Story Makers Press (SMP) is a University-based publisher which co-constructs stories with under-represented groups of children in order to diversify representation in children's literature and disrupt the way adult perceptions of normality pattern children's literature (aetonormativity). In this paper we analyse six drama and creative writing…

In a time when war has forced a vast number of children to flee their homes, flight from war is an important and timely topic explored in a variety of ways in contemporary picturebooks. The Norwegian picturebook "Fargene som forsvant" (2017)--or "Vanishing Colors" (2019)--addresses the topic through the story of an unnamed…

This article explores 11-year-old children's connections to prior knowledge and experiences while reading a wordless version of "Little Red Riding Hood." The study extends pre-existing research on reader response theories by focusing on images instead of written text. The approach taken places emphasis on the reader's active engagement,…

Oliver Jeffers' best-selling picturebook "How to Catch a Star" 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 which has been highly praised…

This article explores how Gloria Anzaldúa's picture books provide additional theoretical frames that complement her existing scholarship. While much has been said about her contributions to the fields of Latinx studies, little has been said about how her theories extend to children or children's literature. Nevertheless, reading the picture books…

This article explores the relationship between enchantment and understanding in children's literature, where literary enchantment is not only an experience in which words entrance and mesmerize, eradicating the boundaries of ordinary perception, but also one that advances the reader's cognition. Focusing on Philip Pullman's "His Dark…

This article presents a small case study of two childhood readers of Enid Blyton's Famous Five series, who meet in a research project devoted to a different but related topic. One is Indian by birth and background, the other, Canadian. Their experience of this series is separated by distance (many thousands of miles), time of reading (nearly fifty…

The study focuses on the necessity of an anthropomorphic approach in deconstructing the symbolic understandings of animals in children's literature, and considers how such an approach can be used to draw ethical attention to the unnatural history of animals in the Anthropocene. The paper analyses three children's novels that depict animals without…

The article is mainly concerned with philosophical interpretations of Astrid Lindgren's Karlson books. Inspired by Gaare and Sjaastad's reading of Pippi Longstocking, the article discusses the philosophical ideas embedded in Lindgren's books about Pippi Longstocking, stressing, in particular, Lindgren's implicit critique of Western culture. Next,…

This paper analyzes "production stories," a genre of information literature and media responsible for teaching children how everyday things are made. As nineteenth-century families increasingly consumed tropical commodities produced by slave labor, including sugar, tea, coffee, rum, and tobacco, the production story developed in Britain…

This article argues that two significant recent influential historical novels about the Holocaust, "Hitler's Daughter" (1999) and "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" (2006), reprise the genre traits of the "Bildungsroman" or novel of development and can be regarded as remarkably effective in engaging an active reader.…

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…

The girl protagonists in Jean Kwok's "Girl in Translation" and Kelly Yang's "Front Desk" embody and reinterpret the notion of "guai" (loosely translated as "good") in their struggle to adapt to life in America. "Guai" is the most important concept governing childhood in Chinese societies. The word,…

Working with cognitive literary theory, affect theory, semiotics, and recent picturebook scholarship, this essay looks at the ways the concept book (as a subtype of the picturebook format) connects color to emotion. In doing so, it suggests that one of Western culture's most commonly accepted ideas of color and color meaning may contribute to…

Female characters in many African folktales are often perceived as voiceless and peripheral, playing the role of passive advisors and nurturers in contrast to the physically stronger and more active male characters. Some African scholars have disagreed with this perception, asserting that the female characters are stronger than their male…