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The new non-fiction picturebook for children is conceived not just as an informational book, but first and foremost as a beautiful object, characterized by a largely visual and proudly creative approach to knowledge. By blending information and artistic illustration/design, transmission of data and sophisticated aesthetic experimentation, this medium seems to bring successfully together the rational/explicit and the aesthetic/intuitive way of attending to the world, with promising consequences for the development of an integrated learning experience. Applying the findings of cognitive sciences to the analysis of non-fiction picturebooks can be enlightening to understand the full potential of such books in sharing knowledge with children. Their intrinsic multimodality and ability to stimulate different parts of the reader’s brain makes them valuable in any educational context revolving around the paradigm of complexity and having connection (as opposed to disjunction) of different levels of experience as its aim.

Previous research, mainly from the US, indicates that children's literature is a powerful transmitter of gender roles. To better understand how ideas about gender found in children's books cross national borders, travel within frontiers, and crash against obstacles that block the road to gender equality, this article compares the US and Poland in terms of children's book publishing and scholarship. Whereas the US children's book market is obviously larger, Poland's internal market is large and growing enough to rely on its own, and thus acts as a barricade to repel 'foreign' gender norms. In the US, feminism has a strong tradition in children's literature research; in Poland, by contrast and since 1989, feminism and the study of gender in children's books have no strong tradition, and for the last eight years the government has openly discouraged progressive norms of gender equality. This article concludes with a call for cross-national comparative research on children's books to provide insights into the facilitators and barriers to intercultural exchange of gender ideologies and national efforts to promote gender progressive ideals among young readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anales de Filología Francesa is the property of Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia 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.)

Pratham Books is a not-for-profit children's picture book publisher headquartered in Bangalore, India, with a mission to see 'a book in every child's hand'. Pratham Books has been addressing the book famine in India and by extension the world through its low-cost, high-volume, multilingual publishing since 2004. But upon realizing the limitations of print, they moved towards something more audacious – adopting an open licence to create an innovative digital platform, StoryWeaver, that not only housed Pratham Books' titles but empowered users to use, adapt, download, and translate books as they saw fit to address the gaps in their own spheres and help put books in children's hands. In just seven years, StoryWeaver has grown 50 times in size and scope, from a repository of 800 books in 24 languages to over 45 000 books in 314 languages. By disrupting traditional publishing models, Pratham Books' StoryWeaver has shown us what the future of publishing and reading looks like. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A whirlwind historical tour of the trade publishing (in English) landscape in India from the start of printing down to the present day, 75 years after Independence. The piece attempts to be a capsule history surveying the evolution of the trade book market through the multiple perspectives of authors, booksellers, genres, publishers, and market data. This is intended primarily as a quick introduction to the beginner and practitioner alike and is not intended to be an exhaustive narrative either by chronology or by genre or market information. It is a quick one-stop reference point for those who would like to see when and how the foundations for trade publishing were late, the key historical imperatives, early writing movements, the earliest booksellers, the beginnings of a formalized and sustained market through imports and distribution, and looks at the evolution of local Indian English publishing and how that has matured into a significant industry; and concludes by taking stock of current market realities and assays forward initiatives needed to reach the next level of stable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been little examination of Philippine children's literature for any period of its history, and even fewer accounts are available for the publishing sector that brings this literature to market. This article addresses this gap by an analysis of a series of in-depth interviews conducted with representatives of three of the major publishing firms in the country. There are three main findings that will be discussed. The first is that publishers experience challenges in dealing with various gatekeepers before reaching their targeted readers, that is, children. Secondly, the local economic context coupled with cultural developments and government policies are major concerns to the industry in the Philippines. Lastly, while for most publishers, slower pace of sales is considered a bane of the industry, it is celebrated in the Philippines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Libri & Liberi is the property of Croatian Association of Researchers in Children's Literature 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.)

