A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

2017, VOL. 55, NO.2 The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2017 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor.

Editor: Björn Sundmark, Malmö University, Sweden. Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: [email protected]. Bookbird’s editorial offce is supported by the Faculty of Education, Malmö University, Sweden

Editorial Review Board: Peter E. Cumming, York University (Canada); Debra Dudek, University of Wollongong (Australia); Helene Høyrup, Royal School of Library & Information Science (Denmark); Judith Inggs, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); Ingrid Johnston, University of Alberta (Canada); Michelle Martin, University of South Carolina (USA); Beatriz Alcubierre Moya, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Mexico); Lissa Paul, Brock University (Canada); Margaret Zeegers, University of Ballarat (Australia); Lydia Kokkola, Luleå University (Sweden); Roxanne Harde, University of Alberta (Canada), Gargi Gangophadhyay, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Vivekananda Vidyabhavan (India); Tami al-Hazza, Old Dominion University (USA); Farideh Pourgiv, Shiraz University Center for Children’s Literature Studies (Iran); Anna Kérchy, University of Szeged (Hungary); Andrea Mei Ying Wu, National Cheng kung University (Taiwan); Junko Sakoi, Tucson, AZ, (USA).

Board of Bookbird, Inc. (an Indiana not-for-proft corporation): Valerie Coghlan, President; Ellis Vance, Treasurer; Junko Yokota, Secretary; Evelyn B. Freeman; Hasmig Chahinian.

Advertising Manager: Ellis Vance ([email protected]) Production: Design and layout by Mats Hedman. Printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature (ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly in Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, and distributed by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland, and at additional mailing offces. Postmaster: Send address changes to Bookbird, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Canada postmaster: Bookbird, Publications Mail Registration Number 40600510. Send address corrections to The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Subscriptions to Bookbird: See last page

IBBY Executive Committee 2016-2018: Wally de Doncker (Belgium) President; Akoss Ofori-Mensah (Ghana), Vice President; Maria Cristina Vargas (Mexico) Vice President; Evelyn B. Freeman (USA), Ferelith Hordon (UK), Sunjidmaa Jamba (Mongolia), Anastasia Arkhipova (Russia), Carole Bloch (South Africa), Serpil Ural (Turkey), Zohreh Ghaeni (Iran), Mingzhou Zhang (China), Voting Members; Patricia Aldana (Canada) Hans Christian Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland) Executive Director; Ellis Vance (USA) Treasurer; Björn Sundmark (Sweden) Bookbird Editor

IBBY may be contacted at Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4009 Basel, Switzerland, tel: +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected]

Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the MLA International Bibliography.

The front and back cover illustrations are reproductions of original sketches (1975-77) by Lisbeth Zwerger; they are reproduced by permission of the illustrator. Contents

Editorial by Björn Sundmark 2 Introduction by Peter Cumming 4

Articles For “Family and Intimate Visitors Only”: The Influence of Maria Edgeworth’s Juvenilia on the Production of her Adult Dramas by Ryan Twomey 10 Children’s Voices from War Zones Muted by Adult Mediation by Marija Todorova 20 Youth, Poetry, and Zines: Rewriting the Streets as Home by Elizabeth Marshall and Theresa Rogers 28 Revising Hegemonic Masculinity: Homosexuality, Masculinity, and Youth-Authored Harry Potter Fanfiction by Jennifer Duggan 38

Translators & Their Books Moominvalley Fossils: Translating the early Comics by Tove Jansson by Ant O’Neill 46

Children & Their Books Writing Opens Many Doors by Andreja Blažič Klemenc 56 Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership: Raising the Status of Children’s Voices in Ireland and Australia by by Orla Kenny, Jo Holmwood, Victoria Ryle, and Simon Spain 60 Writing with Children: From Teacher to Writer by Mary Branley 64 The Library as Publishing Hub : Children’s Books by Children and for Children in the Kids’ Own Book Cubby by Margaret Robson Kett 68

Focus IBBY 74

Postcards edited by Barbara Lehman 19, 37, 54

IBBY.ORG 1 55.2–2017 Editorial

i n o c t o b e r 2 015 , I attended a regional IBBY tions “Translators and Their Books,” and “Children hopping and buzzing—half-human, half-fly. Together actually runs counter to the spirit of true play) conference in New York. One of the highlights and Their Books.” the family tries to swat the “fly” and chase him away, required by the children’s cursed “playthings” finds was a “conversation about illustration” moderated There is yet another reason why it is motivated and eventually, the father succeeds in hitting him. an echo in the beautiful doll in Michael Ende’s by Paul O. Zelinsky; the illustrators were François to use “The Strange Child.” Less known than Pepser disappears. But the story does not end there. Momo. More than anything, it seems to me, the tale Place, Roger Mello, and Lisbeth Zwerger. One of Hoffman’s The Nutcracker and “The Sandman,” this Pepser may be gone, but so is the wonderful strange is both about being a child and growing up. Thus, the moments that has stayed with me from that tale is just as complex and unsettling. And it has child; worse, the discarded playthings in the forest it connects to one of the greatest paradox of chil- event was when Lisbeth Zwerger showed some of something to say about childhood, growing up, play, are now animated, taunting and scaring the children. dren’s literature—describing what it is to be a child her earliest work, miniature illustrations of some and creativity that relates indirectly to the theme of There are other problems: their father is ailing; he while showing the child how to become an adult. classic fairy tales that she had made as an art stu- this Bookbird. thinks that Pepser has cast a spell on him and knows Christlieb and Felix are ideal children (already their dent. Zwerger recounted how she had brought that he will die soon. Before he passes away, however, names give that away); their fairy tale childhood and them to the publisher Michael Neugebauer, who, The two children, Christlieb and Felix, are good and he tells the children, “When I was about your age, the strange child is their guide to their Neverland. impressed by Zwerger’s delicate watercolors, en- “natural”, just like their parents, but an influential that child used to come to me, too, and play with me To preserve that child in one’s heart is essential couraged her to re-draw some of them in a larger uncle considers them primitive and uneducated. He in the most wonderful way.” Ultimately, the children to achieving harmony in life. Pepser and the toys format, more suitable for publication. This resulted sends them beautiful toys. These toys—a doll, a harper and their mother have to leave the house after their represent a perverted view of childhood, of “play,” in Zwerger’s 1977 début as an artist with “Das (music toy), and a sportsman (archer)—fascinate father’s death, but the “strange child” talks to them in and of education. The children’s play and outdoor Fremde Kind” (“The Strange Child”) by E. T. A. the children to begin with, and instead of playing a vision and gives them courage. The tale ends on a games, their creativity, imagination, and integrity Hoffman. Zwerger was twenty-three years old at outdoors like they usually do, they stay in-doors with hopeful note: “Whatever Felix and Christlieb under- are contrasted with the fake education and science the time, but the miniatures date back a few years their toys. Eventually, however, they go out, bringing took was sure to prosper, and they and their mother of Tutor-Ink and the false play of the artificial toys. before that. It is interesting to note that even if the the toys with them into the forest. Now, in the open became quite happy. And, as their lives went on, they Still, one wonders if Pepser in all his hideousness is published illustrations are exquisite and lovely, the air, the shortcomings of the toys become apparent, still, in dreams, played with the Strang[er] Child, a necessary evil. Would the children have remained original miniatures have a charm and originality that and in the end, the sportsman and harper are broken which, never ceased to bring to them the loveliest infants in la la land forever if Pepser had not in some ways rival the finished, published work. and Christlieb throws the doll into a pond. Sometime wonders from its fairy home.” shaken them up and chased away the strange child? This was something that Zwerger herself comment- later, when the children are in the forest again, they Hoffman splits the positive aspects of childhood ed on in her New York talk. In this issue of Bookbird, encounter a “strange child,” who appears to have Already from this brief summary, one can recog- and growing up from the ugly ones into two crea- we reproduce (maybe for the first time?) some of supernatural powers and in whose company nature nize themes central to the discourse of children’s tures: the strange child and Pepser. But childhood these illustrations on the front and back covers. is even more inspiring and beautiful than before. He literature: nature vs. (over)civilization, innocence vs. and growing up is both. One reason why I have chosen to use Zwerger’s warns them of an evil fly-like creature, the Gnome artificiality, childhood (and play) as a state of being In the end, it is because the children both “Strange Child” illustrations on the covers of King Pepser, who can steal away life and happiness separate from adulthood. To me, Christlieb and refuse Tutor-Ink’s life-defeating teaching and the Bookbird (other than that these are beautiful pieces from spirits and humans alike. The strange child tells Felix’s encounters with the “strange child” is rem- strange child’s dream-world that they can become of art) is that they also point to the theme of this them that Pepser can disguise his monstrous form. iniscent of Peter Pan, and the scripted play (which the authors of their own lives. issue: child authors and illustrators. The fairy tale Soon after meeting this wonderful being, their uncle miniatures by Zwerger are the fruit of a young art- sends a tutor to the children. Master Tutor-Ink, as he ist, a young adult. They are from that period of life is to be called, makes their lives rather miserable. It when you take the step from childhood to adult- is characteristic that he despises stories and writing, hood. Yet there is nothing immature or incomplete bird-song and wild flowers. The tutor keeps the chil- with these illustrations. Does it even make sense dren indoors, until the children’s father, the baron, in- BJÖRN SUNDMARK is Professor to talk about the age of an illustrator and author, as sists that the he accompany the children into the forest. of English Literature in the Faculty long as they have the talent and ability to write and They then encounter the strange child, who recognizes of Education, Malmö University, Sweden. He has published paint as well as any of their elders? Wishing to hook master Tutor-Ink as Pepser and tells them that he has numerous articles on children’s you, I will let this question dangle, enticingly. Just to leave the children since Pepser now has them in his literature, and is the author of the let me say that my co-editor Peter Cumming un- power. The strange child flies away, and Pepser, shed- study Alice in the Oral-Literary tangles and explores the child author theme further ding his human form, tries to follow but is attacked Continuum (1999) and co-editor of The Nation in Children’s in his critical introduction. Moreover, the child-as- a “pheasant prince” of the fairy host. The children Literature (Routledge 2013). He is author/illustrator theme is addressed variously and run back home and tell their parents about the tutor/ editor of Bookbird–Journal of expertly in the feature articles as well as in the sec- Pepser. Then he, too, returns, apparently injured, International Children’s Literature.

