Reimagining Shakespeare for Children and Young Adults. Ed. Naomi J. Miller (Children’s Literature and Culture Series).

Author(s):  
Velma Bourgeois Richmond
Author(s):  
Jessica R. McCort

The introduction begins the book’s discussion of why some children and young adults are drawn to horror. It attempts to define the term “horror,” especially in relation to children’s literature and culture, and seeks to consider the ways in which frightening elements emerge in children’s literature and culture. It also provides an overview of the essays included in the volume and how they are in conversation with one another.


InterSedes ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (34) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina Vásquez Carranza

This text incorporates various studies by researchers who belong to the group Anglo-German Children’s Literature and its Translation at the University of Vigo, first set up in 1992. The main focus is to describe new tendencies within literature for children and young adults, including translation, adaptation, comics, and palindrome.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne De Groot

Welcome to the new issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature!  My name is Joanne de Groot and it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the first issue of 2013.  I am an instructor in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning (TLDL) program at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada.  The TLDL program is an entirely online Master of Education that prepares teachers across Canada and around the world to become teacher-librarians.  The MEd in Teacher-Librarianship develops school and professional leadership in inquiry, literacies, technology, and resources through meaningful learning experiences. All the courses in this program focus on curriculum, community, consultation, collaboration, coordination, and communication. You might be wondering why I was asked to write this editorial and why I am introducing you to this issue.  Let me explain!  In the fall of 2012, I taught a required course in the TLDL program called ‘Introduction to Resources for Children and Young Adults’ (EDES 546).  This course provides students with an introduction to literature and other print and digital media for children and young adults and provides strategies and resources for selecting and using these resources in library settings.  The major assignment for this course asked small groups of students to work together to develop a proposal to build a focused collection of resources for a school library.  Each group had to select a particular area or topic and then work through a series of tasks to develop their proposal.  Groups in this particular class focused on topics such as Canadian materials, graphic novels, high interest/low vocabulary titles, picture books, reluctant readers, and First Nations resources. Each group had a number of required tasks to complete as part of their project, including: a selection list of resources they would purchase to build their collection; the selection criteria they used to develop this list; and links to professional reviews for some of the items on their list. The complete group projects are also available online to anyone who is interested in viewing them. Please contact me for the links.  In addition, each student had to write their own professional reviews for two items on the selection list.  Many of the reviews written by the students in this course have now been compiled to form the basis of this issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature. When I first approached the editorial team at the Deakin Review about the possibility of having my students contribute to this issue, none of us were sure how, or if, it would work.  I greatly appreciate that the entire team at the Deakin Review was willing to take a leap of faith and put this issue almost entirely into my students’ hands.  The task of writing reviews that were going to be published in a reviewing journal made the assignment that much more relevant and interesting for my students.  I would like to thank everyone at the Deakin Review for their enthusiastic support of the idea and for working with me and my students to make it happen! And now, without further delay, I am very pleased to share with you this new issue of the Deakin Review of Children’s Literature, brought to you by the students in the Fall, 2012 sections of EDES 546.  Happy Reading! Joanne de Groot Adjunct Assistant Professor Department of Elementary Education University of Alberta email: [email protected]


Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture is a collection of essays that seeks to consider gothic horror texts for children with the respect such texts deserve, weighing the multitude of benefits they can provide for young readers and viewers. It refuses to write off the horror genre as campy, trite, or deforming, instead recognizing that many of the children’s books and films categorized as “scary” are among those most widely read/viewed by children and young adults. It also considers how adult horror has been domesticated by children’s literature and culture, with authors and screenwriters turning that which was once utterly horrifying into safe, funny, and delightful books and films, along with the impetus behind such re-envisioning of the adult horror novel or film as something appropriate for the young. Especially today, when dark novels, shows, and films targeted toward children and young adults are proliferating with wild abandon, understanding the methods by which such texts have traditionally operated, as well as how those methods have been challenged, abandoned, and appropriated in recent years, becomes all the more crucial.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne De Groot

Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor & Park.  New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2013. Print.“Disintegrated. Like something had gone wrong beaming her onto the Starship Enterprise. If you’ve ever wondered what that feels like, it’s a lot like melting, but more violent. Even in a million different pieces, Eleanor could still feel Park holding her hand. Could still feel his thumb exploring her palm. She sat completely still because she didn’t have any other option.  She tried to remember what kind of animals paralyzed their prey before they ate them...Maybe Park had paralyzed her with his ninja magic, his Vulcan handhold, and now he was going to eat her. That would be awesome” (p. 72).Eleanor & Park is a smart, funny young adult romance that takes place over one school year in 1986. Told in alternating voices, this is the story of two teenagers who don’t quite fit in. Eleanor comes from the wrong side of the tracks and has big red hair and wears all the wrong clothes. Park is half Asian, loves comic books and alternative music.  Eleanor has had a rough life, living with her mother, her mother’s new husband, and her four siblings in a rundown house without even a door on the bathroom. Park’s family is much more stable, yet his military veteran father and immigrant mother do not quite know what to make of Park, with his black clothes, eye makeup and love of music. Pushed together on Eleanor’s first day of school when she takes the only seat left on the bus, the one beside Park, they bond over comic books and mixed tapes and help each other survive the tumult that is high school, and life.  The characters, young and old, in Eleanor & Park are far from perfect, and their imperfections and weirdness make them likeable. Young adult readers will identify with these outsiders and will be cheering for them from the beginning. Some of the pop culture references may not be recognized by today’s young adults; however, the specific music and comic book references are less important than what they represent in the story. Rowell has written a nuanced and balanced story that will appeal to young adult fans of realistic and romantic fiction.  The ending is satisfying without being easy and Rowell has created characters that are believable and heartwarming.  Eleanor & Park won the 2013 Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Best Fiction Book.  Rainbow Rowell is the author of Attachments (2011) and the recently released Fangirl (2013).  The book contains some scenes with some mild sexuality, violence, and language. It will make an excellent addition to any school or public library collection for young adult readers ages 14 and up.Highly Recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewed by: Joanne de GrootJoanne de Groot is a teacher, librarian and mom who loves to read children's literature (especially with her two kids!).  She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta and teaches primarily in the Teacher-Librarianship by Distance Learning program.  Joanne teaches courses on resources for children and young adults, children's literature, educational technology and Web 2.0, and contemporary literacies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-275
Author(s):  
Radoslav Rusňák

The development of children’s literature in Slovakia was significantly influenced by the historical milestone of the end of the First World War (WWI). The new cultural conditions that occurred in Slovakia after the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the foundation of Czechoslovakia created a suitable environment for the development of cultural institutions such as the Slovak Association, libraries, publishing houses and children’s magazines such as Slniečko [Little Sun]. After 1918, the literary production for children and young adults (YAs) began to take two distinct directions – one more traditional (didactic-moralising) and the other more artistic. The then artistic current in Slovak children’s literature promoted literary production for children and integrated it in the domain of art. The literary works of these authors can be further differentiated by identifying optimistic, realist and synthesising concepts of childhood. The post-war years in Slovakia can therefore be described as the beginning of the artistic integration of children’s literature into the system of national literature, which was accomplished in the 1960s.


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