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COVID-19 (2019-) appears to have accelerated the transition of movable books from ubiquitous multimodal learning tools into artifacts and artworks, exhibited in museums and galleries. In their place, children are embracing interactive digital books. Whether they offer the same pedological value as their material counterparts remains a point of contention amongst early childhood educators. Both movable books and computers, evolved from volvelles. The devices, constructed using cut paper, emerged in Europe during the thirteenth century. Like papermaking, the technology had precedents in the orient. Their establishment in Europe coincided with The Black Plague (c.1346-1351). This article examines the inclusion or omission of papercuts in books, in relation to the broader application of papercutting within their respective communities. Primary and secondary sources were examined from Europe between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, from the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and from China between the nineth and twentieth centuries. Reference is also made to recent exhibitions featuring artist books and papercuts in in the museum and galleries sectors of Australia, the US, Asia, and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This papers contributes to the growing body of literature on the use of conceptual metaphors to frame the COVID-19 pandemic and the corona. Whereas previous linguistic analyses have focused on the use of metaphors by politicians and in the media, this paper is concerned with German children's books and the use of conceptual metaphors therein that involve the target domains coronavirus,virus transmission, and virus proliferation as well as counter measurements and reactions of the immune system. The analysis reveals that war-metaphors, which are salient in political and media discourse, are much less dominant in children's books. The books systematically draw on source domains that are well entrenched in children's everyday experience, such as police, quarrelling, partying, playing in the sandbox, jumping, surfing, and travelling. Furthermore, ontological metaphors and more specifically personifications are widespread, with the virus being construed as a curious adventurer without genuinely bad intentions, a villain or monster and even a savior. The paper is grounded in Cognitive Semantics and more specifically in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and provides multimodal analyses that pay attention to both verbally and visually expressed information and metaphorical mappings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines spatiality in selected children's books about COVID-19. Spatiality is an important lens because the coronavirus pandemic is a crisis related to distancing and mobility restrictions—spatial matters. Benedict Anderson's notion of imagined communities was adopted as a framework to how children's books present community belongingness within the spatial restrictions imposed during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a content analysis of pandemic-related children's books published in early 2020 (n = 51), this paper explores the sense of community in three everyday spaces: 'inside' (home), 'outside' (outdoors), and 'in-betweens' (windows and digital space). Findings reveal a two-fold observation: (1) children's books show how the 'normal' in everyday space is disrupted; and (2) layers of imagined communities manifest within the everyday spaces depicted in the books examined. These findings offer insights that while children's literature and geography are different disciplines, there is much to be explored about spaces in children's lives from writers and illustrators of children's books. Likewise, a geographical lens can substantiate discussions in children's literature by unpacking relationships of characters based on the spaces they occupy. With these in mind, it is hoped that conversations about spatial discourses in children's books flourish from this initial exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Lubelski Rocznik Pedagogiczny is the property of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children from limited-literacy communities in India did not receive information regarding COVID-19 safety due to the sudden shutdown of schools. Many parents from these communities could not afford virtual learning and lacked the ability to educate the children themselves. In July 2021, the research team developed comic, coloring, and activity books to provide children with fun, yet readable, educational materials. We consulted with teachers to simplify the language and understand the popularity of different cartoon characters. Between August 2021 and January 2022, our community health partners distributed the books to two age groups, ages 6-10 (n = 116, mean age 8.72) and 11-14 (n = 81, mean age 12.05). We conducted surveys with the children during and a week after distribution to assess any change in their knowledge about COVID-19 safety. The average age of children in this study was 10.09 (SD = 2.01) years. All resided in underresourced urban communities with low literacy rates and limited education. All questions were answered more correctly in the postsurvey, with the social distancing question having the greatest and most statistically significant increase (33.6%, p < 0.0001). The average increase in knowledge among children aged 6-10 (16.9%) was greater, though not statistically significantly so, than the average increase among children aged 11-14 (4.7%). These results indicate that child-friendly books can increase health education for children ages 6-14 in low-literacy populations. Additionally, the mechanism of the program is fit to be used in other low-resource populations globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cumhuriyet International Journal of Education is the property of Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, children, families, and educators faced unprecedented challenges that disproportionally impacted racially/ethnically diverse, low-income communities due to long-standing health system, socioeconomic, and educational inequities. With closures of schools, libraries, and child-care centers, many children were disconnected from the community and did not have access to books. Parents' and educators' concerns centered around children falling behind academically and socially. Therefore, in partnership with an afterschool center, we purchased and distributed 410 high-quality, multicultural books to children and families. Case study design explored: (1) how this access to multicultural books influenced the CARC children's home-based literacy experiences and their responses to the texts; and (2) the challenges of parents/caregivers in supporting their child's literacy needs during a global crisis. We described how we selected high-quality multicultural literature book sets. We identified three themes: (1) enjoyment, appreciation, and learning; (2) relevance of multicultural literature to children's lives and identities; (3) difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this collaboration, we increased access to multicultural books for children living in a low-socioeconomic and African American community. Our book distribution project positively impacted the children and families in this underserved community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has made librarians responsible for children's book collections in academic libraries acutely aware of the need to acquire children's and young adult materials in electronic formats. This research project compared the availability of 1,600 award-winning and professionally-recognized PreK-12 titles within the e-book platforms of EBSCO, Follett, Hoopla, Mackin, Overdrive, ProQuest, and Tumblebooks. In addition, the authors examined the availability of children's ebooks pertaining to racial/ethnic, gender, LGBTQþ, and disability diversity from these vendors. The results of this study indicated that there were substantial disparities in the availability of e-books by grade level and by publisher. The availability of titles pertaining to people of color, women, LGBTQþpersons, and people with disabilities was usually (but not always) similar or better compared to the availability of all titles in the dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Legal Records / Pravni Zapisi is the property of Union University Law School, Belgrade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)