Reading Girls’ Literature: Popular Finnish Heroine Tiina

The Tiina book series for girls circulated in Finland for a considerable period of thirty years (1956–1986). This girls’ series was quite popular among young girls during the whole period, and the protagonist Tiina has appealed to young Finnish readers for decades. Different generations have read the girls’ books about the brave and tomboy heroine. Girls’ series books are part of the girls’ literature genre, which was developed originally in the mid-nineteenth century. This article explores the reading and reception of Tiina books in the context of the Finnish and international girls’ literature and reading research. Female readers of various ages participated in a reading survey and submitted written accounts of their experiences reading the Tiina books. In particular, this article seeks to examine the engagement of readers with the books and the girl protagonist.

READING INTERESTS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN

This article presents the results of a study that examined the interest and influence of gender of students studying in International schools in Sri Lanka on reading. The objectives of this study was to find the nature of reading interest of the primary school children and to examine whether it differ by gender. The sample was selected from three International schools in Colombo district. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed with Chi-square test. Findings indicated that, boys preferred comic books and the girls opted to picture books. Reading Newspapers and web pages are not popular among students, despite computer was much preferred in the past. This could indicate that children prefer to read a book. Where genres are concerned, Mystery & Adventure and Fantasy are the selection of the majority. Both these fall into the fiction category which was confirmed by previous researches. Since a vast majority of the sample showed preference for series books as well as comic books, it can be concluded that books from the Wimpy Kid and the Geronimo Stilton series can be used in order to encourage and motivate young readers by making reading an enjoyable activity.

A systematic review of barriers impeding the implementation of government green procurement

Purpose Government green procurement (GGP) is becoming a popular environmental policy instrument to spur the economy whilst protecting the environment. However, the implementation of GGP is impeded by various barriers. This paper aims to analyse the existing literature on barriers impeding GGP. Design/methodology/approach This systematic literature review was guided by the PRISMA Statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) review method. A total of 29 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases were selected for the review. Findings Five themes, i.e. finance, legal, people, knowledge and organisation, emerged from this review, which further produced 16 sub-themes. Lack of knowledge and awareness were the major barriers for GGP, while financial constraint was not the major barrier for GGP, as previously perceived. Barriers related to organisation were the most complex. Certain barriers were found more in developed or developing countries. Research limitations/implications Only article journals with empirical data were selected. Review articles, book series, books, chapters in books and conference proceedings were excluded. Practical implications Public managers should place highest priority to enhance knowledge and awareness of procurers on GGP. Other important initiatives to be undertaken include emulating best practices, implementing change management and incentivising suppliers to tackle the prevalent barriers of GGP. Finally, with increasing evidences on barriers related to GGP, public managers should consider mapping and analysing specific barriers hindering GGP in their organisation/country. Social implications A less challenging and efficient implementation of GGP contributes to a cleaner environment. Originality/value This article will be the first to systematically review the barriers of GGP.

Mapping the Estonian Literature of the Selfie-era

We live in the era of selfies as making photos of oneself and sharing these in social media has become extremely popular if not even a norm. The perceiving and experiencing subject is in the foreground. This is also valid in the field of literature, which has been democratized as anyone can make a book and anyone can write a book, as seen by the boom of biographies of all kinds. The My-series published by the Estonian publishing company Petrone Print illustrates these tendencies. The publishing company was founded in 2007 by Epp Petrone who had moved back to Estonia from the United States. Her My America was the first book in the series. In this series of books authors describe their lives and activities in one country or city. The series has a firm position in the Estonian literary field: the books are constantly in top ten lists and are in high demand in libraries. Taking the My-series as an example, the article maps tendencies in contemporary Estonian literature. The subject-centeredness is one of the characteristics of contemporary literature as the amount of books concentrating on one’s life experiences is quite noteworthy. The exact genre of this type of literature is ambiguous, which is another characteristic of contemporary literature. I would define the My-series books as ‘literary selfies’ as the person portrays him/herself setting the world in the background. Another issue discussed in connection with the series is migration. The demographic situation in Europe has changed and continues to change; various nationalities can be found in the world metropolises, and the shift from the monocultural and monolingual world to the multicultural and multilingual one is obvious. Therefore, more and more people have a ‘hyphenated identity’; consequently, one’s national identity may not be as clear as before. Over the last decade, a large number of Estonians have left their homeland and settled down in other countries, an aspect illustrated by the My-series.

