Changing Images of Family Postcolonial Young Adult Literature
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
2007 VOL 45, NO. 2 Changing images of family Postcolonial young adult literature in India Children’s literature in Mexico New forms of the Arcadian motif The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children’s Literature Golden labels in BrBrazilazil The Journal of IBBY,the International Board on Books for Young People Editors: Valerie Coghlan and Siobhán Parkinson Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: [email protected] and [email protected] Bookbird’s editorial office is supported by the Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Ireland. Editorial Review Board: Sandra Beckett (Canada), Nina Christensen (Denmark), Penni Cotton (UK), Hans-Heino Ewers (Germany), Jeffrey Garrett (USA), Elwyn Jenkins (South Africa),Ariko Kawabata (Japan), Kerry Mallan (Australia), Maria Nikolajeva (Sweden), Jean Perrot (France), Kimberley Reynolds (UK), Mary Shine Thompson (Ireland), Victor Watson (UK), Jochen Weber (Germany) Guest reviewer for this issue: Claudia Söffner Board of Bookbird, Inc.: Joan Glazer (USA), President; Ellis Vance (USA),Treasurer;Alida Cutts (USA), Secretary;Ann Lazim (UK); Elda Nogueira (Brazil) Cover image: By Jutta Bauer from Christine Nöstlinger’s Einen Vater hab ich auch, reproduced by kind permission of the publishers, Beltz & Gelberg (Weinheim and Basel) Production: Design and layout by Oldtown Design, Dublin ([email protected]) Copyedited and proofread by Antoinette Walker Printed in Canada by Transcontinental Bookbird:A Journal of International Children’s Literature (ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly by IBBY,the International Board on Books for Young People, Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland, tel. +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected] <www.ibby.org>. Copyright © 2007 by Bookbird, Inc., an Indiana not-for-profit corporation. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor. Items from Focus IBBY may be reprinted freely to disseminate the work of IBBY. IBBY Executive Committee 2006-2008: Patricia Aldana (Canada) President; Elda Nogueira (Brazil) and Ellis Vance (USA) Vice-Presidents;Anastasia Arkhipova (Russia), Niklas Bengtsson (Finland), Hannelore Daubert (Germany), Reina Duarte (Spain), Elena Iribarren (Venezuela/France),Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia),Ann Lazim (UK), Ira Saxena (India) Voting Members; Zohreh Ghaeni (Iran) Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland), Director of Member Services, Communications and New Projects; Estelle Roth (France), Director of Administration; Urs Breitenstein (Switzerland),Treasurer;Valerie Coghlan (Ireland), Siobhán Parkinson (Ireland), Bookbird Editors Subscriptions to Bookbird: See inside back cover Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the MLA International Bibliography. CANADA POSTMASTER: Bookbird. Publications Mail Registration Number 40600510. Send address changes to University of Toronto Press Inc., 5201 Dufferin Street,Toronto, ON M3H 5T8. ISSN 0006-7377 I said it in Hebrew – I said it in Dutch – I said it in German and Greek: But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much) That English is what you speak! FIRST: JAM A FIT THE ND JUDICIOUS ADVICE Editorial | page 4 GHTFUL AND FIT THE SECOND: THOU GRAVE Changing Images of Family in Postwar European Children’s Literature Hannelore Daubert | page 6 Waiting in the Wings: Postcolonial Young Adult Literature in India Richa Kapoor | page 15 The Arcadian Motif in European Children’s Literature Tijana Tropin | page 21 Finding a Voice:The Development of Mexican Children’s Literature, Part II Evelyn Arizpe | page 29 RD: SUCH HE THI QUANT S OF SAND FIT T ITIE The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children’s Literature Amanda Piesse | page 39 THE FOURTH: W FIT RAPPED UP IN A FIVE-POUND NOTE Children’s Literature Awards around the World 7: Golden Labels in Brazil: Thirty-two Years of the FNLIJ Awards Elizabeth Serra | page 44 FIT THE F SHIP IFTH: OF SHOES AND S AND SEALING WAX Postcards from around the World | interleaved Books on Books | page 50 Focus IBBY | page 56 The quoted stanza is from ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ by Lewis Carroll.The titles of the various Bookbird sections are taken from that same poem, from ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’, also by Lewis Carroll, and from ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ by Edward Lear. BOOKBIRD around the world (a slot filled on this occasion by Amanda Piesse’s insightful review of the new Oxford Editorial Encyclopaedia of Children’s Literature). We extend a particular welcome to contributors interested in submitting articles for these informative series. Every country outside of the major publishing centres of the world has its own historical experiences to bring to this story of children’s literature, but e are often struck by the huge interest there though the stories differ in their details, they often Wseems to be out there in classic English have shared plot-points: