks as a specific medium or genre in literature and culture, one that prepares children for other media of communication, and they argue that picturebooks may be the most influential media of all in the socialization and representation of children. Spanning an international range of children's books, this book examine such favorites as Curious George and Frog and Toad Are Friends, along with the works of authors and illustrators including Maurice Sendak and Tove Jansson, among others. With 116 illustrations, How Picturebooks Work offers the student of children's literature a new methodology, new theories, and a new set of critical tools for examining the picturebook form.




Re-thinking Picturebooks for Intermediate and Advanced Learners: Perspectives for Secondary English Language Education


Book Description

Der didaktische Wert von picturebooks für den Englischunterricht in der Grundschule gilt als unumstritten. Jedoch gibt es in Forschung und Unterrichtspraxis derzeit kaum Ansätze, wie der Transfer dieses vermeintlich kindlichen Literaturmediums in die Sekundarstufe gelingen kann. Dieser Band legitimiert picturebooks als komplex angelegte Textform, die sich auch mit fortgeschrittenen Lernenden zu kompetenz- und inhaltsorientierter Arbeit im Englischunterricht anbietet. Die im Band versammelten konzeptuellen und empirischen Perspektiven zeigen angehenden und praktizierenden Lehrkräften konkret auf, wie vielfältig picturebooks den Unterricht bereichern können. Eine große Bandbreite praktischer Beispiele verdeutlicht ihr Potenzial für den Englischunterricht der Sekundarstufen - von der Förderung verschiedener literacies und literarischen Lernens bis hin zur Fokussierung von Themen wie Umwelt, sozialer Gerechtigkeit oder kultureller Diversität.




The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks


Book Description

Containing forty-eight chapters, The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks is the ultimate guide to picturebooks. It contains a detailed introduction, surveying the history and development of the field and emphasizing the international and cultural diversity of picturebooks. Divided into five key parts, this volume covers: Concepts and topics – from hybridity and ideology to metafiction and emotions; Genres – from baby books through to picturebooks for adults; Interfaces – their relations to other forms such as comics and visual media; Domains and theoretical approaches, including developmental psychology and cognitive studies; Adaptations. With ground-breaking contributions from leading and emerging scholars alike, this comprehensive volume is one of the first to focus solely on picturebook research. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it key for both scholars and students of literature, as well as education and media.




Learning from Picturebooks


Book Description

Picturebooks, understood as a series of meaningful text-picture relations, are increasingly acknowledged as an autonomous sub-genre of children’s literature. Being highly complex aesthetic products, their use is deeply embedded in specific situations of joint attention between a caregiver and a child. This volume focuses on the question of what children may learn from looking at picturebooks, whether printed in a book format, created in a digital format, or self-produced by educationalists and researchers. Interest in the relationship between cognitive processes and children’s literature is growing rapidly, and in this book, theoretical frameworks such as cognitive linguistics, cognitive narratology, cognitive poetics, and cognitive psychology, have been applied to the analysis of children’s literature. Chapters gather empirical research from the fields of literary studies, linguistics and cognitive psychology together for the first time to build a cohesive understanding of how picturebooks assist learning and development. International contributions explore: language acquisition the child’s cognitive development emotional development literary acquisition ("literary literacy") visual literacy. Divided into three parts considering symbol-based learning, co-constructed learning, and learning language skills, this cross-disciplinary volume will appeal to researchers, students and professionals engaged in children’s literature and literacy studies, as well as those from the fields of cognitive and developmental psychology, linguistics, and education.




Picturebooks


Book Description

The picturebook is now recognized as a sophisticated art form that has provided a space for some of the most exciting innovations in the field of children’s literature. This book brings together the work of expert scholars from the UK, the USA and Europe to present original theoretical perspectives and new research on picturebooks and their readers. The authors draw on a variety of disciplines such as art and cultural history, semiotics, philosophy, cultural geography, visual literacy, education and literary theory in order to revisit the question of what a picturebook is, and how the best authors and illustrators meet and exceed artistic, narrative and cultural expectations. The book looks at the socio-historical conditions of different times and countries in which a range of picturebooks have been created, pointing out variations but also highlighting commonalities. It also discusses what the stretching of borders may mean for new generations of readers, and what contemporary children themselves have to say about picturebooks. This book was originally published as a special issue of the New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship.




Picturebooks: Representation and Narration


Book Description

This volume discusses the aesthetic and cognitive challenges of modern picturebooks from different countries, such as Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and USA. The overarching issue concerns the mutual relationship between representation and narration by means of the picturebooks’ multimodal character. Moreover, this volume includes the main lines of debate and approaches to picturebooks by international leading researchers in the field. Topics covered are the impact of paratexts and interpictorial allusions, the relationship between artists’ books, crossover picturebooks, and picturebooks for adults, the narrative defiance of wordless picturebooks, the representation of emotions in images and text, and the depiction of hybrid characters in picturebooks. The enlargement of the picturebook corpus beyond an Anglo-American picturebook canon opens up new horizons and highlights the diverging styles and genre shifts in modern picturebooks. This tendency also demonstrates the influence of specific authors and illustrators on the appreciation of the picturebook genre, as in the case of Astrid Lindgren’s picturebooks and the picturebooks created by renowned illustrators, such as Anthony Browne, Wolf Erlbruch, Stian Hole, and Bruno Munari. This book will be the definite contribution to contemporary picturebook research for many years to come.




