scholarly journals Dead and ghostly children in contemporary literature for young people

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle J. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Child Death ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Graveyard Book

The Gothic has become a dominant mode in children’s and young adult fiction published in the past decade. This chapter considers how Sonya Hartnett’s The Ghost’s Child (2007), Chris Priestley’s Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror (2007), Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2008), and Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2011) all represent dead or ghostly children who, in diverse ways, work to critique or remedy adult actions, particularly through their interactions with history. Contemporary Gothic children’s literature is, this chapter argues, distinctly different from Gothic fictions for adults, which often represent children as the bearers of death. In contrast, Gothic children’s literature displaces the anxieties that ordinarily accompany the representation of child death in realist fiction.

Child

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Self Similar ◽  
To Come

In the conclusion of The Child to Come, the book asks, ‘What happens when the life figured by the child--innocent, self-similar human life at home on a homely Earth--no longer has the strength to hold back the vitality that animates it?’ This chapter looks at two kinds of texts that consider this question: Anthropocene cinema and Young Adult Fiction. By focusing on the role of human action, the Anthropocene obscures a far more threatening reality: the collapse of the regulative. In relation, both children’s literature and young adult literature grow out of and as disciplinary apparatuses trained on that fraught transit between the presumptive difference of those still in their minority and the socially necessary sameness that is inscribed into fully attained adulthood.

scholarly journals The ANZAC Tribulations at Gallipoli in Recent Australian Children’s Literature

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-96
Author(s):  
Hervé Cantero
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Ritual Practices

Generations of Australian children have been presented with iconic figures and values associated with the events of 1915 at Gallipoli and involved in the ritual practices of remembrance exemplified by Anzac Day ceremonies throughout a corpus of children’s literature which ranges from picture books for pre-schoolers to young adult fiction. This paper aims to broadly identify the narrative strategies at work in a selection of recent stories of brave animals helping the Aussie boys under fire or paeans to the duty of personal and communal remembrance and to examine them in a larger context of national self-representation.

Stylistics and children’s literature

2022 ◽  
pp. 096394702110721
Author(s):  
Michael Burke ◽  
Karen Coats
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Analytic Skills

This article constitutes an introduction to the five articles that appear in this special issue. This framing process starts by highlighting the sparse, yet important, work that has been conducted over the past 20 years on children’s literature in the field of stylistics. The focus in the article then turns to a more general discussion on the language of children’s literature. Here, in this chronological overview of language usage in books written for children, an outline is sketched from the writers and philosophers of the enlightenment up to contemporary debates on literacy, cognition and theory of mind. In the section that follows, the five studies that appear in this special issue are briefly synopsized. What becomes apparent is the wide range of methodological approaches that have been taken by the scholars in question to analyze the texts that are under investigation, in both quantitative and qualitative ways. The article ends with a plea for more stylistic work to be conducted in the areas of both children’s literature and young adult fiction. This is especially pertinent because stylisticians possess the key linguistic and analytic skills and tools to help, in interdisciplinary settings, to address current social, emotional and cognitive challenges pertaining to child development through literacy and through reading in particular.

On Not Defining Children's Literature

PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marah Gubar
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Peter Pan ◽  
Conduct Books ◽  
Authorial Intention ◽  
Set Up

As Roger Sale has wryly observed, “everyone knows what children's literature is until asked to define it” (1). The Reasons WHY this unruly subject is so hard to delimit have been well canvassed. If we define it as literature read by young people, any text could potentially count as children's literature, including Dickens novels and pornography. That seems too broad, just as defining children's literature as anything that appears on a publisher-designated children's or “young adult” list seems too narrow, since it would exclude titles that appeared before eighteenth-century booksellers such as John Newbery set up shop, including the Aesopica, chapbooks, and conduct books. As numerous critics have noted, we cannot simply say that children's literature consists of literature written for children, since many famous examples—Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, The Little Prince—aimed to attract mixed audiences. And, in any case, “children's literature is always written for both children and adults; to be published it needs to please at least some adults” (Clark 96). We might say that children's literature comprises texts addressed to children (among others) by authors who conceptualize young people as a distinct audience, one that requires a form of literature different in kind from that aimed at adults. Yet basing a definition on authorial intention seems problematic. Many famous children's writers have explicitly rejected the idea that they were writing for a particular age group, and many books that were not written with young people in mind have nevertheless had their status as children's or young adult literature thrust upon them, either by publishers or by readers (or both).