BOOKBIRD 2 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 3 55.2–2017 INTRODUCTION TO “‘ANOTHER CHILDREN’S LITERATURE’: WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH” Intoduction TAKING WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERIOUSLY

the “racy” headline, seems to imply)? Rather than literature because they had little access to the equip- her early texts being innocent scribblings of an ig- ment necessary to do so and . . . it was generally norant child, might her childhood notebooks, with assumed that they had too little experience of the Introduction to their parody, “exaggerated sentiment,” “absurd ad- world or the craft of writing to have anything to say ventures,” and “murder and violence” highlight in- or to say it interestingly” (24); Evelyn Arizpe, Morag stead how much she was, already, as a child, both an Styles, and Abigail Rokison’s contention that writing “Another Children’s accomplished reader and writer, astutely interacting by children is a “neglected dimension of children’s with the narrative conventions of her time? Might literature and its scholarship” (125); McMaster’s her childhood novel, consisting of twelve “chapters,” reminder that “[l]iterature by children is a different Literature’: Writing by with “each chapter . . . just a sentence or two,” not as matter from literature for children” (280); and David easily demonstrate a subversive satire of literature as Rudd’s claim that while it might be argued that “chil- it does childish naïveté and writerly incompetence? dren still have no voice, their literature being created And, significantly, would her youthful writings even for them, rather than creating their own . . . this is a Children and Youth” have been noticed, let alone appreciated, two hun- nonsense. Children produce literature in vast quan- dred years after her death, had the child writer not tities, oral and written, both individually wrought become a canonical adult author? and through collaborative effort . . . and in a variety Taking Writing by Children This special issue of Bookbird joins an ongoing, of forms” (19).1 In fact, in this digital age, children if sporadic, conversation among various scholars (ad- and youth may well have unprecedented opportuni- mittedly from the Anglo-American tradition most ty, access, and control in publishing their writing: a and Youth Seriously familiar to me) on “‘Another Children’s Literature’: contention supported by the inclusion, in this issue Writing by Children and Youth.” Juvenilia of adult of Bookbird, of articles on children’s and youths’ life authors, such as the childhood writings of Austen writing, zines, and slash fanfiction—not to mention a (or, in this issue, a childhood drama by Maria report that alerts readers to an app enabling children Peter Cumming Edgeworth), provide a usual, but hardly the only pos- to publish their own books. sible, entry point to this discussion. Even Christine While much attention traditionally has been Alexander and Juliet McMaster, of Juvenilia Press, paid to “writing by children and youth” by educa- “Whether children are, like everything else, acknowledge that there are other important forms tion, literacy, composition, and psychology scholars, text or not, . . . we should attend to the texts they fashion out of of children’s writing to be considered: “[A]longside our focus here is markedly different: In what ways these child incarnations of adult authors are some might “writing by children and youth” be considered themselves. . . ‘[C]hildren’s literature’ refers as much to the [children] whose writing is also full of percipience children’s literature? Responding to this demands an literature children make as to the literature they may or and zest, but who did not become adult writers” (2). unorthodox, holistic approach to children’s literature, Indeed, Bookbird’s Call for Papers for this issue one which grants equal weight to the “children’s” may not read” (McGillis 230). urged contributors to attend to “the literary dimen- and the “literature” in the notoriously complex sions of children’s and youths’ writing” of many and even conflicted term “children’s literature.”2 In types. Our argument for the necessity and timeliness English-speaking North America, at least, studies n January 2017, marking the bicentenary ask. “As a child.” How might her writing as a young of this research was grounded in Jacqueline Rose’s of children’s literature by education colleagues have of Jane Austen’s death, Fiona Macdonald person differ from her mature work? While her juve- perhaps overly influential argument that “[c]hildren’s too often focused exclusively on the “children” in claimed in “The Racy Side of Jane Austen” nilia undoubtedly served as a valuable apprentice- fiction sets up a world in which the adult comes first children’s literature, attending to content to the det- (BBC Culture) that the “stories, dramatic sketch- ship for her adult masterpieces (Macdonald’s article (author, maker, giver) and the child comes after (read- riment of form, single-mindedly (if nobly) intent on es and a spoof history” Austen wrote “between cites Austen’s sense of humor, her “confident, willful, er, product, receiver)” (1–2); Jack Zipes’ pronounce- how literature can be “good” for children (including Ithe ages of 11 and 17” reveal “a different side to the even rebellious young women,” and her “critical in- ment that “[t]here never has been a literature con- in developing their literacy). Conversely, literature British novelist” (my italics). As Professor Kathryn telligence” as common elements of her juvenilia and ceived by children for children, a literature that be- colleagues have too often focused exclusively on the Sutherland argues, “Austen’s earliest writings appear adult work), might her youthful writings not also be longs to children, and there never will be,” followed “literature” in children’s literature, either dismissing to have little in common with the restrained and re- considered literature? Must Austen’s transition from immediately by a paradoxical assertion not always the academic worth of the field by denigrating chil- alistic society portrayed in her adult novels. . . . By child author, playwright, and historian to adult nov- included with the initial statement: “This is not to dren’s literature as “kitty litter” (if outside the field) or contrast, they are exuberantly expressionistic tales elist inevitably be collapsed into a simple narrative say that children do not produce their own cultural trying to bolster its academic legitimacy as literature of sexual misdemeanour, of female drunkenness and of linear development, or might it also demonstrate artifacts that include literary works” (40); Kimberley (if inside the field) by insisting that actual children violence.” losses as well as gains along the way (as this arti- Reynolds’ observation that “[h]istorically, children (even as readers, but especially as writers) explicitly “What would Jane write?” I am prompted to cle’s title, with Jane’s inscrutable eyes peering over have not written what has been published as children’s not be considered. “The basic division,” Peter Hunt

BOOKBIRD 4 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 5 55.2–2017 INTRODUCTION TO “‘ANOTHER CHILDREN’S LITERATURE’: WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH” INTRODUCTION TO “‘ANOTHER CHILDREN’S LITERATURE’: WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH” TAKING WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERIOUSLY TAKING WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERIOUSLY observes, is “one between ‘child people’ and ‘book questions, have proven to be remarkably diverse: in year-old child” in the midst of war and trauma, is, Harry Potter Fanfiction,” is that youth-authored texts people’ (a distinction first coined by Townsend . . .); content, topic, texts, approach, nation, but also both alas, layered with adult mediations that “have cor- should be recognized “as another form of young the one sees ‘children’ as central to the enterprise, as academic arguments engaging with this issue’s rupted the child narrator’s voice and perspective adult literature,” one which directly challenges rep- the other not” (47). theme and as complementary reports from practi- of war and the child’s attempt to present her own resentations of youth in commercially published, ca- Teaching children’s literature in the context of tioners—on translation of juvenile-authored texts and identity.” Adopting a postcolonial framework “to nonical, adult-authored YA literature: indeed, another an interdisciplinary childhood studies program has on groundbreaking projects facilitating children’s analyze the relationship of power between a child YA literature—literature written by youth. prompted me to seek a both-and approach: how writing and publishing. What all the diverse texts author and the adult agents involved in the produc- Much writing by young people is, not surpris- might we interrogate children’s literature (in this issue in this issue share, notably, is one crucial value: tak- tion of children’s books,” Todorova demonstrates ingly, initially influenced by adult writing,9 but that of Bookbird, “another children’s literature”—that created ing seriously—respecting—writing by children and that interventions by adults (UNICEF, a peace ac- hardly limits it to mere imitation. Perhaps the most by children and youth) as both “child people” and youth, even as “another children’s literature.” tivist group, wartime journalists and photographers, prolific—and subversive—writing by young people “book people”? A lively 2008 debate exploring the In “For ‘Family and Intimate Visitors Only’: The governments, translators from and back to the text’s in our time is fanfiction, and fanfiction has flour- possibility (or impossibility) of a children’s literature Influence of Maria Edgeworth’s Juvenilia on the original language, photography caption writers, and ished nowhere more profusely than in response to consisting of writing by children and youth in re- Production of her Adult Dramas,” Ryan Twomey writers of paratextual elements), while perhaps nec- J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise. Indeed, in sponse to Sebastien Chapleau’s 2007 article, “Quand examines a classic case of juvenilia: initially, we essary to distribution of the text, ultimately com- “Revising Hegemonic Masculinity,” Duggan argues l’enfant parle et que l’adulte se met à écouter, ou la pay attention to the teenaged Edgeworth’s drama plicate and diminish Zlata’s Diary. Contextualizing that “slash fanfiction (fanfiction that queers texts by littérature enfantine de retour à sa source,”3 inspired The Double Disguise precisely because of her status as her particular case study with reference to the most depicting homosexual relationships)” can be “rev- me to design a course named, like this Bookbird is- an adult author—including her canonical status as a famous of child-authored war diaries, Anne Frank: The olutionary,” challenging commercially published, sue, Writing by Children and Youth. In this course, children’s literature author. What is striking about Diary of a Young Girl, which also, of course, was sub- adult-written YA texts’ stereotypical representations studying a rich and challenging body of writing by Twomey’s argument, however, is his serious literary at- ject to adult mediations, including those of Anne’s of both heteronormativity and youth same-sex rela- children and youth,4 we set out to ask foundation- tention to a text, which is at least “doubly neglected” own father, Todorova concludes, “The adult agents tionships. For one thing, Duggan claims that “the in- al questions about both the (various) “children” and (Arizpe et al. 126): not only is it written by a youth . . . ultimately are silencing—or at least muting—the ternet and other digital media [have] allowed youth to “literature” in children’s literature: What is “litera- but it is in an often overlooked genre in children’s lit- child-author’s voice by speaking for and about her, create and share their own texts outside of the realm ture”? Who are “children”? What is “childhood”? erature, drama; moreover, it is a text produced—as is by translating and interpreting her, rather than en- of adult supervision as never before.”10 Significantly, What is (are?) “children’s literature”? Can “children” much children’s writing—in a domestic, family con- abling child and adult readers to hear her.” Duggan argues that these online youth-authored make “literature”? Following Hélène Cixous’s écriture text. While Twomey’s close reading of Edgeworth’s While Edgeworth’s drama and Zlata’s diary, like texts and spaces “not only highlight youths’ desire féminine, does it make sense to talk of either écriture childhood “play” certainly demonstrates how it in- much writing by children and youth, emerge from to have varied sexualities openly acknowledged in enfantine or littérature enfantine? Is it counterproductive fluences her adult “work,” it also recognizes singular family and home, in “Youth, Poetry, and Zines: commercially published YA fiction but also, by their to label children’s writing “children’s literature,” giv- virtues of the childhood text, demonstrating how this Rewriting the Streets as Home,” Elizabeth Marshall very existence, accentuate the lack of such variety in en the many, historical, diverse meanings assigned “remarkably insightful comedy of manners written and Theresa Rogers explore how homeless youth writ- commercial publishing.” to that term?5 If children and youth do make their by a child writer” engages with contemporary texts; ers have created multimodal texts as tools for creat- Reports in “Translators and Their Books” and own literature, whatever we decide to label it, what is experiments with narrative, genre, character, dia- ing their own, alternative community and home.8 The “Children and Their Books” productively comple- distinctive about it? Might it be useful to appropriate logue, and dialect; and tests out Edgeworth’s social homeless youth, in an “under-examined archive” of ment the arguments in these feature articles—offer- Peter Hollindale’s term “childness” from his “child- and political beliefs. Indeed, Edgeworth’s text offers print, online, and anthologies of zines that Marshall ing inspiring, “on the ground” examples of child-au- ness of texts and of readers” to consider the “child- “a direct refutation of the often-held misconception and Rogers call a “radical literature of the streets,” thored texts being translated, written, created in col- ness” of writing by children (45 ff.)? Should “another that writing by children is unsophisticated,7 imma- deploy “cultural jamming”; “parody and remix”; re- laboration with talented and caring adults (teachers, children’s literature” refer only to the work of child ture, and fragmentary.” sistance to the didacticism of much adult-authored librarians, writers, and illustrators), published, and prodigies?6 Is the literature created by most children The other three articles featured in this issue, literature; “punk aesthetic”; themes of drug use, read. In “Moominvalley Fossils: Translating the Early inevitably inferior, inchoate, incomplete, or even in- as well as the various reports from the field, demon- homelessness, power, and identity; and “flipping the Comics of Tove Jansson,” Ant O’Neill focuses on the coherent? Just as the patriarchal canon of Western strate writing as strategic self-empowerment by chil- script” to “[resist] the status quo through sophisti- fascinating comic, cartoon, poetry, and picture book literature has finally been prompted to recognize, dren and youth. As McMaster points out, “when a cated and often-ironic counter-narrative, and in turn work of classic author and illustrator Tove Jansson— perhaps even appreciate, traditionally marginalized child takes the pen in hand, that child is taking a rewrite the streets as home.” Ironically, Marshall and as a child and teenager. Based on extensive archival literatures—women’s, postcolonial, indigenous, work- determined step toward the control of language, of Rogers claim that “these writers redefine the street research, O’Neill paints a vivid portrait of a young ing class, and queer literatures as well as those in representation, of power. The child . . . has a lot to as a sanctuary from familiar institutions set up to person seriously committed to creating, publishing, non-hegemonic languages—might the adult canon of gain by wresting the means of representation from ‘protect’ youth, such as the family and the school,” and distributing texts (as was, of course, Anne Frank children’s literature be forced to “re-vision” children’s the adults” (277). Such “wresting” is, however, rarely precisely the institutions from which much or most and as are, no doubt, so many unrecognized young literature through (at least some) children’s writing, easy. In “Children’s Voices from War Zones Muted other writing by children and youth springs. A major creators today). At thirteen, Jansson (like Lewis publishing, and reading practices? by Adult Mediation,” Marija Todorova argues per- claim by Marshall and Rogers, reiterated in Jennifer Carroll and so many others), produced magazines at Happily, the contributions to Writing by suasively that Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo Duggan’s “Revising Hegemonic Masculinity: home, sold them to her friends at school, advertised Children and Youth, engaging variously with these (1995), “written by Zlata Filipović, . . . an eleven- Homosexuality, Masculinity, and Youth-Authored forthcoming titles of her The Tove Publishing Co!!!,

