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Reflects on how an artist imposes a sensual technique when designing pop-up children's books. Artist's use of scissors to cut the paper; Artist's preference for white shapes; Use of computer to create the artwork.

The article presents a descriptive and chronological overview of the fictitious character Moomin by Swedish-speaking Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson in British translation that falls into the field of publishing and book history. It notes the little known history of the series by London, England-based publishing firm Ernest Bennett & Co. Ltd. at the time when Jansson was unknown author. Her obituary featured in major British newspapers including "The Guradian" and "The Times."

Children's book scholars in the early 1970s had limited resources and no recognition in universities. This paper describes the academic context of the first appearance of Children's Literature and the reactions to it. Its influence then and now is attested by the personal opinions of scholars who were there at the time and younger scholars who use the journal today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edward Gorey's alphabet book "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" (1963) can be fruitfully analyzed in terms of a tradition of literary representation of children's deaths and especially of cautionary tales and verse. In order to show how Gorey's Gothic nonsense modifies this tradition, this paper considers different functions of the child's death in literature, moving from the moralizing cautionary tales of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the more parodic cautionary verse that emerged in the nineteenth century. Classic examples of cautionary verse such as Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter (1845) and Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales for Children (1907) can be seen as precursors of Gorey's work, while a comparison of selected vignettes from the three texts illustrates Gorey's innovation and the refinement of his nonsense. The children's deaths no longer serve any moral or didactic purpose, producing a tension between the search for such a purpose and an apparent meaninglessness. Instead of resulting in despair, the Gothic elements of Gorey's text and images are placed in the service of nonsense, which resolves in humor. [End Page 22] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The works of Charles Dickens (1812–1870) are remarkable for his meticulous attention to the polyphony of surrounding society. This literary tendency is evident in his Condition-of-England novels, as well as in Dickens's works aimed at a young readership; in the stories contained in A Holiday Romance (1868), the Victorian writer offers some enlightening reflections on the idea of childhood in Victorian culture. This paper offers an analysis of the innovative choices that characterize this Dickensian novella, especially dwelling upon its literary and sociolinguistic features. In A Holiday Romance, Dickens depicts four child narrators who express themselves using a language typically suited to their young age: baby talk. By using these young narrators, Dickens testifies to the increasing importance of children's voices in the Victorian age—hence, to a socio-cultural legitimation of childhood. Inasmuch as this literary and sociolinguistic innovation is limited by the adult author's perspective on the issues discussed in the novella, the representation of children in A Holiday Romance is stained by the romantic idea of the "innocent child." In addition to this, the adult voice implicitly invites young readers to follow the example of naïve and submissive childhood provided in the novella. Despite the criticisms against it, A Holiday Romance is an innovative text, [End Page 38] insomuch as it offers a plausible representation of children during the Victorian age, even according to its author; while writing to his American publisher, Dickens stated, "the writing seemed to me so like children's, that dull folks...might perhaps rate it accordingly" (Dickens, Letters of Charles Dickens 402–403). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a critic of children's and young adult (YA) literature who studies Korean YA novels, it is my great pleasure to write this critical analysis of one of Korea's representative authors, Lee Geum-yi. She is one of the pioneers of the YA literature boom that started in Korea in the 2000s. My work, too, has been closely entwined with Lee's body of work. As is the case in many other countries, Korean YA literature traces its roots to children's fiction. Lee Geum-yi, too, made her first foray into YA fiction on a well-established career as a writer of children's literature. As examining her entire bibliography in these pages would be a herculean task, I would like to instead provide an overview of the common characteristics that define her works. I would also like to point out Lee's perspective on the keyword of "family"—a staple theme coloring her body of work, whether in her children's fiction, YA novels, or even works that take place in different eras or countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I juxtapose influential inner-child self-help books of the 1990s with my own analysis of two film adaptations of children's books—How the Grinch Stole Christmas(2000) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)—to argue that many adaptations of children's literature refocus on adults by developing new content that draws on the concept of the inner child. Ultimately, I argue that reliance on such theory both essentializes the child and acknowledges the connections between childhood and adulthood in a way that privileges adults and their understanding of childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Animals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction" is a book edited by John Cullen Gruesser that explores the influence of natural history on American literature. The book features chapters written by various scholars and covers a range of authors, including Poe, Irving, Twain, and Faulkner. Each chapter discusses the connection between natural history and the works of these authors, providing insights into their use of animal imagery and the relationship between humans and animals. The book is visually appealing, with beautiful illustrations and images throughout. It offers a valuable contribution to both literary studies and natural history, making it accessible to a wide range of readers. [Extracted from the article]

