2 Una’s Line: Child Readers and the Afterlife of Fiction

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-107
Keyword(s):  
Child Readers

A, B and (not) Seeing: Animals and Other Ironies in Alphabet Books

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-237
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ford
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Word Play ◽  
Word And Image ◽  
Alphabet Books ◽  
Child Readers

For generations, alphabet books have been widely used by parents, librarians and teachers as early literacy tools for young children. Through images, word play and the interactions between word and image, alphabet books have the effect of introducing preliterate young children to the names, images, symbols and concepts regarding animals, what Matthew Calarco has called ‘symbolic mechanisms’ of animals—names, images, concepts, cultural associations of animals—yet they can also be deconstructive of those same mechanisms. Derrida's insights into the contradictory logic of the supplement and parergon as well as the ‘destabilising synergies of word and image’ offer deconstructive readings of alphabet books for adult and child readers. Recognising what Derrida calls the ‘childlike’ in texts such as alphabet books creates unique polymorphous spaces for the further interrogation of notions of animals.

scholarly journals Translating national history for children: a case study of a classic

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116
Author(s):  
B.J. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Race Relations ◽  
Adult Readers ◽  
National History ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn ◽  
Black Characters ◽  
History Of ◽  
Child Readers ◽  
Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is arguably about the history of theUnited States in terms of slavery and race relations. How, then, can this be translated to another language and culture, especially one with a very different background in regard to minorities? And in particular, how can this be translated for children, who have less knowledge about history and slavery than adult readers? In this essay, I analyse how Twain’s novel has been translated to Swedish. I study 15 translations. Surprisingly, I find that instead of retaining Twain’s even-handed portrayal of the two races and his acceptance of a wide variety of types of Americans, Swedish translators tend to emphasise the foreignness, otherness, and lack of education of the black characters. In other words, although the American setting is kept, the translators nevertheless give Swedish readers a very different understanding of theUnited Statesand slavery than that which Twain strove to give his American readers. This may reflect the differences in immigration and cultural makeup inSwedenversus inAmerica, but it radically changes the book as well as child readers’ understanding of what makes a nation.

Sir Walter Scott and the Medievalist Novel

2020 ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
James Watt
Keyword(s):  
Historical Novel ◽  
Sir Walter Scott ◽  
Charles Kingsley ◽  
English History ◽  
Black Arrow ◽  
Walter Scott ◽  
Norman Invasion ◽  
Charlotte Yonge ◽  
Child Readers

This chapter focuses primarily on Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1819) and the novels—including Scott’s subsequent crusading fictions—that paid tribute to it through their engagement with roughly the same period of English history. In the hands of writers such as Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Charles Kingsley, the historical novel after Scott tended to present the Norman invasion as an enduringly formative moment in the making of modern imperial Britain. Popular fictions by Charlotte Yonge and G. A. Henty, composed for child readers, were similarly inspired by Scott, though in their reductive rewriting of Ivanhoe they further contributed to Scott’s ‘descent to the school-room’. Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Black Arrow (1883), by contrast, I will argue in conclusion, recovers the playfully reflexive scepticism of Ivanhoe and detaches the adolescence of its confused hero from any idea of an analogous national emergence.

scholarly journals RISKING MASCULINITY: PLAYING FAST AND LOOSE WITH HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY IN THE HERO’S GUIDE TO SAVING YOUR KINGDOM

Mousaion ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 128-140
Author(s):  
Janice Robertson
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Child Readers

In Christopher Healy’s (2012) children’s book, The hero’s guide to saving your kingdom, the idea of hegemonic masculinity is subverted in various ways. In this reinvention of four fairy tales – ‘Cinderella’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘Snow White’ and ‘Rapunzel’ – the author seems consciously to subvert the prevalent stereotypes surrounding traditional representations of the idealised, yet largely uninterrogated image of ‘Prince Charming’. All four of the princes who feature as protagonists in the book express their dissatisfaction at the prescriptive expectations that govern every aspect of their lived realities. Healy explores alternative ways of representing this type of character to modern child readers, in many cases testing the boundaries that dictate which physical characteristics and behavioural patterns are allowable in such characters. This article explores Healy’s negotiation of masculinity in the context of its intended 21st century child audience

scholarly journals Owls Are Good at Keeping Secrets: An Unusual Alphabet by S. O'Leary

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The University ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Child Readers

O’Leary, Sara.  Owls Are Good at Keeping Secrets: An Unusual Alphabet. Illustrated by Jacob Grant. Tundra Books, 2018. From first to last, the phonic examples in O’Leary’s alphabet book are disarming:                 “Aa                 Alligators think you’d like them if you got to know them.”                 “Zz                Zebras would like to be first. Just once.“ Unlike so many other authors of this genre, O’Leary rarely struggles to find simple, memorable examples of words that begin with the appropriate vowels and consonants. The sole exception in his work is the use of “Chipmunks” to illustrate the sound of the letter “C.” Child readers would have to be mature enough to recognize the digraph (ch) and be alert to its sound. That exception being noted, all of the other phonic illustrations—even the ones for the “difficult” sounds—are straight-forward, playful and engaging.                 “Qq                 Quail get quite tired of being told to be quiet.”                 “Uu                 Unicorns believe in themselves.                 “Yy                 Yaks giggle at their own jokes.” Joseph Brant’s illustrations are all that they ought to be: large, clear, colourful and, most importantly in this type of book, unambiguous. His depiction of voles for the letter “V” is particularly endearing. Those of us involved in the field of children’s literature might want this illustration and its motto on our flag:                 “Vv                 Voles always want just one more book.” In any case, we should ensure that this delightful book is on our children’s library shelves. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Leslie Aitken Leslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship included selection of children’s literature for school, public, special and academic libraries. She was a Curriculum Librarian for the University of Alberta.              

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