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Showing papers in "Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature in 2014"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined selected Canadian and American picture books featuring characters with disabilities and proposed critical literacy as a framework through which children may interrogate messages in text and illustration, identifying patterns, trends, and themes related to characterizations that involve disabilities.
Abstract: This study, framed through a lens of Radical Change, examines selected Canadian and American picture books featuring characters with disabilities. While aspects of diversity such as cultural difference are consciously included in contemporary children’s books, differences related to disability are often absent. In this study, qualitative content analysis identifies patterns, trends, and themes related to characterizations that involve disabilities, proposing critical literacy as a framework through which children may interrogate messages in text and illustration.

16 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the nature of stories appearing in supplementary reading books authored by teachers in South Africa and found that teachers act to uphold the values and morals of a society and as change agents when provided with ample opportunities.
Abstract: This article explores the nature of stories appearing in supplementary reading books authored by teachers in South Africa. Teachers wrote about topics including the role of education in improving lives and the richness and diversity of South Africa. Themes included caring, responsibility, achieving goals, earned respect, traditional values and breaking gender barriers. As authors, teachers act to uphold the values and morals of a society and as change agents when provided with ample opportunities.

6 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the difficulties of presenting two-spirited individuals in textual form due to the amount of political, social, and spiritual complexity associated with this particular identity category.
Abstract: This article explores the difficulties of presenting two-spirited individuals in textual form due to the amount of political, social, and spiritual complexity associated with this particular identity category. Utilizing personal statements from aboriginal and two-spirit-identified individuals as well as secondary sources from well-known academics, this essay interrogates two novels in its focus on the deconstruction of identity categories to better understand the two-spirit identity within each text.

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the strategies within the visual and verbal narratives of four picture books by recent recipients of IBBY's Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration in their confrontation of the most formidable of all unknowns.
Abstract: How can children transcend the tendency to empathize with those similar to themselves over those who are different, and so begin the journey to cross those boundaries that the fear of the unknown imposes? This paper examines the strategies within the visual and verbal narratives of four picture books by recent recipients of IBBY's Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration in their confrontation of the most formidable of all unknowns—death.

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The work of Francois Place is at the intersection of documentary and fiction, of historical or geographical reality and the imaginary as mentioned in this paper, the French artist has the gift of taking his readers of all ages through his lines, strokes, and colors into parallel universes.
Abstract: The work of Francois Place is at the intersection of documentary and fiction, of historical or geographical reality and the imaginary. Traveler of time and space, the French artist has the gift of taking his readers of all ages through his lines, strokes, and colors into parallel universes. In turn, illustrator, author, and novelist, Place also has the genius of rethinking the very concept of children’s picture books. Born in 1957, to a schoolteacher mother and a mosaic artist father, Francois Place spent his childhood in Ezanville, a small town located about 20 kilometers north of Paris. He was eleven years old when the Place family moved to Touraine where his grandparents lived. Francois pursued his secondary studies at Tours. With a literary baccalaureate in hand, he left the Valley of the Loire in 1974, and undertook three years of advanced study in Paris, at the Ecole Estienne, a school of advanced studies for the arts and graphics industries. After graduation, he started out in business communication, publishing and advertising. In 1983, he began illustrating at Hachette, collaborating on the “Bibliotheque Rose” collection, where he participated in republishing the works of the Countess of Segur. For Hachette Jeunesse always and for “Le Livre de Poche” collection, he worked with Henriette Bichonnier and Roselyne Morel. In 1985, he met Pierre Marchand, editor at Gallimard Jeunesse, who noticed his drawings for youth. His career as an illustrator seemed to skyrocket from this point. Gallimard entrusted him with the illustration of a series of five documentaries for the “Decouverte Cadet” collection, having as a subject the discovery of the world, the great conquerors, explorers and navigators.

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors analyzed images of aboriginality created in Chilean narratives for children, and argued that these images try to instill contemporary ideas of national identity, showing how cultural practices and geographical motifs drive the renovated, post-dictatorship discourses of Chilean identity.
Abstract: This paper analyzes images of aboriginality created in Chilean narratives for children, and argues that these images try to instill contemporary ideas of national identity. The books Tres Principes [Three Princes] (1994) and Flora, Cuentos Andinos [Flora, Andean tales] (2008) are closely examined, showing how cultural practices and geographical motifs drive the renovated, post-dictatorship discourses of Chilean identity.

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors conducted an analysis of a selection of books from the 2011 South Australia Premier's Reading Challenge, which centres upon a recommended reading book list from which children must select titles in order to complete the challenge.
Abstract: This essay engages in an analysis of a selection of books from the 2011 South Australia Premier’s Reading Challenge, which centres upon a recommended reading book list from which children must select titles in order to complete the challenge. As our findings suggest, nowhere in the subsection of the list explicitly named as “ families and relationships” did there appear representations of lesbian mother-families, and indeed in the larger sample of the 4000 books on the list, only one such representation was identified. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and provides recommendations for how this issue may be addressed.