Reading In and Out of Order: Living In and Around an Extended Fiction

Many series books recount the life of a character growing up over a sequence of titles, offering a strong sense of clear progression. Readers, however, may encounter this series out of order, or they may encounter numerous adapted versions of a story. Either way, they have to decide their own interpretive priorities.

THE HISTORY OF CREATION AND DESIGN FEATURES OF THE BRITISH SERIES OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS “BOOKS FOR THE BAIRNS” (1896–1912)

The 19th century is called the “golden age” of a children’s book. At this time, a variety of children’s literature appeared, first of all in Britain. The model of a decorated book are the books of Kelmscott Press. However, it was precisely at this time that a series of children’s books with a modest design at affordable prices, such as the so-called “one-penny” series “Books for the Bairns”, emerged. Ideologist and permanent editor of Books for the Bairns William T. Stead was a well-known journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of periodicals, public figure, child rights defender and a fighter against child prostitution. In 1912 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but scandalous reports, imprisonment, and his interest in spiritualism made W. Stead’s im- age controversial. The concept of the series, created by Sted, is based on a combination of an adapted simplified literary translation and a detailed step-by-step visual story that accompanies the text. The chief illustrator and visual co-author of W. Sted was the Irish artist B. Le Fanu (Brinsley Le Fanu, 1854–1929). For B. Le Fanu, the illustration of the series was the biggest art project. At his time, B. Le Fanu was known for the illustrations to the works of his father — Sheridan Le Fanu, one of the founders of the Irish mystical novel. They have the characteristic features of the Victorian era. Making illustrations for children’s books, B. Le Fanu does not lose their fantastic nature, but combines them with a realistic drawing. Each cover of the series represents one of the main characters of the book. A simple but vivid picture, one or two characters on the cover, a landscape or interior outlined by several elements — that’s what the covers by B. Le Fanu were like. None of them are decorated with patterns or ornamental details. The artist consistently implemented the concept of simplicity and clarity suggested by W. Sted, but not primitiveness. The best volumes in the series are his illustrations of L. Carroll’s “Alice’s in Wonderland” and M. Servantes’s novel “The Adventures of Don Quixote”. The “Books for the Bairns” series, although not exquisitely designed and illustrated, has become a model for children’s literature publishers for half a century and inspired the appearance of similar series of cheap children’s books in Western Europe and also Russia and Ukraine.

Alternate Roots

For over two decades, the media have chronicled escalating participation in family history prompted by, among other things, the aging of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers, the growing availability of digital genealogy sites and archives, and a burgeoning interest in racial and ethnic history and culture of the sort inspired by the airing of the historical drama miniseries Roots forty years ago. Alternate Roots is the first book to critically address a wide array of media-related institutions, texts, technologies, and practices of family history readily encountered in the new millennium, including genealogy-themed television series, books, documentaries, websites, family photos and civil records, social media interactions, genealogical institutions, “roots” tourism, and genetic ancestry testing services capitalizing on the 2003 mapping of the human genome. These objects of inquiry present unique and pressing issues for critical investigation in terms of economic and privacy concerns as well as ethnicity, race, and hybrid identities. Judiciously interweaving her own genealogical journey involving ethnic, racial, classed, and gendered identities pertinent to her southern Italian and Italian American family history throughout the multifaceted examination of critical objects, Christine Scodari unearths pivot points of thought and action in the performance and representation of family history that can be adapted by others and facilitated by digital media. This alternate roots strategy, an expansive approach to family history, enables practitioners to venture beyond genetic definitions of kinship, their own ancestral history, and the struggles of those sharing their affiliations, and to interrogate genealogical media and related commodities and activities accordingly.