scholarly journals News, Awards, and Announcements

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail De Vos
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Prince Edward Island ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
The World ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The University

Have you been following Amy’s Marathon of books? Inspired by by Terry Fox’s and Rick Hansen’s Canadian journeys, Amy Mathers is honouring her passion for reading and Canadian teen literature while working around her physical limitations through a Marathon of Books. Amy will be reading teen fiction books from every province and territory, exploring Canada and promoting Canadian teen authors and books by finishing a book a day for each day of 2014, writing a review for each book she reads. The goal is to raise money for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) in order to endow a Canadian teen book award to be presented at the yearly Canadian Children’s Literature Awards gala. Amy will collect fundraising pledges (which are eligible for a charitable tax receipt). http://amysmarathonofbooks.ca/The National Reading Campaign (NRC) is thrilled to announce the inaugural week-long event READING TOWN CANADA. For one week, May 3-10th, 2014, the National Reading Campaign will turn Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan into an exemplary model of what a reading Canada would look like. Reading will be woven into every feature of life through a series of exciting events: Imagine having a poem delivered with your pizza, wandering into a fully-stocked ‘reading glen’ in Crescent Park, discovering a book by a local author in your Welcome Wagon package, or finding a tiny lending library at the end of your street. http://www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca/about-reading-town-canada/IBBY Canada (the Canadian national section of the International Board on Books for Young People) named Bonnie Tulloch as the Frances E. Russell Grant recipient. Bonnie is a graduate student in the children’s literature program of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is doing an analysis of contemporary Canadian children’s and young adult novels that focus on island adventures; the resulting work will be titled “No ‘Man’ is an Island: Examining Island Imagery and its Relation to Female Identity in a Selection of Canadian Children’s and Young Adult Fiction.” http://www.ibby-canada.org/?p=2080CANSCAIP is presenting two upcoming workshops: Imagine a Story, a day of workshops for those interested in writing, illustrating and performing for children, will be held May 31 at Dawson College in Montreal; Packaging Your Imagination, Canada's oldest and largest conference on the craft and business of writing, illustrating and performing for children, will be held October 18 at Humber College Lakeshore Campus in Toronto. Registration for the latter conference will commence in late May. http://www.canscaip.org/Award Season is soon to be blossoming along with spring and summer. Recent announcements for shortlists include the 2014 Atlantic Book Awards and The Canadian Science Writers’ Association (CSWA).The shortlists for the Atlantic Book Awards are:Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s LiteratureNix Minus One, by Jill MacLean (Pajama Press)The Power of Harmony, by Jan L. Coates (Red Deer Press)The Stowaways, by Meghan Marentette, Illustrated by Dean Griffiths (Pajama Press)Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in IllustrationLasso the Wind: Aurélia’s Verses and Other Poems Illustrated by Susan Tooke and written by George Elliott Clarke (Nimbus Publishing)Pisim Finds her Miskanow Illustrated by Leonard Paul and written by William Dumas (Portage & Main Press)Singily Skipping Along, Illustrated by Deanne Fitzpatrick and written by Sheree Fitch (Nimbus Publishing)In addition two other children’s titles were also shortlisted:Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House by Patti Larsen (Acorn Press) for the Prince Edward Island Book Award (fiction category)Formac Publishing was nominated for the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award (sponsored by Friesens Corporation), for Bluenose Adventure by Jacqueline Halsey with illustrations by Eric Orchard.http://atlanticbookawards.ca/ The shortlist for the Canadian Science Writers’ Association for outstanding youth book:Au labo, les Debrouillards! written by Yannick Bergeron (Bayard jeunesse)Before the World Was Ready written by Claire Eamer and illustrated by Sa Boothroyd (Annick Press)Buzz About Bees written by Kari-Lynn Winters (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)Dirty Science: 25 Experiments with Soil written by Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone, illustrated by Lorzeno Del Bianco (Scholastic Canada)A History of Just About Everything: 180 Events, People and Inventions That Changed the World written by Elizabeth MacLeod and Frieda Wishinsky, illustrated by Qin Leng (Kids Can Press)Pandemic Survival: It's Why You're Alive written by Ann Love and Jane Drake, illustrated by Bill Slavin (Tundra Books).http://sciencewriters.ca/2014/04/01/cswa-book-awards-shortlist-2/Gail de VosGail de Vos, an adjunct instructor, teaches courses on Canadian children's literature, Young Adult Literature and Comic Books and Graphic Novels at the School of Library and Information Studies for the University of Alberta and is the author of nine books on storytelling and folklore. She is a professional storyteller and has taught the storytelling course at SLIS for over two decades.