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors suggests that Lo's approach is undercut by heteronormative rebounds into sexualized payment, rendering the lesbian narrative invisible to hauntings of bisexual shame and compulsory heterosexuality, and concludes that Lo confines her slipstream variation to rigid boundaries of gender and sexuality.
Abstract: Critics and readers alike praise Malinda Lo for her novel, Ash, a contemporary Cinderella story and a queer variation of the ash girl tale. Despite its potential as a landmark variation in same-sex romance, this paper suggests that Lo’s queer approach is undercut by heteronormative rebounds into sexualized payment. Ultimately, Lo confines her slipstream variation to rigid boundaries of gender and sexuality, rendering the lesbian narrative invisible to hauntings of bisexual shame and compulsory heterosexuality.

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Celebrating the Margins : Families and Gender in the Work of the Swedish Picturebook Artist Pija Lindenbaum as discussed by the authors is a book about families and gender in the work of Swedish picturebook artists.
Abstract: Celebrating the Margins : Families and Gender in the Work of the Swedish Picturebook Artist Pija Lindenbaum

3 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Project for the Study of Alternative education in South Africa (PRAeSA: www.praesa.org.za) is an independent research and development organization affiliated with the University of cape town as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: the Project for the Study of Alternative education in South Africa (PRAeSA: www.praesa.org.za) is an independent research and development organization affiliated with the University of cape town. established by dr. neville Alexander in 1992, PRAeSA emerged from the struggle against apartheid education, to document educational alternatives that had been tried out during those years, which could inform the new education process. circumstances since 1995 focused the project’s work on language policy, especially the key area of language-in-education policy implementation (Alexander). In multilingual South Africa with its eleven official languages, a central focus of PRAeSA has been on early language and literacy teaching and learning as the essential foundations for learning. Our approach appreciates the storytelling hearts and minds of children (and adults) and how meaningful encounters with reading and writing are as critical for learning to read and write as the mechanics of the literacy learning process (Bloch “don’t”). We thus have always had the aim to help enable the kinds of conditions for learning (cambourne), inside and outside of school, which motivates children and adults to want to read and write in African languages and in english. Th e Pr oj ec t f or th e St ud y

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined five of Pat Mora's picture books that are accessible in both Spanish and English and relevant to children in both Mexico and the U.S. Each transcends political borders and amplifies the hypotheses that Gloria Anzaldua introduces in Borderlands: The New Mestiza and Mora extends in Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle.
Abstract: Mexican American writer Pat Mora has dedicated her career to creating poetry and prose that supports readers’ transnational and cosmopolitan identities. This article examines five of Mora’s picture books that are accessible in both Spanish and English and relevant to children in both Mexico and the U.S. Each transcends political borders and amplifies the hypotheses that Gloria Anzaldua introduces in Borderlands: The New Mestiza and Mora extends in Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle .

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines the work of Brazilian illustrator Roger Mello by placing it in dialog with the literary tradition, the artistic environment, and the historical circumstances that have contributed to shape it, from Mello's childhood in Brasilia during the Brazilian dictatorship to the recent announcement that he is the winner of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Illustrator Award.
Abstract: This essay examines the work of Brazilian illustrator Roger Mello by placing it in dialog with the literary tradition, the artistic environment, and the historical circumstances that have contributed to shape it, from Mello’s childhood in Brasilia during the Brazilian dictatorship—in a time when children’s literature thrived as one of the few freely circulating means of expression— to the recent announcement that he is the winner of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Illustrator Award.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Alegria's Border Town as discussed by the authors is a young adult fiction series set on the Mexico- United States border, where magical realist moments subvert power relations and reveal that popular beliefs are legitimate forms of knowledge.
Abstract: In Malin Alegria’s Border Town, the first young adult fiction series set on the Mexico-United States border, magical realist moments subvert power relations and reveal that popular beliefs are legitimate forms of knowledge. Magical realist occurrences demonstrate the importance of knowing about Mexican American folklore and folk saints such as bailando con el diablo [dancing with the devil], las lechuzas [bewitched owls], La Llorona [the weeping woman], and la Santa Muerte [Saint Death].