BOOKBIRD 6 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 7 55.2–2017 INTRODUCTION TO “‘ANOTHER CHILDREN’S LITERATURE’: WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH” INTRODUCTION TO “‘ANOTHER CHILDREN’S LITERATURE’: WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH” TAKING WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERIOUSLY TAKING WRITING BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERIOUSLY

submitted “an illustrated manuscript of her poetry” a group of children writing a novel—launched “at a WORKS CITED 1 In response to the oft-made suggestion that there are very few and “an illustrated storybook” to publishers, and packed out event with the local press, the Mayor, and Alexander, Christine, and Juliet McMaster, editors. The books written by children and youth (see, for example, Hunt 43), Child Writer from Austen to Woolf. Cambridge UP, 2005. something as lowbrow as Wikipedia’s “List of Books Written by at fifteen published her first comic strips. Arguing all the families.” And in “The Library as Publishing Children or Teenagers” provides a compelling beginning for the Arizpe, Evelyn, and Morag Styles with Abigail Rokison. exploration of published works by young writers. that Jansson’s pre-Moomin cartoons are under-rec- Hub: Children’s Books by Children and for Children “Sidelines: Some Neglected Dimensions of Children’s ognized, particularly because of a lack of scholar- in the Kids’ Own Book Cubby,” Margaret Robson Literature and its Scholarship.” Routledge Companion 2 As Peter Hunt notes, “Both parts of the term [“children’s litera- ship translated into English, O’Neill shares original Kett discusses the role of Australian libraries and lo- to Children’s Literature. Edited by David Rudd, ture”] are . . . ‘difficult’ in that both cover a huge range of possible translations of Jansson’s early work, explicating the cal governments in encouraging writing, publishing, Routledge, 2010, pp. 125–38. meanings . . . and together they have caused much confusion and Hollindale, Peter. Signs of Childness in Children’s Books. influenced (often negatively) the development of the areas that they translation challenges he faced, whether attending to and reading by children, particularly through the use Thimble P, 1997. ostensibly name” (42). Jansson’s poetic techniques or her “wry, often dark of the Kids’ Own Book Cubby, “a child-sized, cosy Hunt, Peter. “Children’s Literature.” Keywords for Children’s Canadian Children’s Literature/Littérature canadienne pour la Literature. Edited by Philip Nel and Lissa Paul, New 3 See sense of humor.” reading room-within-a-room, a bookcase that chil- jeunesse vol. 33, no. 2, 2007 and vol. 34, no. 1, 2008. “Children and Their Books” demonstrates that dren can be inside”—a place in which children can York UP, 2011, pp. 42–47. Macdonald, Fiona. “The Racy Side of Jane Austen.” adults hold no monopoly on translation—or on write, publish, and read. Thousands of “origami” or 4 Texts for the course Writing by Children and Youth, included Dai- BBC Culture, 10 Jan. 2017, www.bbc.com/culture/ sy Ashford’s The Young Visiters (1919); Anne Frank’s The Diary of a writing, illustrating, bookmaking, and publishing. “hotdog,” single-page, folded books have been made story/20170110-the-teenage-writings-of-jane-austen. Young Girl (1947, 1952) as well as Francine Prose’s Anne Frank: The In “Writing Opens Many Doors,” Andreja Blažič by Australian children through the Book Cubby and Accessed 3 Mar. 2017. Book, The Life, The Afterlife (2009), in which Prose analyzes Anne Frank’s writing as literature; S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1967); a Klemenc reports on her teaching creative writ- related programs “in gardens, on riverbanks, at shop- McGillis, Rod. “Famous Last Words.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 4, 1991, pp. 230–31. published Canadian novel first written as a middle-school assign- ing to ten- to fifteen-year-old students in their first ping centres and fresh fruit and vegetable markets, ment; a 290-page writing advice book by an eight-year-old; a con- McMaster, Juliet. “‘Adults’ Literature,’ by Children.” The temporary anthology of urban poetry; blogs; pop song lyrics; Evelyn language, Slovenian, and in English, encouraging and in parks.” Lion & The Unicorn, vol. 25, no. 2, 2001, pp. 277-99. Lau’s graphic and disturbing Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid (1989); through writing competitions her students writing Far too often, “another children’s literature” Nodelman, Perry. The Hidden Adult: Defining Children’s and teenaged Justin Bieber’s recently released “autobiography.” poetry and prose, but also translations. Best of all, (“writing by children and youth”) has been a deval- Literature. Johns Hopkins UP, 2008. Reynolds, Kimberley. Children’s Literature: A Very Short 5 As Perry Nodelman argues, “A text genuinely expressive of Klemenc shares examples of her students’ writing. ued mode in a devalued genre—children’s literature. Introduction. Oxford UP, 2011. childhood or childlike thinking as experienced by a child would lack As one fourteen-year-old’s fiction begins, “I had a As Arizpe et al. note, “[Children’s] writing . . . usually Rose, Jacqueline. The case of Peter Pan, or, The Imposs- a fundamental defining quality of children’s literature” (149), namely, because “it is adult ideas about childhood that shape [children’s] dream today. It was about a free bird, he has flown all ends up in the bin, seldom being taken seriously or ibility of Children’s Fiction. U of Pennsylvania P, 1992. literature and provide it with its characteristic features” (148). over the world, there were other birds too but he was conserved” (127). By contrast, the articles and re- Rudd, David. “Theorising and Theories: The Conditions of Possibility of Children’s Literature.” Understanding 6 McMaster, for example, cites Austen scholar J. David Grey as special. It was like my reflection but with one thing I ports in this special issue of Bookbird gesture strongly Children’s Literature: Key Essays from the Second contending “that there have been two artists who composed world- didn’t have, freedom.” towards what it might mean to “take seriously” the Edition of the International Companion Encyclopedia class creations while they were still children: one was Austen, the Three other reports in “Children and Their writings of children and youth, whether in paying of Children’s Literature. Edited by Peter Hunt, other Mozart” (284). Routledge, 2005, pp. 15–29. Books” offer a multifaceted view of the important literary attention to adult writers’ juvenilia, listening 7 Notably, several of our contributors invoke the adjective “sophis- Zipes, Jack. “Why Children’s Literature Does Not Exist.” work of Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, in Ireland to (instead of speaking over) the voices in children’s ticated” in response to literature written by children and youth. Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of and Australia, in enabling children’s voices through diaries, hearing marginalized voices and observing Children’s Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry 8 Perhaps writing by youth (in their productively liminal space be- innovative and collaborative writing and publishing alternative representations in youth-generated texts, Potter. Routledge, 2001, pp. 39–60. tween childhood and adulthood) may ultimately have the most po- tential for breaking free (at least somewhat) of the adult mediation projects. In “Raising the Status of Children’s Voices,” or in facilitating child- and youth-centered writing so prevalent in Zlata’s Diary, particularly as the means of production Orla Kenny, Jo Holmwood, Victoria Ryle, and Simon and publishing. As Mary Branley states simply, yet and distribution of texts become more accessible to marginalized Spain report on the program’s beginning in 1997 in eloquently, here in “‘Another Children’s Literature’: groups through technological change.

Ireland with hand silk-screened editions, spreading Writing by Children and Youth,” “It is time for chil- 9 Parody, for example, seems to be a principal mode of much to Australia in 2003, and evolving to include the dren’s literature to include writers and artists who are writing by children and youth, both historically and today.

WePublish App for children’s book-making and the children themselves.” 10 Again, to those who might doubt the productivity of young publishing of more than 250 child-authored books Finally, I do hope Bookbird readers will enjoy— writers, Duggan reports that one website alone hosts 750,000 (including in minority languages). Kids’ Own con- and find intellectually stimulating, even inspiring— fanfiction texts. sciously adopts “a rights-based approach to chil- the contents of this special issue of Bookbird as much dren’s cultural engagement,” facilitating the collab- as I have appreciated interacting with the ideas and oration of adult writers and illustrators with child writing of the contributors to this issue—as well as, of creators in “an open-ended and non-directive way.” course, the always cordial collaboration in this digital In “Writing with Children: From Teacher to Writer,” “global village” with Bookbird editor Björn Sundmark. Mary Branley recounts her experience as one of PETER CUMMING is Associate Professor in Humanities, these adult collaborators, beginning by collecting York University, Canada. As a children’s author and playwright, he has conducted numerous writing “Traveller nursery rhymes” with children from the workshops with child and youth writers. From 2009 Travelling community in Ireland, and later, having to 2016, Peter coordinated York’s Children’s Studies collaborated with children on two dozen non-fic- Program, teaching children’s and YA literature; digital tion books, taking the creative plunge in facilitating culture; and . . . writing by children and youth.

BOOKBIRD 8 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 9 55.2–2017 FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S Articles JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS

cholarship on Maria Edgeworth has tend- The Double Disguise is wide-ranging, both in terms of ed, not surprisingly, to neglect her juve- its physical length (approximately 20,000 words) and nilia in favor of her adult authorship. Two its focus on numerous contemporary socio-political For “Family and Intimate reasons can account for this: First, while issues. That it was produced in Edgeworth’s youth, Edgeworth was a prolific writer from early yet was to have such influence on her adult publica- Sin her youth, very few examples of her juvenilia sur- tions, is further evidence of the unique importance of Visitors Only”: vive. Second, the most significant work of juvenilia The Double Disguise to Edgeworth’s oeuvre. written by Edgeworth, The Double Disguise, sat unpub- Produced purely for the entertainment of family lished in the Bodleian Library at Oxford until 2014.1 and friends of the Edgeworth’s, The Double Disguise The Influence of Maria The Double Disguise is a mix between a farce and a tells the story of an Irish family staying at the Pig comedy of manners that intersects with Edgeworth’s & Castle Inn on a turnpike road between Liverpool later political concerns about class and social status and London. The family consists of Justice Cocoa, and signals her turn toward more realistic settings. an Irish Volunteer; his daughter, Dorothea Cocoa Edgeworth’s Juvenilia on Written in 1786, when Edgeworth was just eighteen (Dolly); and Fanny, cousin to Dolly. Their host is the years old, and performed by the Edgeworth family at Landlady, Mrs Thunder, who is assisted at the Pig Christmas the same year, The Double Disguise is a sem- & Castle by her chambermaid, Betty Broom. A final the Production of Her inal forerunner to Edgeworth’s most famous novel, main character, Charles Westbrooke, acts in disguise Castle Rackrent (1800).2 as two other characters (and gives the play its name): In this article, I examine a number of verbal and the Fortune Teller and Captain Campbell. There are Adult Dramas literary connections previously unidentified between also a number of minor roles employed for comic ef- Edgeworth’s juvenilia and her adult writing.3 Specif- fect or to advance the narrative. The premise of the ically, I will focus on identifiable links between The play is based on Westbrooke testing the worthiness Ryan Twomey Double Disguise and Edgeworth’s adult dramas Old Poz of Dolly as he wishes to make her his wife. In numer- (1796), written when Edgeworth was twenty-eight ous scenes, Westbrooke, in disguise, gains access to years old, and Eton Montem (1799), written when Dolly, only to witness her avarice and mean-spirited Edgeworth was thirty-one years old.4 I will demon- nature on full display. By the end of the play, West- strate that The Double Disguise signals Edgeworth’s brooke realizes that it is the kind-hearted Fanny who turn toward literary realism, contains her first Irish is most deserving of his love.6 character sketch (complete with the employment While the plot of a returned war veteran testing of Hiberno-English), and has a direct and indirect the felicity of his love interest differs substantially Maria Edgeworth is known for her didactic children’s stories and for being influence on a number of Edgeworth’s adult nar- from that found in Old Poz and Eton Montem, an ex- a pioneer in the development of the regional novel in English. Less is ratives. It is not my contention, however, that The amination of both dramas renders a relationship be- Double Disguise was the seminal drama of the period tween the juvenilia and later authorship unmistak- known about her juvenilia, however, despite its formative influence on her or the only work to have a bearing on Edgeworth’s able. The Double Disguise, Old Poz, and Eton Montem all adult authorship. Edgeworth’s first surviving drama, The Double Disguise, adult authorship. Any examination of the biography share similar language and characterization, includ- written and performed at Edgeworthstown in 1786 when she was just of Edgeworth’s childhood and youth indicates that ing verbatim exclamations and phrases, correspond- eighteen, marks an important literary turn in her authorship and speaks to she was engaging with the contemporary literature ing character names, literary tropes, such as the inept and plays of the era and that these proved influential man of law, and even identical stage directions. the importance of her early exploration of narrative and form. Identifiable on both her juvenilia and later authorship. Further, With some changes to her characters and setting, in The Double Disguise is Edgeworth’s turn toward more realistic modes, Edgeworth borrows similar plot devices, language, Edgeworth’s Old Poz follows the plot of the “thieving including her political concerns with class and social status. This article and the structure for The Double Disguise directly from magpie,” a fable made famous by Jean-Marie-Theo- William Congreve’s The Double Dealer (1693).5 Nev- dor Badouin d’Aubigny and Louis-Charles Caigniez’s examines numerous verbal and literary connections between The ertheless, Edgeworth’s earliest surviving drama is a La Pie Voleuse, ou La Servante de Palaiseau. Written in Double Disguise and Edgeworth’s later dramas Old Poz (1796) and Eton remarkable achievement considering its status as ju- early 1815, the fable was quickly followed by John Montem (1799), establishing The Double Disguise as a significant work venilia and the recognizable influence it had on her Howard Payne’s English version in August the same writing development. In particular, Edgeworth’s first year. It became a popular melodrama at Drury Lane, of juvenilia—not only because it was to have direct and indirect influence surviving drama stands as a direct refutation of the while in Italy in 1817 Gioachino Rossini based his on Edgeworth’s adult narratives, but also due to it being a remarkably often-held misconception that writing by children is opera semiseria, La Gazza Ladra, on d’Aubigny and insightful comedy of manners written by a child writer. unsophisticated, immature, and fragmentary. Instead, Caigniez’s work. The original plot revolves around