difficulties in establishing a children’s literature. It’s not that we are over-run children’s literature as distinct from educational by villainous British cultural imperialists keen to publications, an overprotective adult culture that maintain the English position as the big daddy of wants to preserve childhood innocence and abhors world children’s literature, but it is very often scholars literature for children that deals with the realities and critics from countries that have interesting and many children have to face in their actual lives; and valuable literatures of their own who seem to be a marketplace that is distorted by international absorbed by books like Alice in Wonderland or The Tale bestsellers, to name but a few.And so it is that we are of Peter Rabbit. Much as we love the English classics not surprised – discomfited, but not surprised – by ourselves – we were brought up on them, after all – Richa Kapoor’s article on the lack of indigenously we think it a shame that they should continue to written and produced young adult literature in have such a hold on the imagination of the interna- India. tional children’s literature community, especially If Arcadia has found new expression in recent when scholars might instead be bringing us thrilling European literature for children, as Tijana Tropin news of their own countries’ literatures – literatures argues in her article in this issue, it is also true that which we otherwise would not know about, because the realistic European novel of family life is reflecting of barriers of language and culture and commercial increasingly diverse forms of family, as Hannelore constraints. Daubert’s thoughtful article shows. Bookbird is It is partly in an attempt to redress this situation that particularly pleased and proud to be able to bring we have made a point of publishing a series of articles this important German perspective on the literary on children’s literature awards and prizes in different treatment of a new and significant social phenomenon countries (it’s Brazil’s turn in this issue) and a parallel to an English-language audience who might otherwise series on studies or projects in children’s literature have no access to it. And so it has happened once again: it is always the same, yet it is always astonishing to discover the Bookbird editors unspoken conversation that is going on between the VALERIE COGHLAN is the librarian at papers in an issue of Bookbird. Regardless of national the Church of Ireland College of Education in Dublin, Ireland. She lectures on and and even of linguistic boundaries, children’s literature writes about children’s books and has a people the world over speak a common language – particular interest in picturebooks. true, it has to be mediated through English, as a matter SIOBHÁN PARKINSON is a writer of of practical convenience, but the language of children’s fiction for children and adults (young and otherwise) and a professional editor. literature, despite its many dialects, is the language in which the Bookbird conversation continues. 4 / BOOKBIRD BOOKBIRD Philippa Pearce t is with great regret that Bookbird notes the passing of Philippa Pearce I(1920–2006), author of the Carnegie-winning Tom’s Midnight Garden (1958). This novel, famously inspired by the garden of the Pearce family home in Cambridgeshire, UK, became a classic within the lifetime of its author. It is probably the most important English children’s novel of the mid-20th century, and is almost certainly the prototype ‘time slip’ novel. Philippa Pearce left only a handful of books, but each one is a delight and all are beautifully written. Her first book, The Minnow on the Say (1955), is rather neglected today, but as a treasure-hunt adventure with boats, it has a lasting appeal, especially for boy readers of a reflective turn of mind. Pearce takes no prisoners: her books are definitely for the more introspective child, but such a reader will find them enormously rewarding. Her last novel, The Little Gentleman (2004), a mild and rather old-fashioned story about a little girl and an extra- ordinarily long-lived mole, was published when the author was in her eighties. In this age of unprecedented commercialisation of children’s fiction, we need voices such as that of Philippa Pearce, authors who, with understated wit, can draw child readers into a fictional world spun magically out of nothing more extraordinary than words. THE 18th BIENNIAL CONGRESS OF IRSCL 25-29 August 2007 Kyoto International Conference Centre Takaragaike Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan +81-75-705-1234 Theme: Power and Children’s Literature: Past, Present and Future Children’s literature has the power to help child readers to create diverse and free images of themselves, and to recognise the process of growing up and forming their identities. It can also give them consolation and vital energy.On the other hand, children’s literature has the aspect of serving state propaganda, imposing the social and moral codes of the dominant culture on child readers, and depriving them of their imaginative power, sensitivity and ability to think for themselves.