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, O'Connor's graphic novel adaptation of a Dutch translation of Harmen VandenBogaert's Journey into Mohawk Country, the images interact with the text in ironic ways.
Abstract: In George O'Connor's graphic novel adaptation of a Dutch translation of Harmen VandenBogaert's Journey into Mohawk Country, the images interact with the text in ironic ways. The text of VandenBogaert's journal presents his interpretation of the events while O'Connor's images depict how the Mohawk Tribe may have viewed the same events. This multimodal reading highlights five kinds of visual irony then considers the implications of this way of reading for teaching students to think critically.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Puerto Rican children's literature is rich with the legacy of the legends of the Taínos, the indigenous people who inhabited the island, have been the inspiration for many of the stories published for Puerto Rican youngsters as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Puerto Rican children’s literature is rich with the legacy of the legends of the Taínos. The Taínos, the indigenous people who inhabited the island, have been the inspiration for many of the stories published for Puerto Rican youngsters. The picture book Atariba and Niguayona: A Story from the Taíno People of Puerto Rico is a good example. This book was written by Harriet Rohmer based on stories from the Taíno oral tradition. Other stories inspired by the Taíno culture are Corasi, written by Walter Murray chiesa and The Golden Flower: A Taíno Myth from Puerto Rico, written by nina Jaffe. Other books deal with characters that have become iconic on this island, such as Juan Bobo, whose antics and different way of thinking have captured the imaginations of children and adults alike. In 1995, carmen Bernier-Grand published an English version of the adventures of this simpleton character in her book Juan Bobo: Four Folktales from Puerto Rico, part of the I Can Read Books series. Perto Rcan Chdren’s Litrature nd he N ed or A frouerto Rcan Sries

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors analyzed characteristics of Batchelder titles from 1997-2013 including format, genre, original language, and setting, revealing a predominance of Western European languages and settings and a preponderance of fiction novels with serious subjects.
Abstract: The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is given to United States publishers who have published English translations of books originating outside the US. This study analyzes characteristics of Batchelder titles from 1997-2013 including format, genre, original language, and setting. Our findings reveal a predominance of Western European languages and settings and a preponderance of fiction novels with serious subjects. These findings raise questions about the availability and diversity of translated books for children in the US.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that contemporary young adult literature that incorporates inter-species romances is a site of new queer possibilities, and read Marissa Meyer's Cinder and the first two novels in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series as broadening current metaphors for queerness.
Abstract: Approaching queerness as intrinsically tied to the rejection of notions of the self as fixed, stable, and monolithic, I argue that contemporary young adult literature that incorporates inter-species romances is a site of new queer possibilities. I read Marissa Meyer’s Cinder and the first two novels in Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series as broadening current metaphors for queerness.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored the function of shame in the novel and argued that shame plays a role in gay identifications and ought not to be dismissed as a backward affect, drawing upon Eve Sedgwick's theorization of shame as an affect related to performance and identity.
Abstract: This paper explores the critical reception of Isabelle Holland’s The Man Without a Face (1972), which is one of the first gay-themed young adult novels published in North America and the United Kingdom. Drawing upon Eve Sedgwick’s theorization of shame as an affect related to performance and identity, this paper explores the function of shame in the novel and argues that shame plays a role in gay identifications and ought not to be dismissed as a backward affect.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Walsh used the perceived innocence of children's literature, utilizing it as a conduit to criticize authority, while never abandoning her young readers as mentioned in this paper, who provided young readers with new ways of perceiving the world.
Abstract: Maria Elena Walsh reinvented the genre of children’s literature in Argentina. Writing under a series of repressive governments, Walsh exploited the perceived innocence of children’s literature, utilizing it as a conduit to criticize authority, while never abandoning her young readers. In her novel Dailan Kifki , the young, female protagonist is the sole voice of reason—a tribute to Louis Carroll’s Alice—who provide young readers with new ways of perceiving the world.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and Hugo in The Invention of Huge Cabret by Brian Selznick as mentioned in this paper highlight a relational spirituality, suggesting that life-changing connections can develop compassion and a renewed sense of purpose.
Abstract: Some orphans in children’s literature rebel in order to survive, but this rebellion can serve a deeper purpose. Readers may discover a spiritual dimension in the narratives through characters’ rebellious acts in The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and Hugo in The Invention of Huge Cabret by Brian Selznick. Both books highlight a relational spirituality, suggesting that life-changing connections can develop compassion and a renewed sense of purpose.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that the stories written by Subcommander Marcos of the EZLN have not been written only for children or for the indigenous in Chiapas (or anywhere else in Mexico), but for those individuals whose history has the age of the modern state.
Abstract: This article is about the Zapatista’s ongoing struggle for resistance and autonomy. We show in what sense the stories written by Subcommander Marcos of the EZLN have not been written only for children or for the indigenous in Chiapas (or anywhere else in Mexico), but for those individuals whose history has the age of the modern state. We propose that the movement’s latest initiative, “La libertad segun las zapatistas,” should be discussed alongside the EZLN’s previous literary production of children’s literature, and has contributed in the formation of a new kind of subject: “the new children of resistance.”