scholarly journals Overgange. Børne- og ungdomslitteratur og barndomsopfattelser i bevægelse

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (75) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Active Agent ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Sound Image ◽  
The Right ◽  
Primary Medium ◽  
The Continuum

“Transitions. Children’s Literature and Young Adult Fiction on the Move”The article gives an overview of current changes and tendencies within children’s literature and young adult fiction, as well as the research related to this field. Until recently, the book was considered the primary medium for literature for children, but the production of narratives that move across media is expanding. This calls for approaches that take the interaction of sound, image, verbal text and medium into consideration. Today, children and young people are considered individuals with agency, with the right and opportunity to influence their own situation, and this has led to an increasing interest in children’s use and production of texts. The article discusses aspects of this development, links it to a historical framework, and proposes a model that focuses on the interaction between different modes of expressions, media, producers and readers. In continuation of this, the article debates approaches to childhood within children’s literature studies, in particular the ‘kinship model’ proposed by Marah Gubar. This model suggests a focus on the continuum and the similarities between children and adults, instead of an approach to children that stresses their deficits or the differences between children and adults. The article concludes that the increasing interaction between children’s books and other media calls for interaction between children’s literature studies and media studies, and that many aspects point to a need for viewing the child as an active agent in the use and production of texts.

Creating a ‘Masala’ Self: Bicultural Identity in Desi Young Adult Novels

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Superle
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Small Body ◽  
The United States ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Bicultural Identity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
Cultural Identity Development

In the past two decades, the previously silent voices of diasporic Indian writers for young people have emerged, and a small body of texts has begun to develop in the United States and the United Kingdom. One of the major preoccupations of these texts is cultural identity development, especially in the novels published for a young adult audience, which often feature protagonists in the throes of an identity crisis. For example, the novels The Roller Birds of Rampur (1991) by Indi Rana, Born Confused (2002) by Tanuja Desai Hidier, and The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen (2005) by Mitali Perkins all focus on an adolescent girl coping with her bicultural identity with angst and confusion, and delineate the ways her self-concept and relationships are affected. The texts are empowering in their suggestion that young people have the agency to explore and create their own balanced bicultural identities, but like other young adult fiction, they ultimately situate adolescents within insurmountable institutional forces that are much more powerful than any individual.

Blackness, Imperialism, and Nationalism in Dominican Children's Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61
Author(s):  
Stacy Ann Creech
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young People ◽  
Educational Reform ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Specific Construction

From pre-Columbian times through to the twentieth century, Dominican children's literature has struggled to define itself due to pressures from outside forces such as imperialism and colonialism. This paper examines the socio-political contexts within Dominican history that determined the kind of literature available to children, which almost exclusively depicted a specific construction of indigeneity, European or Anglo-American characters and settings, in an effort to efface the country's African roots. After the Educational Reform of 1993 was instituted, however, there has been a promising change in the field, as Dominican writers are engaged in producing literature for young people that includes more accurate representations of Blackness and multiculturalism.

scholarly journals MOVING AWAY FROM TRADITION: PORTRAYAL OF MODERN WEREWOLVES AND VAMPIRES IN THE TWILIGHT SAGA

1970 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nassima Kaid
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Technological Advancement ◽  
Fantasy Fiction ◽  
The Past ◽  
Actual Environment ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
Twilight Saga ◽  
Psychosexual Dysfunction

Many writers have shown their preoccupation with and interest in the representation of the fantastic body over the past centuries. The figure of the vampire, werewolves, and zombies keep coming back in those works although today’s monsters are humanized. In Contemporary Young Adult fantasy, readers are presented with characters that usually adapt to the real world. The fantastic body does no more refer to psychosexual dysfunction but generates mainly from socioeconomic and cultural malaise (Badley, 17-18). In other words, the fantastic becomes a virtual reality that symbolizes the changing ‘self’ within the postmodern era though contemporary literature has transcended the actual environment as it copes with technological advancement. Unlike other fantasy fiction, Meyer has focused on traditional fantastic creatures originating in folklores and myths; they are an integral part of the fantastic as they cross lines between natural and supernatural elements. The present paper aims at addressing the representation of body transformations into vampires and werewolves in Stephenie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga. It will evaluate body metamorphosis into vampires and werewolves discovering new dimensions of one’s own identity and personality. It will further demonstrate how Meyer has succeeded in creating her own monsters without untying some of the mythical substratum.

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