In our modern world, there is a clash between scientific research and the humanities, between the exact, experimental, objective knowledge offered us by the natural sciences and the unprovable but touching insights, enlightenments, and awareness acquired through literature, poetry, art, philosophy, and our sensitive, emotional immersion in the world. The two kinds of knowledge are usually kept separate or deemed opposite in our Western culture, but they come together in an illuminating way within and thanks to a new genre of picturebook for children that has been spreading at an international level over the last decade and demands critical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the editors and editorial pieceworkers (translators, adaptors, illustrators, correctors, and members of the reading committees) behind the production of two of France’s most famous series for children, the Bibliothèque Rose and the Bibliothèque Verte. Hachette’s cheap and luridly coloured cardboard-covered books for children that flooded the French market in the long sixties formed an important and yet overlooked component of what Sirinelli calls the ‘rejuvenation’ of French mass culture, when the young became an important new market. Using the extensive archives of Hachette’s children’s department, this essay analyses how the editors responded to the unprecedented growth and important structural changes that historians concur were taking place in the children’s publishing industry across the West in the post-war period. This novel approach, which draws upon the methodologies of the sociology of publishing and book history, asks what can the editors’ perspective teach us about this key period in children’s publishing history? What was their role in these processes of change?

This essay explores the concept of transnationalism, defining this term in relation both to the lived experience of transnational subjects, and to transnational texts for children. It argues that rhetorics of globalization have over-emphasized the impact and significance of global cultural and economic flows, although the production of children’s books is to some extent shaped by the internationalization of publishing houses and markets. The concept of transnationalism provides a way of thinking about how children’s texts address and are informed by diverse, complex influences, sometimes from a variety of cultures and languages. Transnationalism is not a new phenomenon but is visible in colonial texts which are shaped both by the particular, local ideologies of colonial nations, and also by the common concerns and interests of such nations. The essay draws on two contemporary texts to illustrate the workings of transnationalism: the film Howl’s Moving Castle, and Shaun Tan’s picture book The Arrival. It concludes by considering the concept of transnational literacy as a way of approaching scholarship and teaching in children’s literature.

This essay explores the concept of transnationalism, defining this term in relation both to the lived experience of transnational subjects, and to transnational texts for children. It argues that rhetorics of globalization have over-emphasized the impact and significance of global cultural and economic flows, although the production of children’s books is to some extent shaped by the internationalization of publishing houses and markets. The concept of transnationalism provides a way of thinking about how children’s texts address and are informed by diverse, complex influences, sometimes from a variety of cultures and languages. Transnationalism is not a new phenomenon but is visible in colonial texts which are shaped both by the particular, local ideologies of colonial nations, and also by the common concerns and interests of such nations. The essay draws on two contemporary texts to illustrate the workings of transnationalism: the film Howl’s Moving Castle, and Shaun Tan’s picture book The Arrival. It concludes by considering the concept of transnational literacy as a way of approaching scholarship and teaching in children’s literature. Keywords: culture, ethnicity, children’s publishing, postcolonialism, politics, migration, diaspora

While much has been written about the pioneering children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore, little has been written about her role as a de facto literary agent. As such, Moore was an innovator not only in children's librarianship, but also in the field of children's publishing. This paper analyzes Moore's letters at the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library and uncovers evidence of her agenting role. Letters written to Moore from authors and illustrators like Greville Macdonald, Walter de la Mare, Leonard Leslie Brooke, Dorothy Lathrop, Florence Crannell Means, and Beatrix Potter demonstrate Moore's involvement--from previewing manuscripts, to placing them with editors, to reviewing finished books, and finally, to selecting works for the library's children. Moore's innovative mentoring work with authors defines her as a leader whose reach stretched from the library to the world of publishing, as she helped shape the burgeoning genre of children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very, very little is known about the children's book publishing industry of India. This paper looks at book production aimed at a predominantly young readership base and attempts to identify the success areas and the gaps. The absence of statistics within the industry is particularly telling: it indicates the existence of a non-traditional book business and also points to alarming levels of piracy. At the same time, the growth of the traditional publishing industry has been seen as spectacular and unlikely, and growth patterns are proving to be unpredictable. This paper attempts to map trends with the limited resources available. The scope of the study, given the geographical and demographic nature of India, is broad. The focus is on both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]