Recent Publications by IRSCL Members
The following books by IRSCL members have been recently published or are forthcoming:
The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature edited by John Stephens (Routledge, September 2017)
Demonstrating the aesthetic, cultural, political, and intellectual diversity of children’s literature across the globe, The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature is the first volume of its kind to focus on the undervisited regions of the world. With particular focus on Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the collection raises awareness of children’s literature and related media as they exist in large regions of the world to which ‘mainstream’ European and North American scholarship pays very little attention.
The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer (Routledge, November 2017)
Containing 48 essays by leading and new scholars, this Companion is the ultimate guide to picturebooks. It contains a detailed introduction by the editor, surveying the history and development of the field and emphasising the international and cultural diversity of picturebooks. Divided into 5 key parts the book covers: concepts – from within picturebooks, but also applied from literary theory; genres – from baby books to picturebooks for adults – their relations to other forms such as comics and visual media; domains and theoretical approaches; and adaptations and media.
More Words about Pictures: Current Research on Picture Books and Visual/Verbal Texts for Young People edited by Naomi Hamer, Perry Nodelman, and Mavis Reimer (Routledge)
This volume represents the current state of research on picture books and other adjacent hybrid forms of visual/verbal texts such as comics, graphic novels, and book apps, with a particular focus on texts produced for and about young people. When Perry Nodelman’s Words about Pictures: the Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books was published almost three decades ago, it was greeted as an important contribution to studies in children’s picture books and illustration internationally; and based substantially on it, Nodelman has recently been named the 2015 recipient of the International Grimm Award for children’s literature criticism. In the years since Words About Pictures appeared, scholars have built on Nodelman’s groundbreaking text and have developed a range of other approaches, both to picture books and to newer forms of visual/verbal texts that have entered the marketplace and become popular with young people. The essays in this book offer 'more words' about established and emerging forms of picture books, providing an overview of the current state of studies in visual/verbal texts and gathering in one place the work being produced at various locations and across disciplines. Essays exploring areas such as semiological and structural aspects of conventional picture books, graphic narratives and new media forms, and the material and performative cultures of picture books represent current work not only from literary studies but also media studies, art history, ecology, Middle Eastern Studies, library and information studies, and educational research. In addition to work by international scholars including William Moebius, Erica Hateley, Nathalie op de Beeck, and Nina Christensen that carries on and challenges the conclusions of Words about Pictures, the collection also includes a wide-ranging reflection by Perry Nodelman on continuities and changes in the current interdisciplinary field of study of visual/verbal texts for young readers. Providing a look back over the history of picture books and the development of picture book scholarship, More Words About Pictures also offers an overview of our current understanding of these intriguing texts.
Canon Constitution and Canon Change in Children’s Literature edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Anja Müller (Routledge)
This volume focuses on the (de)canonization processes in children’s literature, considering the construction and cultural-historical changes of canons in different children’s literatures. Chapters by international experts in the field explore a wide range of different children’s literatures from Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Eastern and Central Europe, as well as from Non-European countries such as Australia, Israel, and the United States. Situating the inquiry within larger literary and cultural studies conversations about canonicity, the contributors assess representative authors and works that have encountered changing fates in the course of canon history. Particular emphasis is given to sociological canon theories, which have so far been under-represented in canon research in children’s literature. The volume therefore relates historical changes in the canon of children’s literature not only to historical changes in concepts of childhood but to more encompassing political, social, economic, cultural, and ideological shifts. This volume’s comparative approach takes cognizance of the fact that, if canon formation is an important cultural factor in nation-building processes, a comparative study is essential to assessing transnational processes in canon formation. This book thus renders evident the structural similarities between patterns and strategies of canon formation emerging in different children’s literatures.
Dans les rêves de grand-père by Jean Perrot (Albin Michel)
Jean Perrot quitte sa stature de spécialiste de littérature enfantine et dévoile ici son rôle de grand-père. Avec cet album, il livre à son petit-fils quelques poèmes, jalonnant les étapes de la naissance à l’envol de l’enfant devenu adulte. Attention, étonnement, goût du jeu, inquiétude, admiration… le grand-père dit, en quelques mots, les émotions et les sentiments ressentis sur ce chemin partagé. Des mots pétris d’écoute et de délicatesse, qui se chargent, au fil du temps qui passe, du sens de la vie et qui expriment cet art merveilleux d’être grand-père.