One of the particularly challenging aspects of children's literature lies in its ethics. The intended audience of children's literature is often perceived to be morally malleable, and particularly vulnerable to narrative strategies. This why it is of high importance to consider the moral contents which children's narratives attempt to communicate…

Children's books of Nazi propaganda prove that a society can venerate science to the point of making biology the organizing principle of its educational system yet nevertheless produce children's literature shot through with fabrication and falsehood. Three children's books of Nazi propaganda that are frequently mentioned in accounts of…

The use of metafictive devices in children's literature, in particular contemporary picturebooks, has been explored by numerous scholars working from different theoretical and disciplinary backgrounds. In particular, metafiction is often described as oppositional to traditional children's literature which often produces stable, knowable, readable…

This article addresses questions related to how the change in the textual landscape, from paper-based books to electronic books, has an effect on the teaching of reading in early childhood classrooms as well as how the digital devices relate to different aspects of reading instruction. Drawing on the theoretical concept of affect, the purpose is…

It is estimated that a third of children know someone living with dementia, and there are now many picturebooks for young children that help to explain the changes dementia can bring to family life. Despite their number, there has been little examination of what these books communicate about health and illness. To address this, the current study…

This article explores the kinds of children's books--literary and informative--that can help young readers concern themselves with ecological matters; also the extent to which children's literature can be employed for the development of an ecological awareness in young readers. Can children's literature, beyond its inherently anthropocentric…

This article reads contemporary Chinese children's author Yin Jianling's novels "The Paper Puppy" ("Zhiren") and "Orange Fish" ("Juzi Yu") alongside her letter collection "Fifteen Letters to Girls" ("Zhi Weilai de Ni") to explore the overarching themes of femininity, difference and female…

YA fiction is well known for a prevalence of narratives that explore identity and identity change. Critics have constructed multiple theoretical frameworks that help put into words the workings of adolescent identity in these novels. This article adds to that discussion by analysing Jacob, the main character of Aidan Chambers' "Postcards from…

The world of Carroll's Wonderland narratives, in which language tests its own limits, overlaps with Wittgenstein's world of counterexample, and such convergence becomes most overt in Wittgenstein's example of a nonsensical scale in his "Philosophical Investigations" (§142). Wittgenstein does not find much use for such a scale, but in…

This study offers a critical content analysis of thirty-six contemporary realistic picturebooks featuring transracial Chinese adoption. The theoretical framework of critical literacy highlights significant sociocultural implications of these portrayals: in particular, negative stereotypes and ideologies, in an attempt to call for inclusivity and…

This article examines the place occupied by maps in children's picturebooks. After a brief overview of the different roles that are assigned to maps in children's books, the article considers five French picturebooks--Warja Lavater's "Le petit chaperon rouge" (1965), Olivier Douzou and Isabelle Simon's "L'autobus numéro 33"…

Cece Bell's (El Deafo, Amulet, New York, 2014) is a middle childhood graphic novel memoir that explores the author's experiences of losing her hearing and growing up with a severe hearing loss. As a graphic novel, the story is able to avoid a medicalized view of disability by combining image and text, a format that allows readers, those with…

In her influential work "Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction," Waugh (1984) loosely categorizes literary metafiction on a sliding scale of four metafictional Acts. Through repeated readings of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (Carroll & Tenniel, 1866) and study of all of "Wonderland"…

Oliver Jeffers' best-selling picturebook "How to Catch a Star" (2004) has been the subject of several recent theatre adaptations for children. This paper provides a detailed case study of the 2017 stage adaptation created by the Irish-language theatre-company, Branar Téatar do Pháistí; an adaptation that has been highly praised for the…

In response to current anti-immigration rhetoric and policy coming from national leadership, the authors engage in multimodal analysis of picture books that humanize individuals who make the journey across the Mexico-U.S. border. Findings suggest that picture book narratives restory anti-immigrant sentiments by (1) placing the child at the center…