BOOKBIRD 10 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 11 55.2–2017 FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS a young servant girl who is wrongfully accused of the Old Man’s money takes place. Meanwhile, Lucy, JUSTICE COCOA: Why now, there’s There are further language idiosyncrasies identi- stealing silverware from her master’s home. She is the Justice’s daughter in Old Poz, has supplanted Fan- Dolly’s head is turned topsy turvy, and we fiable in both dramas that connect the Justices’ com- hastily tried, convicted of theft, and sentenced to ny as the heroine. It is Lucy who uncovers that it was shall get no good out of her tonight. And I mon voice. For example, Justice Cocoa and Justice death. After she is hanged, it is discovered that a a magpie that flew in during the night and stole away shall have no tea… And I wonder what that Headstrong share specific phrases—such as Justice magpie, attracted by the shininess of the objects, was with the Old Man’s money. There are a few minor same confounded exciseman Jerry Gage Cocoa’s use of the line “Well, what stops you child?” responsible for the robbery. Of course, Edgeworth’s supporting characters—including a reference to the can be doing all night with the newspaper. (DD 15), replicated by Justice Headstrong’s “What Old Poz predates the dramas of the 1800s, and her characters Boots and Hostler, both of whom also ap- Faith, I’ll sally forth and reconnoitre my- stops you, friend?” (OP 16). Being men of self-im- work is most likely based on an oral tale.7 pear with the same names in The Double Disguise. self. By Jabus, it’s always best to be one’s posed importance, the Justices are quick to reiter- While Old Poz retains the plot of the magpie being One of the closest links between The Double Dis- own messenger. (DD 17). ate their standing through the instructive phrase “do responsible for a theft, Edgeworth’s choice of charac- guise and Old Poz is identifiable in an examination of you hear?” In The Double Disguise Justice Cocoa states, ters and setting reflects her interest in the domestic the Justices. Justice Cocoa from The Double Disguise JUSTICE HEADSTRONG: Oh, this foot “Run Fanny, & tell your Cousin the Capn offers her sphere that was introduced in her juvenilia. Old Poz was Edgeworth’s first surviving attempt at an Irish of mine (twinges)—Oh, this foot. Aye, if Dr. a phaeton & ponies do you hear?” (DD 53), while in is set in the home of Justice Headstrong, the char- character sketch and the first to use Hiberno-English. Sparerib could cure one of the gout, then, Old Poz Justice Headstrong provides his manservant acter given the same task of playing the inept and The Justice was played by Maria’s father, Richard indeed, I should think something of him – with the instruction “William, take him into the ser- stuck-in-his-ways Justice of the Peace, Justice Cocoa, Lovell Edgeworth, in the family productions of the but, as to my leaving off my bottle of port, vant’s hall, do you hear?” (OP 28). Further, Justice from The Double Disguise. The theft involves an old juvenilia drama. Recreating the character of Justice it’s nonsense, it’s all nonsense, I can’t do Cocoa uses the line, “Get along about your business man (descriptively named the Old Man) losing his Cocoa as Justice Headstrong in Old Poz, Edgeworth it – I can’t, and won’t, for all the Dr. Spare- friend” (DD 33), while in Old Poz Justice Headstrong savings while spending the night at an inn. The Old was clearly drawing on the same characterization she ribs in Christendom, that’s poz!9 replicates this as “let him go about his business” (OP Man can be viewed as a progeny of Westbrooke, both produced for The Double Disguise. Justice Cocoa and 9). Although there are a number of other phrases that characters being returned soldiers wrongfully put on Justice Headstrong are both portrayed as stubborn Similarities between Justice Cocoa and Justice link the two characters, one final phrase is of partic- trial by the Justice in each drama. Humorously, they and impulsive men, overly confident in their own de- Headstrong are immediately recognizable through ular interest as it links not only The Double Disguise both fall foul of the Justices’ overzealous application cision-making ability. Each drama includes one solil- their comparable use of language. The “always right” to Old Poz but also The Double Disguise and Old Poz to of the law. Mrs Thunder, the Landlady of The Double oquy8 by the respective Justice, revealing the certain- Justices in both dramas employ exclamations in or- Castle Rackrent. Disguise, has become Mrs Bustle, the Landlady, and it ty in their self-reliance and determined nature: der to dismiss the thoughts of other characters they The salutation “drinking my health” appears is her inn, the Saracen’s Head, in which the “theft” of disagree with or contradict what they have to say. In twice in Edgeworth’s oeuvre, the first occurrence be- The Double Disguise this manifests in lines containing ing in 1786 in The Double Disguise and the second occa- the Irish exclamation “Phoo” such as “Phoo! Phoo! sion in 1800 in Castle Rackrent.12 A slight adaptation of Phoo! Arrah, now be quiet” (DD 69).10 Justice Head- this phrase, “drink my health,” appears ten years later strong of Old Poz imitates this Hiberno-English ex- in Old Poz.13 The use of this phrase in The Double Dis- clamation with the more traditional “Pshaw” in the guise, Old Poz, and Castle Rackrent is reproduced below: line “Pshaw! Pshaw! Pshaw!—it is not melted, child” (OP, 8). Another exclamation shared by both Justice JUSTICE COCOA: But I heard the fellow Cocoa and Justice Headstrong is the use of “Tut, tut, bless my Worship & say something about tut.” Once again, this exclamation is used to dismiss drinking my health & setting the bells a the claims being made to them in their capacity as ringing. (DD 40). men of the law. In the case of Justice Cocoa this oc- curs in the line “Tut, tut, tut, I believe11 indeed you’re JUSTICE HEADSTRONG: I will have troubled with a flying mutilation” (DD 69), while in you drink my health, that’s poz! – hey, Old Poz, Justice Headstrong exclaims, “Tut, tut, tut, you’ll drink my health, won’t you, hey? (OP man!—took the money and left the box; I’ll never 34). believe that” (OP 24). The exclamations punctuate the speech patterns of the Justices, determining a JUDY: I don’t much care is he drinking my specific cadence to the delivery of their lines that is health or not. (Castle Rackrent 58)14 identifiable in both characters. This cadence lends itself to an exact voicing shared by both Justice Co- “Drinking my health” and “Drink my health” were coa and Justice Headstrong. In this way, Edgeworth’s not stock phrases Edgeworth employed throughout juvenilia can be viewed as the originating work, high- her adult work.15 The verbatim use of the phrase lighting the importance of her youthful exploration “drinking my health” in Castle Rackrent is yet another with narrative and form. indication of the connection between Edgeworth’s