Exploring Challenging Picturebooks in Education


Book Description

What should children and students read? This volume explores challenging picturebooks as learning materials in early childhood education, primary and secondary school, and even universities. It addresses a wide range of thematic, cognitive, and aesthetic challenges and educational affordances of picturebooks in various languages and from different countries. Written by leading and emerging scholars in the field of picturebook studies and literacy research, the book discusses the impact of challenging picturebooks in a comprehensive manner and combines theoretical considerations, picturebook analyses, and empirical studies with children and students. It introduces stimulating picturebooks from all continents and how they are used or may be used in educational settings and contexts. The chapters touch on subjects like reading promotion, second-language acquisition, art education, interdisciplinary learning, empathy development, minority issues, and intercultural competence. Moreover, they consider relevant aspects of the educational environments, such as the inclusion of picturebooks in the curriculum, the significance of school libraries, and the impact of publishers. Exploring Challenging Picturebooks in Education sheds new light on the multiple dimensions relevant to investigating the impact of picturebooks on learning processes and the development of multimodal literacy competencies. It thus makes a significant contribution to the growing area of picturebook research and will be key reading for educators, researchers, and post-graduate students in the field of literacy studies, children’s literature, and education research.




Democracy in Picturebooks from Sweden and United States, 2000–2020


Book Description

Democracy in Picturebooks from Sweden and the United States, 2000-2020 explores democracy-themed picturebooks written for children between the ages of three and ten. With multiple analyses of picturebooks throughout the twenty-first century, the authors illustrate how picturebooks can play a vital role in the development of children’s perceptions about the different principles of democracy. From a holistic perspective, these books can be seen as the starting point for socializing children who will come to lead and participate in democratic societies themselves. The multi-pronged approach in this research introduces: (a) concepts underlying the role of picturebooks in familiarizing children with concepts about democracy, (b) research methods for picturebook analyses, (c) exploration of specific exemplar picturebooks that address democratic principles, (d) how picturebooks link democracy with human qualities, (e) utilizing democracy-themed picturebooks in the home and the school. This project holds the promise of promoting meaningful instruction of democracy through the use of picturebooks.




Challenging and Controversial Picturebooks


Book Description

It is often assumed that picturebooks are for very young readers because of their emphasis on the illustrations and their scarcity of text; however, there are increasing numbers of picturebooks where the age of the implied reader is questionable. These are picturebooks whose controversial subject matter and unconventional, often unsettling style of illustration challenge the reader, pushing them to question and probe deeper to understand what the book is about. In addition to the book challenging the reader, the reader often challenges the book in an attempt to understand what is being said. These increasingly popular picturebooks work on many different levels; they are truly polysemic and worthy of in-depth analysis. They push the reader to ask questions and in many instances are intrinsically philosophical, often dealing with fundamental life issues. Challenging and Controversial Picturebooks examines these unconventional, non-conformist picturebooks, considering what they are, their audience and their purpose. It also considers: Children’s and adults’ thoughts on these kinds of picturebooks. How challenging and unsettling wordless picturebooks can play with the mind and promote philosophical thought. What creates non-conformity and strangeness ... is it the illustrations and their style, the subject matter or a combination of both? Why certain countries create, promote and accept these picturebooks more than others. Why certain picturebooks are censored and what factors are in play when these decisions are made. The role of publishers in translating and publishing these picturebooks. Children’s creative and critical responses to strange, unsettling and often disturbing visual texts. This inspiring and thought-provoking volume explores the work of a number of highly respected, international picturebook experts and includes an exclusive interview with the legendary Klaus Flugge, Managing Director of Andersen Press, one of the few remaining independent children’s book publishers in England. It is an indispensable reference for all interested in or working with picturebooks, including researchers, students in higher and teacher education, English advisors/inspectors, literacy consultants and classroom teachers.




Language, Identity and Diversity in Picturebooks


Book Description

This book presents a range of perspectives on the way language, diversity, and identity are reflected in New Zealand children’s literature, based on the published research of Nicola Daly, an associate professor in the Division of Education of the University of Waikato, and her colleagues. The book is organised into two sections. The first section examines the use of Te Reo Māori and English in the text of New Zealand picturebooks, exploring the linguistic landscape of Māori-English bilingual picturebooks. The second section, The Pedagogical Potential of Picturebooks, explores how picturebooks featuring Māori, English, New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL), and Pacific languages reflect identity and support diversity in society. Research from several educational contexts, ranging from kindergarten to university, where picturebooks are used to support learning language and learning about language is also discussed. Themes of language, identity, and diversity are explored throughout the two sections and brought together in the concluding chapter’s discussion of the power of picturebooks. This book will be of interest to scholars in children’s literature and education; it may also be relevant to scholars in linguistics library and information studies, cultural studies, and media and communication studies.