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Jessica Boeykens A Fun Read! An Exploration of the Possible Differences Between Reviews of Children’s Books from Specialist Magazines, Newspapers, Amazon.com and Book Reviewing Websites for Children Masterproef Taal- en Letterkunde: Engels Jessica Boeykens Promotor Dr. Vanessa Joosen Assessor: Prof. dr. Geert Lernout Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Academiejaar 2009-2010 Mei 2010 Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Masterproef Taal- en Letterkunde Master Engels A Fun Read! An Exploration of the Possible Differences Between Reviews of Children's Books from Specialist Magazines, Newspapers, Amazon.com and Book Reviewing Websites for Children. Jessica Boeykens Promotor: Vanessa Joosen Assessor: Geert Lernout Universiteit Antwerpen Academiejaar 2009-2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation is the result of a long and sometimes difficult process. It started when a friend informed me of Wetenschapswinkel and its database of research topics. Within this database I came across Stichting Lezen’s interest with regard to the practice of reviewing children’s literature. Being a reviewer of children’s books myself, my interest was immediately sparked. In the months that followed, this thesis slowly began to take shape. My sincere thanks go to my supervisor Vanessa Joosen for guiding me along the way. I benefited a great deal from her advice and am grateful for her patience. I am also indebted to Mieke De Lathouwers from Wetenschapswinkel for her trust and encouragement. Furthermore, many thanks to the people from Stichting Lezen, first of all for inspiring me, secondly for their financial support and thirdly for their excellent as well as pleasant library. I must also express my gratitude towards my parents and grandmother, for their moral as well as financial support. Finally, I would like to express special thanks to my boyfriend. I owe him an immense debt of gratitude for lending me his strength as well as his word-processing skills. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................... 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 4 I. ASPECTS OF REVIEWING CHILDREN’S BOOKS ............................................................ 7 1.1 Authorship: Professionals versus Amateurs ..................................................................... 7 1.2 Audience ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.3 Orientations within criticism of children’s literature ..................................................... 12 1.4 Implications .................................................................................................................... 14 II. APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 15 2.1 Krikhaar and Ros ............................................................................................................ 15 2.2 Revising the Approach .................................................................................................... 17 2.3 The Adapted Model ......................................................................................................... 21 III. SURVEY OF THE REVIEWS AND MATERIALS USED .............................................. 23 3.1 The Reviews .................................................................................................................... 23 3.1.1 Magazines ................................................................................................................ 25 3.1.2 Newspapers .............................................................................................................. 25 3.1.3 Internet: Amazon ..................................................................................................... 26 3.1.4 Internet: Children ..................................................................................................... 27 3.2 The Books ....................................................................................................................... 28 IV. ANALYSIS OF THE REVIEWS .............................................................................................. 30 4.1 Content description ......................................................................................................... 30 4.1.1 Defining the Questions ............................................................................................ 30 4.1.2 Analyzing Content Description ................................................................................ 32 4.2 Situating .......................................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Directions ....................................................................................................................... 36 4.4 Argumentation ................................................................................................................ 40 4.5. Personal language ......................................................................................................... 42 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 44 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................................ 48 APPENDIX A: Model of Krikhaar and Ros APPENDIX B: Table of Reviews APPENDIX C: Reviews 3 Werd een recensie vroeger gewaardeerd als de gefundeerde mening van een kenner, die alleen al daarom respect verdiende en waarvan iets op te steken viel, vandaag wordt de mening van de andere ‘gewone’ lezers steeds belangrijker. Boeken worden aanbevolen door de buurman, een vriendin of een onbekende op het internet. Zo ontstaat een netwerk van ‘gelijkgestemde’ lezers, waarin mond-aan-mondreclame heel belangrijk wordt. - Karin Kustermans INTRODUCTION As the above quote illustrates, today everyone can be a book critic. The internet abounds with book reviews, with Amazon perhaps being the most prominent source of amateur reviews. Yet what do postings on websites such as Amazon, small announcements in papers, extensive contributions to literary pages and pieces in book magazines all have in common? They are all referred to as ‘reviews’, but do they deserve to be placed under a common denominator? Do they apply the same criteria? More questions arise when it comes to reviews of children’s books. Children can post book reviews on the internet as well, but do they apply the same criteria as adults do? Is a child’s review of a specific book very different from that of an adult? Since I regularly review children’s books myself, these questions intrigue me and that is why I decided to devote my thesis to the subject of criticism of children’s literature. Before proceeding to the research question, I will briefly define the domain of the research. Van Gorp states the following with regard to literary criticism: Binnen de literaire kritiek maakt men meestal een onderscheid tussen journalistieke, essayistische en wetenschappelijke kritiek. Dit onderscheid houdt niet alleen verband met de plaats van verschijnen, de lengte en de moeilijkheidsgraad, maar ook met de intentie van de criticus en het beoogde lezerspubliek. In het eerste geval is de kritische tekst hoofdzakelijk informatief en evaluatief. De lengte varieert van zeer kort (b.v. een aankondiging) tot vrij uitvoerig (b.v. een bijdrage in een literaire pagina). De criticus richt zich tot een ruim en gedifferentieerd publiek. Hij anticipeert op of subsidieert de leesact van de lezer (242). 4 The criticism I refer to throughout this dissertation concerns the first kind van Gorp mentions. It is journalistic in its nature and concerns texts that consist of two main components: information and assessment. Furthermore it should be noted that the reviews under inspection will be reviews of children’s books. When I use the terms ‘children’s books’ and ‘children’s literature’ I allude to books for school aged children between six and thirteen. Pre-school and adolescent literature will not be considered in this dissertation for the reason that pre-school children do not write book reviews and adolescents are in between childhood and adulthood. Throughout this thesis I will explicitly use the phrase ‘adult literary criticism’ and ‘adult reviewer’, to emphasize the difference with youth literary criticism and reviewers of children’s books. Initially I wanted to research the reviewing of children’s books by determining the range of criteria reviewers apply and by establishing whether these criteria differ according to different kinds of reviews. While exploring whether or not various reviews make use of similar criteria, it became clear that this research does not take into account the elements of a review that are not explicitly critical; it does not examine the informational component. A first reading of a number of reviews not only showed that often the evaluative and the informational components intertwine, it also provided many interesting finds with regard to the informational aspect. Hence I decided to incorporate the latter component into the research. I broadened
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