BOOKBIRD 12 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 13 55.2–2017 FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS juvenilia and her most famous novel. Whether or not tried because he has been discovered wearing dis- character of Justice Cocoa in The Double Disguise is were inaugurated in The Double Disguise.20 As we will Edgeworth was consciously revisiting her youthful guises. This manifests in the ludicrous charge of va- also depicted as being flawed. Further, like that of the see, multiple examples of Hiberno-English identifi- work here is debatable, yet the use of “drink my grancy, so ridiculous that it is actually humorous to Justice’s role in the juvenilia, a large part of the Eton able in The Double Disguise are employed in the same health” in Old Poz once again speaks to Edgeworth’s the reader. The link between The Double Disguise and Montem narrative orbits around O’Ryan’s actions: at fashion as in Edgeworth’s adult fiction. Indeed, in intention of providing Justice Headstrong with the Old Poz is further confirmed with the verbatim use of first, he seemingly destroys Talbot’s chances of win- Eton Montem, Rory O’Ryan can also be viewed as a recognizable voice of Justice Cocoa and highlights the line “commit you as a vagrant.” Of course, the ning the election, before taking it upon himself to precursor to Thady Quirk and shares many language the importance of her juvenilia drama on the devel- issue of vagrancy was a real concern of the British right his wrong and ensure his friend is elected cap- idiosyncrasies found in the Hiberno-English of Jus- opment of her adult narratives. populace at the turn of the century, particular in re- tain. Finally, and once again just like that of Justice tice Cocoa. It is in their capacity as Justices of the Peace, how- lation to those vagrants of Irish descent.16 Edgeworth Cocoa, Edgeworth characterizes O’Ryan as slightly Examples of O’Ryan’s language mirroring Jus- ever, that we gain the closest link between the charac- chose to draw attention to this socio-political issue in too comical to be deemed “realistic,” yet equips him tice Cocoa’s language include the use of the Hiber- ter of Justice Cocoa in Edgeworth’s juvenilia and his both The Double Disguise and Old Poz. In doing so, she with Hiberno-English to depict a credible Irishman. no-English exclamation (as discussed above) “Phoo! counterpart in Old Poz. In both dramas, the overzeal- characterizes both Justices as blind to the individual Here, like that of didactic endings inaugurated in her Phoo! Phoo!” (EM 174).21 Justice Cocoa’s statement ous Justice seizes upon the slightest opportunity to circumstances of their particular “criminal.” juvenilia, Edgeworth’s stock characterizations can to the maidservant Betty Broom, “be easy can’t you” persecute his target. In The Double Disguise, the target It is not just Old Poz, however, where we witness be seen to have precedence in her youthful writing, (DD 48), is replicated by O’Ryan in the similar “be is Westbrooke in his disguise as Captain Campbell. a continuation of Justice Cocoa’s characterization. In highlighting the sophistication—and significance—of easy, can’t ye” (EM 174). Both characters employ Justice Cocoa decides to put Westbrooke/Captain her 1796 drama, Eton Montem, Edgeworth created the The Double Disguise. the use of the Irish exclamation “Faith” at the start Campbell on trial after the Landlady has discovered Irish character of Rory O’Ryan. O’Ryan, “one of the It was Edgeworth’s youthful interactions with of sentences to signify the earnestness of the state- him to be fraudulently acting as a cripple, coupled young gentlemen of Eton,”17 plays a starring role in John Langan, the steward of Edgeworthstown, which ment that is to follow (DD 17; EM 201). The use with using the disguise of the Fortune Teller. In Old ensuring that the most deserving character wins the first led to her employment of Hiberno-English. of “prating” appears in both dramas: in the case of Poz, Justice Headstrong believes that the Old Man day. Although the stories share little in common, the Edgeworth confirmed this link in a letter she wrote The Double Disguise, “Don’t stand prating and moan- is lying about his missing money because the box in plot of Eton Montem follows a similar trajectory to that in 1834, thirty-four years after the first edition of ing here—to business” (DD 65); and in Eton Montem, which the man stored his coins was not stolen also. of The Double Disguise.18 Eton Montem is based on the Castle Rackrent, thirty-eight years after Eton Montem, “Bless my body! I’ll not stay prating here then” (EM As Justice Headstrong emphatically states, “no man real-life tradition of collecting “salt” (money) for the and forty-eight years after The Double Disguise: 206). Another shared expression is “take care,” used would take the money, and leave the tobacco-box” Captain of Eton College (the Senior Colleger) for his as a friendly warning when Justice Cocoa, or Rory (OP 25). Curiously, according to both Justice Cocoa anticipated expenses at King’s College, Cambridge. The only character drawn from the life in O’Ryan, wishes to let someone know they have and Justice Headstrong, these “crimes” dictate that it Edgeworth’s tale diverges from the tradition to pit Castle Rackrent is “Thady” himself, the teller overstepped the boundaries of polite behavior (DD is their duty to sentence their innocent prisoners to two boys against each other in an election to become of the story. He was an old steward (not 6; EM 203). Further, both the Justice and O’Ryan jail for being vagrants: the captain. One of the boys, Talbot, is characterized very old, though, at that time; I added to employ the phrase “I like ye better” when judging as an honest and deserving student. His opponent is his age, to allow him time for generations of fellow characters’ behavior (DD 75; EM 203). Finally, JUSTICE COCOA: Address your discourse the arrogant and avaricious character named Wheel- the family). I heard him when first I came the employment of the verbatim phrases “many men, to the Court friend if you please, & beware er. The moralistic ending witnessed in The Double to Ireland, and his dialect struck me, and many minds” (DD 45; EM 201) and the quintessen- of purvarcation, for I give you notice now if Disguise is repeated in Eton Montem—where Wheeler’s his character; and I became so acquainted tial Irish phrase “upon my conscience” (DD 8; EM you can’t give a satisfactory account of your- unbecoming behavior is punished, while the honest with it, that I could speak it without effort; 204) appear in both dramas. self, I must commit you as vagrant who can’t and forthright behavior of Talbot is rewarded when so that when, for mere amusement, without Another language similarity used in The Double walk & an impostor in your own proper he is elected captain. In yet another connection be- any idea of publishing, I began to write a Disguise, Old Poz, and Castle Rackrent is the phonetic person. (DD 70) tween her juvenilia and her later narratives, readers family history as Thady would tell it, he spelling of particular words to imbue them with the familiar with Edgeworth will recognize similarities seemed to stand beside me and dictate; and Irish brogue. Once more, we find that this is some- JUSTICE HEADSTRONG: I know the between the ending of The Double Disguise and the I wrote as fast as my pen could go.19 thing Edgeworth first employed in her juvenilia and law!—I know the law!—and I’ll make you broader didactic stories for children Edgeworth pro- continued through to her adult writing. As is evi- know it, too. One hour I’ll give you to rec- duced as an adult. Yet well before Edgeworth created the famous Irish denced below, Edgeworth’s youthful employment ollect yourself, and if you don’t give up this While Talbot is the traditional hero of the narra- narrator of Castle Rackrent, Thady Quirk, she prac- of the Irish brogue is as competently produced in idle story, I’ll—I’ll commit you as a vagrant— tive, the character of Rory O’Ryan steals much of his ticed the employment of Hiberno-English in her her juvenilia as it is in her adult authorship, includ- that’s poz! (OP 28) limelight. In a drama with a cast of English characters juvenilia. As mentioned, Richard Lovell Edgeworth ing her most famous narrative, Castle Rackrent. In The who can be easily morally typecast, Edgeworth por- acted as Justice Cocoa in the Christmas 1786 perfor- Double Disguise, we find examples such as “clane” (DD Both quotations demonstrate the Justices’ loose and trays her Irish character with enough ambiguity to mance of The Double Disguise, and, like Maria, Richard 8), “belave” (DD 8), “manes” (DD 9), “larn” (DD 10), uncertain application of the law. Justice Headstrong make him interesting. Rather than an archetypal good Lovell enjoyed mimicking the Langan dialect he “chuse ta” (DD 10), “kittle” (DD 33), “purtection” continually dismisses any explanation other than or bad characterization, Edgeworth presents O’Ryan often heard around his estate. As I have argued else- (DD 71), and “Jabus” (DD 75). In Eton Montem, we are that the Old Man is lying, while Justice Cocoa is with character flaws that make him seem far more be- where, the use of Hiberno-English and the employ- presented with “tink/tinking” (EM 168), “plase” (EM equally steadfast in his assertion that Westbrooke be lievable. Indeed, as has been shown above, the Irish ment of the Irish brogue, integral to Castle Rackrent, 168), “frind” (EM 170), “rason” (EM 215), “lave” (EM

BOOKBIRD 14 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 15 55.2–2017 FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS

223), and “ting” (EM 224). While in Castle Rackrent, LANDLADY THUNDER: There clude the use of the word “simpleton” to describe their once more to the legacy of Edgeworth’s juvenilia. we find “Jasus” (CR 48), “sacret” (CR 49), “plase” (CR now, there’s a fellow for you that I took maids (DD 44; EM 193), the use of the phrase “bless Edgeworth’s earliest surviving drama predates all 59), “prefarred” (CR 59) and “pin” (CR 32).22 out o’the street the other day without a my stars” (DD 21; EM, 126), and like Mrs Thunder’s of her published work, positioning it as the seminal Returning to Old Poz, it is in the characterization foot to stand upon & now he complains comment that “[y]our half Gentry always give one text that she continued to return to consciously, or of the Landlady that we find a further example of of being put a horseback forsooth! But more trouble than the best quality in the land” (DD 8), unconsciously. For this reason, whether Edgeworth Edgeworth revisiting her juvenilia in order to pro- that’s the way with e’m all—they grow so Mrs Newington passes her own commentary about kept her juvenilia unpublished due to the numer- duce her adult work. The twenty-eight-year-old saucy—keep them at hard meat or one her expected guests: “if we had twenty as many rooms ous similarities identifiable between it and her later Edgeworth clearly valued the youthful work she gets no good o’ them. (DD 42). … it would not be one too many … and those the high- work is an unresolved question. Perhaps the work had produced for The Double Disguise, recognizing est quality o’ the land” (EM 127). was too radical—a comedy of manners satirizing the the accomplishment of her earliest surviving drama LANDLADY BUSTLE: (in a rage) At Returning to Mrs Thunder of The Double Disguise contemporary class system—for the Edgeworth’s and choosing to recreate specific elements for her the Saracen’s Head; yes, forsooth, none and Mrs Bustle of Old Poz, we find another link be- to release to the public, considering Maria was on adult work. The vast number of commonalities be- such ever slept at the Saracen’s Head tween the two dramas identifiable in a curious stage the cusp of becoming a serious and respectable au- tween the narratives would suggest that Edgeworth afore, or ever shall after, as long as my direction given to both landladies. In The Double Dis- thor of children’s tales and moral fables. In a short was consciously borrowing from The Double Disguise name’s Bustle, and the Saracen’s Head is guise, Dolly Cocoa, the middle-class, wishing-to-be note to his trusted friend, Erasmus Darwin, Richard when producing Old Poz. For example, the Landlady the Saracen’s Head. (OP 19). upper-class anti-heroine of the play, has just arrived Lovell Edgeworth emphasized the private nature of of Old Poz, Mrs Bustle, shares many similarities with at the Pig & Castle. Affronted by the quality of the the first performance of The Double Disguise: “We have Mrs Thunder, the Landlady of The Double Disguise. These quotations demonstrate a further link be- room she is being shown, she bursts out, just been acting a little farce, for our own family and Like the commonalities between Justice Cocoa and tween The Double Disguise and Old Poz and illumi- intimate visitors only. The piece written, and all the Justice Headstrong, commonalities between Mrs nate how important a site of character development Oh horrid! Is that to be our apartment! Our characters filled, by ourselves.”23 Thunder and Mrs Bustle manifest in their similar Edgeworth’s juvenilia was to her later writing. Fur- Irish Inns on the Sligo road are better ten to Richard Lovell Edgeworth’s statement that the characterization and use of language. The fact that ther, like Justice Cocoa’s influence on Rory O’Ry- one than this! Just white washed all wet! I “little farce” is for “family and intimate visitors only” such explicit similarities are identifiable between an, Mrs Thunder was to have an influence on the hope Mrs Landlady you don’t mean to put suggests that Maria never intended to publish The an unpublished work of juvenilia and the published construction of the Landlandy in Eton Montem. The us into such a room as this? (DD 6) Double Disguise. Rather, like the works of juvenilia of work of an established author speaks to the signif- Landlady of Eton Montem, Mrs Newington, is char- many authors, The Double Disguise was a site of devel- icance, both in terms of the quality and sophistica- acterized in a similar manner to Mrs Thunder and The Landlady responds, opment for the young writer. It is where Edgeworth tion, of the youthful production. The Landladies are Mrs Bustle, even down to the use of “forsooth” and first employed the use of Hiberno-English, imbuing portrayed as formidable characters who are quick to swearing an oath through the use of her surname. LANDLADY THUNDER: (Setting her arms her character of Justice Cocoa with an Irish brogue defend the status of their establishment. In The Dou- After being called “madam” by her haughty guest, akimbo) Why Madam for that matter… (DD 6). that would become the voice of Rory O’Ryan in Eton ble Disguise, the Landlady berates her chambermaid, Miss Bursal, the Landlady exclaims, “(aside) Madam, Montem and would lay the foundation for her most Betty Broom, for the quality of her work, thundering, indeed!—Madam, forsooth! O, I’ll make her pay for The Justice interrupts the Landlady’s reply and at- famous of Irish characters, Thady Quirk. The be- “But so you get the work out of your hands you don’t that. That madam shall go down in the bill, as sure tempts to diffuse the situation. The Landlady, who ginnings of her Hiberno-English were coupled with care a farthing for the credit of the house!” (DD 4). as my name’s Newington” (EM 193). Another sim- is obviously quite offended by her guest’s sugges- a burgeoning interest in more realistic characteriza- In Old Poz, after it is discovered that the Old Man ilarity identifiable between Mrs Thunder and Mrs tion that their lodgings are not suitable, protests by tions and settings. Justice Cocoa became the proto- has been telling the truth about his stolen money, Newington is the judgements they make about their staunchly placing her hands on her hips with her el- type for Justice Headstrong in Old Poz, while Mrs the Justice admits that he was “a little too hasty with guests based purely on what they order to eat. When bows out to the side. In Old Poz, Edgeworth recreates Thunder became the archetypal Landlady Edge- the committal.” Mrs Bustle, who vehemently reject- Betty Broom shares her concerns about the honesty the outraged Landlady from her juvenilia, furthering worth turned to in her later representations of those ed the Old Man’s version of events from the outset, of Westbrooke, disguised as Captain Campbell, the the contention that The Double Disguise was seminal of the working class. Finally, Edgeworth returned repentantly replies, “Aye, and I fear I was too; but Landlady dismisses her by stating, “I’m sure he is a to aspects of the adult authorship. After being called to The Double Disguise to borrow phrases, plots, loca- when one is touched about the credit of one’s house, very good gentleman … I know he orders very hand- to the Justice’s residence to discuss the theft from tions, character names, and even stage directions. one’s apt to speak warmly” (OP 33). some for supper—better than those who hold their her inn, Mrs Bustle crosses paths with the Old Man. While Maria Edgeworth would keep The Double Dis- The formidable nature of the Landladies is fur- head’s higher forsooth!” (DD 58). This unique way Edgeworth reuses the same stage direction given to guise purely for family entertainment, her readership ther exposed in their attitude toward other charac- of determining the social standing of guests occurs Mrs Thunder in order to emphasize the annoyance would ultimately benefit from the production of her ters in the dramas. In the two passages quoted below, thirteen years later in Eton Montem, when the Land- felt by Mrs Bustle: “The Landlady sets her arms earliest surviving drama. we witness Edgeworth’s original characterization of lady states of two of her guests: “Neither o’ them, I a-kimbo; the Old Man starts as he sees her” (OP 16). Landlady Thunder from The Double Disguise being take it, by what they’ve ordered since their coming The Landlady quickly launches into an impassioned recreated for Landlady Bustle in Old Poz. We also see into the house, are such grand folk, that one need be protest that is only curtailed (as in The Double Disguise) a similar employment of language, with both landla- so particular about them” (EM 126). by the Justice. dies using the word “forsooth” to reinforce their dis- Further similarities in language employed by the The use of a unique stage direction given to pleasure: landladies in The Double Disguise and Eton Montem in- two similar characters in two separate dramas speaks