This essay investigates how racial progressivism intersected with the production of children's literature in the U.S. over the first seven decades of the twentieth century, by using a variety of archival materials preserved in Muriel Fuller's manuscript collection at Hunter College. Fuller, the first literary agent of the African American popular novelist Frank Yerby, was a typical yet very well-connected editor in the juvenile sector from the late 1930s. She was also a leading member of the Children's Book Council (CBC) in the mid-1940s and was just one of dozens of white women charged with shaping the direction of "juvenile literature" as this business consolidated over the middle decades of the twentieth century. At midcentury, the CBC's vacillations between embracing and resisting the reform of racial and ethnic depictions dovetailed with much-older, black and interracial attempts to reform children's books. The CBC's rejection of the censorship of children's books that were deemed racially prejudiced, and of collectivist efforts more generally, illuminate the limits of postwar racial reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the mak yong tale of "Dewa Pechil" and how it functions in a ritual healing context in Kelantan before addressing issues of long-term sustainability of the mak yong oral tradition. The author discusses her collaboration with Kelantanese traditional artists to ensure that elements of the mak yong oral tradition can be introduced to a new generation of Malaysians not just through archival documentation and academic writing, but also through the process of developing a children's book based on the tale of "Dewa Pechil" as told by a traditional mak yong performer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the book "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats is presented. Topics include examines its reputation in the history of children's literature as the first mainstream and award-winning picture book to depict a protagonist of color and its subsequent controversial as complicated reception history.

The article discusses representations of incarceration and injustice for young readers. Topics include books about trials, prisons and the effects of mass incarceration has been published for children and young adults; stories vary due to complicated format of the legal system, making it essential for young readers to learn about it from multiple perspectives; and incorporating books representing incarceration into the syllabi and public libraries would increase the reach to young readers.

Children's books promote brain- and language development during interactive reading, because of two qualities. They support language processing by combining experiences across multiple senses (synesthesia), and they synchronize brain activity within and between brains (entrainment). In interactive readings, children develop attention skills and cognitive control, practice information management (extraction and retention), improve phonemic discrimination, and socialize (bonding with the reading adult, and later with book characters during "deep reading"). Language from screens (e.g. television), however, does not promote (and may retard) early brain- and language development because it does not induce entrainment and presents little cross-modal facilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's books constitute one of the best evidentiary bases for the consistent interest of girls in ballet. This article explores three sets of children's ballet books: Noel Streatfeild's Ballet Shoes (1936); Jean Estoril's Drina books (1950s and 1960s); and Karen Strickler Dean's Maggie Adams books (1980s). All of them highlight discipline and hard work, and though they bear marks of their disparate historical contexts, all view ballet not only as an extracurricular or leisure activity but also as a means to economic independence and artistic fulfillment. They also represent the actual labor of ballet, including the physical stress of serious training and the production of a nearly unattainable "ballet body." The books' representation of the cultural nature of ballet as work situates girls as producers rather than only consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks into refugee narratives produced or endorsed and promoted as children's reading matter by international refugee relief organizations. The analysis accounts for their emergence as a separate genre with recurrent features, while questioning the assumptions that underlie their production and the aims they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on several regional meetings by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in 2015 including the 2nd Asian and Oceania Regional Meeting in Malaysia, 3rd IBBY African Congress in Rwanda, and the 11th IBBY Regional Conference in New York City.