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors of as mentioned in this paper are concerned with topics that grab a reader's attention beyond one’s own backyard and show a concern about history, social problems, and politics, an avid approver of children curiosity and spontaneity, Mirjam Pressler is one of those authors who are not known only to an audience that is interested in fiction for young people.
Abstract: An avid approver of children’s curiosity and spontaneity, Mirjam Pressler is one of those authors who are not known only to an audience that is interested in fiction for young people. Her works are concerned with topics that grab a reader’s attention beyond one’s own backyard and show a concern about history, social problems, and politics. Pressler is one of the most prolific German writers of children’s fiction, her best known fictional work possibly Bitterschokolade [Bitter chocolate] which caused her to be widely known throughout Germany and won the 1980 Oldenburger Kinderund Jugendbuchpreis [Oldenburg children and Youth Book Award]. Her debut novel is concerned with the schoolgirl, eva, who does not accept her obese and lonely self and has to learn to overcome her self-doubt and be happy with her body and within her circle of family and friends. The enthralling, down-to-earth and honest account seems more than relevant in today’s supermodel “P ow er o pp os es a la ck o f

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hongying Yang as mentioned in this paper has become one of the most popular and beloved children's authors in China, Hongying Yang was born in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in 1962, and has followed a complex and interesting career path.
Abstract: ibbY.orG As one of the most popular and beloved children’s authors in China, Hongying Yang has impacted millions of children not only in China, but also all over the world. Yang was born in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in 1962, and she has followed a complex and interesting career path. She began her adult life as an elementary school teacher, then moved on to become a children’s book editor, until fi nally following her passion for children’s book writing. She published her fi rst book, Seeds in a Lifejacket, a scientifi c fairytale, when she was nineteen years old, and in the six years she was teaching primary school she wrote over a hundred fairytales for her students. Th e stories for her students were later published in a collection called Hongying Yang’s Science Fairy Tales Series, and her quest to create approachable literature for children and young teens continued throughout her own daughter’s childhood. As her daughter transitioned from childhood into adolescence, Yang decided to relate to her through literature, and wrote Girl’s Diary, a novel that went on to be considered the “growth guidebook for adolescent girls today” in China. Taking the time to relate to not only her daughter, but all the young people in her life, Yang writes with an adept sense of understanding in her YA novels, and fl awlessly writes from the perspective of a struggling teen. She is passionate about fostering a love for reading in children: with every book she writes she simultaneously encourages children to choose reading over television, computer games, and the internet. Her Mo’s Mischief series has helped millions of children on their path through childhood, and the character of Mo has become one of the most recognizable children’s characters in twenty-fi rst-century China. Her ability to tap into the purity and innocence of childhood allows her to relate to her readers on a personal level. Yang has earned numerous awards for her work, including the 2011 Publication Project Award for Th e Green Dog’s Village, the 2010 Second Government Award for Th e Black Afternoon, and the 2007 best Children’s Literature Award for Mo’s Mischief. Her stories have also been translated into French, German, English, and korean, and therefore have infl uenced children internationally as well as domestically. As she states in an interview with dr. Li Hong, “Writing is the only source of love and happiness to me. Even if i hadn’t achieved fame, i would keep writing for children. otherwise, my life would become meaningless.”


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Øyvind torseter has garnered a reputation as one of the most innovative and versatile illustrators in the rich field of norwegian children's literature as discussed by the authors and has collaborated with an impressive array of authors, including Jon Fosse, tore Renberg and Bjørn Sortland, on over a dozen book projects, and his list of collaborators and awards continues to grow.
Abstract: Since his debut in 1999, Øyvind torseter has garnered a reputation as one of the most innovative and versatile illustrators in the rich field of norwegian children’s literature. In addition to writing and illustrating seven books, torseter has partnered with an impressive array of authors, including Jon Fosse, tore Renberg and Bjørn Sortland, on over a dozen book projects, and his list of collaborators and awards continues to grow. While the array of techniques he employs and experiments with range from traditional line drawings to three-dimensional paper clippings, graphic effects, digital picture techniques and ink drawing collages, there is critical consensus that torseter retains his own distinct style and voice. nowhere is this clearer or more colorful than in his solo ventures, and a look at some of the stylistic and thematic threads that run throughout these books not only provides an introduction to torseter’s often surrealistic universe, it also illuminates the ways in which he engages and challenges his readers to be creative, and opens the door to lively discussions about intended audiences. elephant men, cat women, menacing octopuses, cowboys and superhero figures fill the pages of torseter’s first solo work, Mister Random (2002), and many of these characters reappear in various forms in its unofficial sequels Detours (2007) and Connections (2013) as well as in Gravenstein (2009) and The Hole (2012). While some Pitures Frst: A Jorney though Ø yind Toeter’s Unverse