BOOKBIRD 16 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 17 55.2–2017 FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S FOR “FAMILY AND INTIMATE VISITORS ONLY”: THE INFLUENCE OF MARIA EDGEWORTH’S JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS JUVENILIA ON THE PRODUCTION OF HER ADULT DRAMAS

1. Edgeworth, Maria. The Double Disguise. Edited by Christine 11. Edgeworth employed the Irish brogue in The Double Disguise RYAN TWOMEY is a lecturer in the Department of Alexander and Ryan Twomey, Sydney: Juvenilia Press, 2014. The as she did in Castle Rackrent, through a phonetic spelling of Hiber- English at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Double Disguise is hereafter cited parenthetically in the text as DD. no-English vocabulary. His main areas of research are literary juvenilia and the Anglo-Irish author Maria Edgeworth. He is the editor of 2. For an examination of the socio-political links between The Dou- 12. I have employed an electronic corpus of Edgeworth’s oeuvre to the Norton Critical Edition of Maria Edgeworth’s Castle ble Disguise and Castle Rackrent, see Twomey, Ryan. “The Child Is confirm the number of occasions these phrases appear in her work. Rackrent, and co-editor of the Juvenilia Press Edition of Father of the Man”: The Importance of Juvenilia in the Develop- Edgeworth’s The Double Disguise. His first monograph, ment of the Author. Houten: Hes & De Graaf, 2012. pp.19–52. 13. “Drink my health” also occurs in two further publications by “The Child is Father of the Man: The Importance of Edgeworth: The Lottery (where I have already shown there are links Juvenilia in the Development of the Author” (Hes & De 3. Marilyn Butler’s Biography of Maria Edgeworth appears to be the to The Double Disguise, see note six above) and Ennui (1809). Graaf) examined the influence childhood writing had on only scholarly publication to have consulted the manuscript at the the adult authorship of William Harrison Ainsworth, Emily Bodleian Library. See Butler, Marilyn. Maria Edgeworth: A Literary 14. Edgeworth, Maria. Castle Rackrent. Norton Critical Edition. Brontë, Maria Edgeworth, and George Eliot. Most recently Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. pp.152–3. Edited by Ryan Twomey, New York: Norton, 2014. p.58. he has had an article on Maria Edgeworth published in Notes and Queries and an essay published in Home 4. Eton Montem appeared in later editions of The Parent’s Assistant. 15. The collocation “drink your health” occurs in Edgeworth’s body and Away: The Place of the Child Author (co-edited by of work far more frequently than “drink/ing my health.” David Owen and Lesley Peterson, Cambridge Scholars) 5. For a full examination, see Edgeworth, The Double Disguise, pp. that examines dialectical similarities between The Double xxx–xxxiii. 16. See Tracy, Thomas. Irishness and Womanhood in Nineteenth Disguise and Castle Rackrent. He is also a member of the Century British Writing. Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. pp.74–81. editorial board of the Juvenilia Press at the University of 6. As I have discussed elsewhere, a link between The Double Dis- New South Wales. guise and Edgeworth’s later drama, The Lottery (published in The 17. Edgeworth, Maria. Eton Montem. The Parent’s Assistant, 2. Parent’s Assistant in 1804), is evident when juxtaposing two of the New York: Garland Publishing, 1976. p.122. Eton Montem is hereaf- central characters, both of whom are named Dolly. Dolly in The Lot- ter cited parenthetically in the text as EM. tery turns out to be just as covetous and callous as her counterpart, Dolly, from The Double Disguise. In both narratives, Edgeworth em- 18. There are a number of similarities between The Double Disguise ployed the name “Dolly” as a label for her undesirable characters; and Eton Montem with regard to plot and characterisation that the Oxford English Dictionary defines “Dolly” as “a drab, slattern, are not investigated in this article. For example, there is a clear link useless woman.” Both The Double Disguise and The Lottery also between Louisa Talbot, Talbot’s sister, and Fanny. Both young wom- employ the use of a lottery ticket that is analogous with a desire to en are characterised in a similar fashion, and both, after amiably rise in social status through any means. See Twomey, “The Child Is bearing the news that they have been denied a fortune, have their Father of the Man”: The Importance of Juvenilia in the Develop- wealth reinstated. Fanny first believes that Westbrooke is only inter- ment of the Author, pp. 33–37. ested in Dolly, despite harbouring feelings for him. She is also under Some picture books sing from their pages, and this one does the impression that it is Dolly who wins the lottery and not she. Both more because it contains an exaltation, in words and art, of 7. As Richard Stites has stated, “The origin of the story of the ‘thiev- Westbrooke’s feelings toward Fanny and her lottery win are not the music of Africa. The author and illustrator, who work as ing magpie,’ who unwittingly sent a young woman to her death, revealed until the end of the drama. A similar plot unfolds in Eton a team, conjure out of these glowing pages, first, the natural is obscure. One source on its genesis refers to a medieval legend, Montem: Louisa is mistakenly told that her family’s fortune has sunk another to ‘a curious French legal case,’ and a third to a (probably at sea. Yet, it is not until the end of the drama that we learn it was sounds of the same) real event in which an innocent peasant girl was wrongly another ship that sunk, punishing the covetous family, the Bursal’s, hanged for the theft of an article by a magpie.” See Stites, Richard. and saving Louisa and her family from financial hardship. Cicadas, crickets, beetles and frogs,

“The Misanthrope, the Orphan, and the Magpie: Imported Melo- seedpods, cocoons, hollowed out logs. BOOKBIRD POSTCARDS drama in the Twilight of Serfdom”, Imitations of Life: Two Centuries 19. ME to Mrs Stark, 6 September 1834; quoted in Edgeworth, of Melodrama in Russia, edited by Louise McReynolds and Joan Castle Rackrent. p.86. Crackling fires, the patter of rain, Neuberger. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2002, pp.39–40. thundering hooves on the African plain. 20. Twomey, Ryan. “Experimenting with Home: Maria Edgeworth 8. The soliloquies are given the stage direction of a “solus” in The and the Development of the Regional Tale,” Home and Away: The Then come the musical instruments of Africa: seedpod Double Disguise and as an “aside” in Old Poz. Place of the Child Writer, edited by David Owen and Lesley Peter- son, Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2015, pp. 81–95. rattles, the click of fingers, river reed flute, lute, drums, 9. Edgeworth, Maria. Old Poz. In The Parent’s Assistant. Classics of and singers. Until we round off with the “song of the stars.” Children’s Literature 1621-1932, vol. 2, edited by Alison Lurie and 21. While there are numerous examples of each word/phrase identi- You can hear the pictures! Essentially, this is a read-aloud Justin G. Schiller. New York: Garland Publishing, 1976. p.10. Old fiable in the narratives, I have cited the first occurrence only. book with which eager listeners will clamor to examine Poz OP is hereafter cited parenthetically in the text as . The African Orchestra 22. The examples from Castle Rackrent are found in Hollingworth, every illustration again and again. The African Orchestra 10. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “Phoo” as “expressing Brian. Maria Edgeworth’s Irish Writing: Language, History, Politics. is a new classic, a proud and shining light for South African Wendy Hartmann discomfort, disgust, weariness, or relief.” The first evidence of the New York: St. Martins Press, 1997. p.88. Page numbers attributed children’s literature to show off to the world. Illus. Joan Rankin word is attributed to Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent, although, clearly, to Castle Rackrent are taken from the Norton Critical Edition: Edge- Johannesburg, South Africa: it occurs fourteen years prior to this in The Double Disguise. See worth, Castle Rackrent. Jacana Media, 2016. Unpaged. “Phoo.” Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. In the beginning, when all things began, Web.. Accessed 23 March 2015. 23. Quoted in The Double Disguise. p.xx. these were the sounds which were music to man. ISBN: 978-1-4314-2339-2 (Picture book; ages 7–11) Jay Heale

BOOKBIRD 18 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 19 55.2–2017 Articles CHILDREN’S VOICES FROM WAR ZONES: MUTED BY ADULT MEDIATION

author and the child reader: “The children of whom lesser known titles such as Sheila Allan’s Diary of a Rose and Nodelman write are those who consume Girl in Changi (1994), as well as edited collections children’s books” (Bradford 273). Although this ap- like Children in the Holocaust and World War II (Holliday, Children’s Voices from proach fails to incorporate what Clare Bradford calls 1996) and Children of War (Zlatkov, 2016). Outside “actual colonised peoples” (272), it might still prove of the context of WW2, children’s war diaries that as a useful framework to analyze the relationship of have been published for general consumption in- War Zones: Muted by power between a child author and the adult agents clude Zlata’s Diary (1993) by Zlata Filipović and My involved in the production of children’s books. Childhood Under Fire (2008) by Nadja Halilbegovic, My addition to this theory pertains to a particu- translated into English from their original Bosnian Adult Mediation lar case when a children’s book is written not by an language,1 both related to the 1990s conflict in adult but by a child author and constitutes life-writ- ex-Yugoslavia, more specifically the siege of the city ing. In this particular set of relations, we could prove of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. Marija Todorova that a mainstream system of power—namely that of the adult publisher, editor, illustrator, or translator— A Child’s Witness to War exerts dominance and power over the less powerful The wars that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia child author by dictating the terms of the construc- must surely be the most internationally known tion of the final product. In this process, the adult event associated with the region of the Western This article explores child-authored autobiographical writing of war trauma agents are in a position to make changes to the orig- Balkans in its recent history. Consequently, inter- compromisingly mediated by adult agents (such as editors, illustrators, and inal text without necessarily requesting the consent national literature about this part of the world has translators), who add their own voices and perspectives in the process of of the child author, thus inevitably changing the been mainly preoccupied with the subject of war. autobiographical narrative. Arguably, the power rela- As the different ethnic groups comprising the six commercial publication. The analysis focuses on Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life tions involved in such a case are even more uneven republics of the Yugoslav federation proclaimed in Sarajevo (1995), written by Zlata Filipović—a diary of an eleven-year-old than in mediation among only adults. independence, many small civil wars erupted be- child that has been translated, edited, illustrated, and published by adults. This is especially visible in the case of children’s tween them. Bosnia and Herzegovina was the site There are two important aspects that will be highlighted here regarding the literature representing the experience of war as a tes- of the most violent of these conflicts, with the timony of trauma. The most immediate testimony war being fought along not only ethnic but reli- published translation: 1) the translated text is framed by an introduction, takes the form of a diary, which serves as a medium of gious lines as well—the main pattern being Serb footnotes, and captions adding adults’ voices to the child voice of the self-representation. Literary history provides exam- versus Croat versus Bosniak, as well as Orthodox author; and 2) the translated text is accompanied by illustrations, made, ples of books written for or about children in times Christian versus Catholic Christian versus Muslim. of violent conflict, but it seems that “the wars within Owing to the Bosnian war, arguably the most selected, and captioned by adults. These adult interventions have living memory … have inspired the largest volumes of “prominent genre that came about [after 1995 corrupted the child narrator’s voice and perspective of war and the child’s children’s fiction” (Lathey 59). Moreover, in the post- in Bosnia] was the genre of the journal and dia- attempt to present her own identity. war era, the earlier patriotic appeal of war literature ry, suggesting the need for imaginary states and for children changed to offer more “psychological in- locations of peace through memory” (Blažić 5). sight into children’s responses to wartime trauma,” Some of the authors of these journals were chil- his article analyzes the position of children’s literature, Jacqueline Rose located the turning towards stories told from a child’s perspective dren themselves, or were adults who had ex- the child narrator as a witness to reason for the pronounced unfeasibility of authentic (Lathey 62). This is probably even more pertinent perienced the war during their childhoods. war trauma in the publication pro- representations of children in the nostalgic attitude when it comes to books written by children them- In Zlata’s Diary, the child author and narrator cess of an autobiographical writing of adults who wrote from their imagined childhoods. selves, particularly when written in the form of dia- of the book, Zlata Filipović, born in 1980 and just in translation and, in particular, the Ever since, postcolonial theory has been used to ries, providing “an immediate experience of events, turned eleven at the beginning of the book, records Tuneven power relations this process entails. While explore the relationship of power between adult au- before the benefit of hindsight or tricks of memo- her daily life during the war in Bosnia from 1991 postcolonial discourse has so far been applied to thors and child readers (Nodelman, “The Other”), ry can distort or influence an account” (Filipović, to 1993, before escaping Sarajevo in 1993, first to the study of children’s literature by mainly looking leading to claims that “children and their litera- Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo xiii). Paris and then settling in Dublin. Throughout the at the relationship between adult authors and child ture are always postcolonial” (McGillis 8) and even The most prominent of these books authored pre-war part of the book, Zlata represents herself readers, this article adds a new perspective by ex- that the very idea of a child who needs to be educat- by children are narratives related to World War as an average pre-teen from the Western civilized amining the continued inequity between the child ed perpetuates a colonial mindset (Batty). The crux II, including Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl world, a perfect image of “imagined childhood,” author and the adult agents involved in the transla- of this whole postcolonial theoretical framework (first published in Dutch in 1947 as Het Achterhuis. watching the “American Top 20” and “DIAL MTV” tion and publication process of a child-authored text. when applied to children’s literature can be said to Dagboekbrieven 14 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944 and sub- and reading American books (Filipović, Zlata’s In her seminal work on the “impossibility” of lie in the uneven power relations between the adult sequently translated into many languages) but also Diary, 1994c, 3, 9, 21). War enters the scene in the

BOOKBIRD 20 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 21 55.2–2017 CHILDREN’S VOICES FROM WAR ZONES: MUTED BY ADULT MEDIATION CHILDREN’S VOICES FROM WAR ZONES: MUTED BY ADULT MEDIATION

eleventh entry of the diary, first in Slovenia and ist group from Sarajevo (International Peace Centre) as “a resort outside of Sarajevo, now headquarters The inserted sentences are mostly in the form of rhe- Croatia (Zlata’s Diary, 1994c 6–7), and later reaching for publication in only a few dozen photocopies and of the Bosnian Serbs.” The adult translator thus torical questions and are very different from the rest Sarajevo. This is also signaled by a shift in Zlata’s comprised only extracts of the original hand-written acts on behalf of the child author and provides ex- of the passage. This intervention by the translator or writing: she gives her diary a name, thus creating diary. This attracted the attention of foreign journal- planations of the political and geographical termi- the editor of the book seems to be used to achieve an “imagined audience.” Significantly, the name ists covering the war, and they helped get it pub- nology based not only on her assumptions of the a particular stylistic effect. The use of D-Day in the she decides to pick, Mimmy, is the only English- lished internationally. This first translated publica- cognitive capability of the implied child readers of translation, on the other hand, offers a very distinct sounding name among the other very Bosnian op- tion, including the entire text of Zlata’s diary, “only the translated text but also on her assumptions of reference for American and British readers, referring tions she proposes: Pidzameta, Hikmeta, or Sefika. happened because of the intervention on the part the capability of the child author to self-represent. to June 6, 1944, the day when the Allied forces in- In her diary, Zlata decides to record the war and of the French publishers and French government” Moreover, one of the most striking interventions vaded northern France in Normandy. This reference its effects. Her daily routine now includes food ra- (Hudson, 2010, interview). The English translations in the translated text is the entry on September 22, invokes the image of a fight against Nazism to lib- tions, gunfire, and hiding in the basement from the published by the UK publisher Penguin and later by 1993. The illustration on page 169 of the facsimile of erate Europe—thus putting greater emphasis on the frequent shelling, without running water or electrici- Scholastic in the US were introduced as bestsellers. the 22.09.1993 entry runs as follows: scale of the destruction and arguably the need for ty, often expressed in very fragmented language and It was only after the two translations had been pub- the Western “allies” to put an end to it—and, in turn, emotional outbursts. Tragedy is constantly present lished that the source text was published as a book SRIJEDA enhances the chances of soliciting an empathetic re- in her life during those war years: Zlata’s kindergar- in its “original form and language” by the Croatian 22.09.1993 sponse on the part of the reader. The intervention is ten friend, eleven-year-old Nina, is killed by shelling, publisher Znanje in Zagreb (Kušan 219). However, Dear Mimmy, seamlessly inserted in the text, without pointing out and the destruction of the city is overwhelming, in- a close reading of this “original” reveals that in parts Iako sam napisala da ne vjerujem da će adult intervention and thereby creating the illusion cluding the levelling of the Sarajevo post office, hos- it is in fact a back-translation of the English transla- se 21.09.’93 god. desiti nešto lijepo, ipak that it is the author’s voice. It colonizes Zlata’s child- pital, and library. tion; thus, we have the curious case of a book where je u meni treperila želja da se to dogodi. like description of her life experience, changing her the translation not only precedes the publication of Ali—badava. child voice to sound more adult and mature. Adult Interventions in the Publication the original but the original text itself is modified for Politika mi i dalje zagorčava ŽIVOT!! of Zlata’s Diary publication by—and is a translation of—the translation Dear Mimmy, Adult Photography Mediation The initial publication of the war diary written by appearing before it. Voli te tvoja Zlata While the source text of Zlata’s Diary does not con- the child author Zlata Filipović came coincidentally tain any photographs of Zlata, the English translation to some extent, “because UNICEF were looking for The Voice of the Adult Translator [Dear Mimmy, (1994c), on the other hand, is frequently illustrated a diary of a young person to publish” (Hudson, 2010, The translator of the English edition, Christine Although I have written that I don’t be- with photographs of Zlata and her family, school- interview). Her diary was selected by a peace activ- Pribichevich-Zorić, is a native speaker of English lieve that anything nice will happen on mates, and friends. The translation contains a total who learned Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian while living 21.09.93. Still, a wish has trembled in me of twenty color photographs, resulting in a higher in the former Yugoslavia. The translation of Zlata’s hoping it will happen. But—in vain. Politics level of modality (Kress and van Leeuwen 177–78). Diary is her only translated book for children, among continues to make my LIFE miserable!! Modality is closely related to the representation of some twenty translations she has published in her Dear Mimmy, loves you yours Zlata.] reality and the historical value of the text (Stephens). forty years’ experience as a literary translator. She ac- (My translation) The inside illustrations of the English translation of knowledges that “as an adult, finding the right regis- Zlata’s Diary include photographs and facsimiles of ter for the voice of a thirteen-year-old author and try- In contrast, the entry in the English translation con- the original diary, all of them important aspects of ing to make it resonate with readers young and old” tains an additional paragraph in the middle (indicat- the book’s modality. The photograph can serve as was the biggest challenge she encountered while ed here in italics): an empirical document of what has happened, but translating this text (Pribichevich-Zorić, personal it is also a “powerful evocation of the personal and communication). Pribichevich-Zorić preserves the Dear Mimmy, political struggles of the era that encompasses this simple language and unconventional grammar used Although I told you that I didn’t think any- moment” (Sturken and Cartwright 20). by Zlata in the source text. In her writing, Zlata also thing good would happen on September There is a total of thirteen photographs inserted frequently uses unusual capitalization for emphasis. 21, 1993, I still had a flicker of hope that it in the published translation, of which five come from The translator leaves these unchanged in the trans- would. But it was no use. Zlata’s family’s private collection; seven were taken lated text in an attempt to maintain Zlata’s own style. Another D-Day has come and gone. How many by Alexandra Boulat (SIPA Press), who brought the However, the translator’s voice is evident in the have we had? A hundred? A million? How many diary with her to Paris and proposed it to the pub- explanations offered in brackets and in footnotes. more will there be? lisher; and one is by Paul Lowe (Magnum Photos). For example, when translating “Chetniks from Politics is making my life miserable!! This means that more than sixty percent of the Pale” (Zlata’s Diary, 1994c, 27), the translator adds Yours, Zlata photographs in the translated edition have been pro- in brackets “Serbian nationalists”; and in a footnote, (Zlata’s Diary, 1994c 191) duced not by the author of the diary but by profes- the geographical marker Pale is further explained sional photojournalists covering the war in Bosnia for

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international media, thus colonizing the visual nar- press her personal trauma and loss. ing, but because she was recording the events taking cially visible in the interventions of the adult agents rative of Zlata’s life story. Based on Roland Barthes’ place around her, she tended to see the world from a in the text and the paratext of the published book. distinction between denotative and connotative mean- Adult Editor’s Interventions slightly detached viewpoint. It was almost as though This case study attempts to demonstrate how ing, it can be concluded that the same photograph Arguably the agent with the most power in this she was watching a film in which she was a char- children’s literature of war written by child authors is can both provide documentary evidence of objec- network of production agents in this case-study is acter.” (1994c xii). The adult editor thus frames the embedded within structures of power not unlike the tive circumstances and also depict culturally specif- the editor, a well-known war journalist Janine di child’s narrative in a way that she defines, and she ex- subjugation of the colonial subaltern by the colonizer. ic associations and meanings. This is especially im- Giovanni. As an initiator of the translation project plains the child author for the implied child readers. The voices of the adults are not only present on the portant in a sequence of photographs that create an as well as overall editor of the volume, di Giovanni In order to accentuate this truthfulness and cred- margins of the text in the form of captions, footnotes, overall story, as well as in terms of the relationship might be said to hold most responsibility for the in- ibility of the autobiographical text, the editor also introductions, or forewords; they additionally may in- of the photographs with the captions, the text used troduction and selection of photographs as well as decided to include photographs of the author and vade the very words of memory of the child witness, to directly describe the photograph (to “anchor” the their captions. We might even assign the changes paratextual descriptions of the context so that the adding their own interpretations or verbalization of polyvalent meaning of the image). identified as originating in the translator’s voice to reader can clearly draw the relationship between the emotions as another layer on the child’s text. Captions, in particular, present very important be adult editorial intervention in the writing of the author and the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sit- On the other hand, it may also be said that what informational value in children’s books, as “if we un- child author. uating the author in the adult editor’s history rather transforms the original child-authored text is its com- derstand child readers as those who know less be- The part most clearly identified as the voice of than allowing the child author her individual voice. modification through this series of transformations— cause they bring to the text less experience of the Janine di Giovanni is the introduction, which is fol- carried out by all-adult non-author agents—that take world than adults, then the child’s ability to move lowed by a list of Zlata’s family and friends in the Conclusion the personal diary of a young girl in wartime and pack- beyond the implications of the caption is equally di- form of a cast of characters and their relations. The In the last decades, as a result of the escalation of age it as an object for consumption. Translations and minished” (Kertzer 403). In the English translation introduction provides additional background infor- violent conflicts across the globe and more and more transmediations of the child’s text into video docu- of Zlata’s Diary, not only have photographs by adult mation about the Bosnian war and Zlata’s family. people being aware of and affected by them, war has mentaries, musicals, and theatre plays may be seen as outsiders been added to the text but they are also Being an experienced and award-winning reporter, become a common subject in children’s literature, attempts to increase the impact, target audience, and mediated by the insertion of captions for those pho- di Giovanni has taken her role to be to make the with increasingly more realistic treatment: general commercial value of the translated book. tographs. These captions do not come from the diary book more informative. Whereas Zlata refuses to For the publisher, the translated work primari- itself but are written in the third person. The author talk explicitly about the sides of the war in her diary It is already apparent that the ly needs to be “marketable” or hold the promise of of the captions is not identified in the credits but entries, the introduction gives a historical perspec- response by children’s writers to achieving commercial value. Anne Rothe provides a presumably would be the adult editor or translator tive and situates the narrative in a certain take on recent conflicts is more immediate critique of popular media’s fascination with and com- or illustrator. The captions instruct the child viewer the historical events. In the introduction, the editor and uncompromising in its repre- modification of trauma, utilizing a multidisciplinary how to read the photos. This is particularly relevant chooses to speak on behalf of the child-author and sentation of the full impact of war theoretical framework grounded in Holocaust and in the photograph showing Zlata sitting at a desk in to shape her identity in a way that she finds use- than earlier texts that mediated the media studies. Focusing on the production and con- a furnished room and going through her diary (Zlata’s ful or meaningful. In appropriating Zlata’s voice and subject for the young reader. …In sumption of popular trauma culture, she finds that Diary, 1994a 83). The caption reads, “Zlata writes at perspective as a child, di Giovanni says of Zlata that addressing war, children’s literature the diary displays an “inauthentic, posturing quality her desk even as the sound of machine guns echoes “[h]er voice was very old” and puts strong emphasis has come of age. (Lathey 86) … [that] does not really take us beyond our raw feel- from the hills.” It is the caption that transforms this on the fact that “she had lost her innocence” (1994c ings about Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is to be serene everyday scene of a “normal” domestic set- x). Describing her first encounter with Filipović, di Letters and diaries by children have the potential to counted as yet another aspect of the tragedy there ting into an image of precarious life in a war-torn Giovanni says she is “more adult, more resigned and represent a more individual contribution to historical that a child could have been exploited as Zlata has city. The adult author of the captions, thus, further stoical, then most of the adults I knew” (1994 ix) and writing from a child perspective. But the publication been …. In the high glare of publicity, you can’t see reframes the child’s image presented by the photo- even being the one who needs “to be strong for the of child-authored diaries for child readers does not the author’s tiny flame” (Lehmann-Haupt). The con- graphs used to illustrate the English language book. sake of her parents” (1994 x). Zlata is characterized occur without costly compromises, as adult media- sequence is that the writer ultimately wants to move Only seven of the images present in the book are as prematurely adult rather than an innocent child. tors may include “potential myths embedded in the beyond being a mere poster child for war victims. reproductions of the original diary, handwritten and It can be said that the editor di Giovanni reimag- documents they assemble” (Jolly, quoted in Vernon Her diary brought Zlata not only safety and escape assembled in its visual form by Zlata Filipović. From ines the author Zlata as the child according to her 155). The published child-author may become aware from the war but also world acclaim. It soon resulted these we can clearly see that Zlata uses drawings to desires and needs, fitting with Rose’s argument that of the adult gaze and modify his or her narrative ac- in many English-language adaptations in different complement her text. If we are aware that “in pic- the adult “author” creates a “child” to fulfil the adult’s cordingly. Anne Frank rewrote her diary in an at- media. The book was adapted for the stage, directed tures drawn by children who have themselves been needs and desires: the adult editor “builds an image tempt to prepare it for publication after the war—and by Gerry Mulgrew of Communicado Productions, in under stress, selective symbolic details without nar- of the child inside the book … in order to secure the her father “edited” the diary before it became avail- 2004. Zlata’s story was also featured as part of the rative integration become keys to our understand- child who is outside the book” (Rose 2). able to child readers. Indeed, “any published diary or Imperial War Museum project “Through My Eyes” ing” (Higonnet 117), then with their exclusion from Di Giovanni also tries to offer rationalizations letter collection undergoes an editing process, and (2008). Immediately after its release as a book in the translated book, adults have denied the child war for Zlata’s childlike style and highly chronicled and editors have their own agendas” (Vernon 24). In the 1995, it was accompanied by a BBC documentary victim the right and ability to fully and visually ex- fragmentary language, noting that Zlata “was suffer- case of a child author, this problem becomes espe- movie and a music piece.

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In her analysis of the use of Zlata’s Diary in US WORKS CITED Photographs in Children’s Books.” The Lion and the curricula, Zoë Hutchinson specifically comments on CHILDREN’S BOOKS Unicorn 24.3: 402-431. the nature of the translated text itself, arguing that Filipović, Zlata. Le journal de Zlata. Trans. Alain Cappon. Kokkola, Lydia. Representing the Holocaust in Children’s Paris: Robert Laffont, 1993. Literature. London: Routledge, 2003. the “English translation [of Zlata’s Diary] is incorpo- —. Zlatin dnevnik. Zagreb: Znanje, 1994a. Kress, Gunter and Theo van Leeuwen. Reading Images. rated into Anglo-American pedagogical practice and —. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. Trans. Victoria: Deakin University Press, 1990. curriculum in order to reconcile American students’ Christina Pribichevich-Zorić. London: Penguin, 1994b. Kušan, Ivan. Urednička Napomena. Dnevnik Zlate experiences of cultural, racial and linguistic difference. —. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. Trans. Christina Filipović. By Zlata Filipović. Zagreb: Znanje, 1994. Pribichevich-Zorić. New York: Scholastic, 1994c. 215-220. The text is domesticated for the purpose of solving —. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo. Trans. Lathey, Gillian. “Autobiography and History: Literature a local problem of the target language culture” (12). Christina Pribichevich-Zorić. New York: Penguin Books, of War.” Modern Children’s Literature: An Hutchinson goes on to explain that “the primary 2006. Introduction. Ed. Kimberly Reynolds. New York: Anglo-American reception of Zlata Filipović’s Zlata’s Filipović, Zlata and Melanie Challenger, eds. Stolen Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. 58-73. Voices: Young People’s War Diaries, from World War I Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. “Books of The Times; Diary is one of universalization through pedagogical DR MARIJA TODOROVA holds a PhD in Translation to Iraq. London: Penguin Books, 2006. Another Diary of a Young Girl.” The New York Times, Studies from the Hong Kong Baptist University, on the appropriation; cultural and linguistic difference is sub- Frank, Anna. The Diary of a Young Girl. 1947. 1952. Eds. 28 February 1994. topic of “The Images of Western Balkan in Literature ordinated to textual aspects that correspond to Anglo- Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler. Trans. Susan McGillis, Roderick. “Introductory Notes: Postcolonialism, for Children in English Translation”. She has taken part American values and experiences in order to recon- Massotty. Harmondsworth: Viking, 1997. Children and Their Literature.” ARIEL: A Review of in the establishment of the Translation Programme of Halilbegović, Nađa. Sarajevsko detinjstvo ratom ranjeno. International English Literature 28.1 (1997): 7-15. cile American cultural and linguistic difference” (13). the University American College Skopje, where she Sarajevo: Sani promex, 1994. Nimon, Maureen. “Violence in Children’s Literature has taught in translation, interpreting and intercultural Zlata acknowledges that her writing resembles —. 1999. Sarajevsko detinjstvo ratom ranjeno: Nesanice, Today.” Selected papers from the Annual Conference communication. In 2007 she was the recipient of the that of Anne Frank and establishes the parallel be- sanjalice. Sarajevo: Naša djeca. of the International Association of School Librarian- National Translation Award. Marija is an Executive tween herself and the girl who documented her Halilbegovich, Nadja. My Childhood Under Fire. A ship, Adelaide, Australia, 27-30 September 1993. Council member of IATIS. Her research interests include Sarajevo Diary. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2008. Nodelman, Perry. The Hidden Adult: Defining Children’s experience of war. Anne Frank’s diary has been ini- intercultural education, and visual representation in Literature. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2008. translation. She is currently Adjunct Scholar at the Hong tially manipulated by her father who edited the first SECONDARY SOURCES —. “The Other: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Children’s Kong Baptist University, Center for Translation. published version of her diary and deleted passages Agnew, Kate and Geoff Fox. Children at War: From the Literature.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly referring to Anne’s sexuality and relationship with First World War to the Gulf. London: Continuum, 2001. 17.1 (1992): 29-35. Batty, Nancy Ellen. “‘We are the World, We are the Pribichevich-Zorić, Christina. 2014. E-mail interview, her mother. This “paternal colonization” transferred Children’: The Semiotics of Seduction in International April. Translator of Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipovic. Anne’s gendered physical being into a disembodied Children’s Relief Efforts.” Voices of the Other: Communication conducted in English. martyr. Similarly, Zlata’s identity has been modified Children’s Literature in the Postcolonial Context. Ed. Riding, Alan. “From Sarajevo, a Girl and a Diary on Fear.” by the adult agents in the production process to Roderick McGillis. New York: Routledge, 2000. 17-38. The New York Times, 6 January 1994. Blažić, Milena Mileva. Children’s Literature in South-East Rothe, Anne. Popular Trauma Culture: Selling the Pain serve the Western perspective about the sides in the Europe. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature of Others in the Mass Media. London: Rutgers Bosnian war and to intensify the wartime suffering and Culture, (2011)13.1: Article 10. http://dx.doi. University Press, 2011. and deprivation. org/10.7771/1481-4374.1714 (accessed 16 July 2014). Rose, Jacqueline. The Case of Peter Pan; or the Not unlike Anne Frank’s, Zlata’s child voice in Bradford, Clare. “The Case of Children’s Literature: Impossibility of Children’s Fiction. Philadelphia: Colonial or Anti-Colonial?”. Global Studies of University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. her autobiographical narrative has been repressed Childhood 1.4 (2011): 271-79. Stephens, John. Language and Ideology in Children’s both by the author’s desire to get published and by Buzelin, Hélène. Unexpected Allies: How Latour’s Network Fiction. London: Longman, 1992. the adults who have decided what they assume child Theory Could Complement Bourdieusian Analyses in Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: readers need to see in a testimony of the war. The Translation Studies. The Translator, (2005)11:193-218. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford Dresang, Eliza T. The Resilient Child in Contemporary University Press, 2009. adult agents involved in the production of the book Children’s Literature: Surviving Personal Violence. Vernon, Alex. Arms and the Self: War, the Military and for mass consumption, however well intentioned, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, (1997) Autobiographical Writing. Kent: The Kent State ultimately are silencing—or at least muting—the 22.3:133-141. University Press, 2005. child-author’s voice by speaking for and about her, di Giovanni, Janine. Foreword. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. By Zlata Filipović. New York: Scholastic, by translating and interpreting her rather than en- 1994. pp. v-xiv 1. Also referred to as Bosniak or Bosniac, the name and history abling child and adult readers to hear her. Goodenough, Elizabeth and Andrea Immel. (eds.) Under of this language are considered a controversial issue. It is a stan- Fire: Childhood in the Shadow of War. Detroit: Wayne dardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language, and as such was known as the official language of Bosnia and Herzegovina during State University Press, 2008. the Yugoslav Federation. After the breakdown of the Yugoslav fed- Higonnet, Margaret. “Picturing Trauma in the Great War”. eration, it has become one of the official languages in Bosnia and Under Fire eds. Goodenough, Elizabeth and Andrea Herzegovina, along with Serbian and Croatian. The first modern Immel. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008. Bosnian grammar appeared in 2000 (Greenberg, Language and Hudson, Cindy. 2010. Interview with Author Zlata Identity in the Balkans 136). Filipovic. Mother Daughter Book Club. https:// motherdaughterbookclub.com/2010/02/inter view-with-author-zlata-filipovic/ Kertzer, Adrienne. 2000. “Saving the Picture: Holocaust

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Introduction ness move away from a “didactic impulse” (Trites 73) Eighteen-year-old Jae published the opening poem that defines much commercially produced material. in Another Slice (originally called Slice)—a zine first cre- The narratives and images in the zine especially Youth, Poetry, and Zines: ated in the late-1990s by and for culturally diverse challenge the construction of the street as only a homeless youth aged sixteen to twenty-four in ur- space of danger or as a temporary stop (or adven- ban Canada. This excerpt is from her longer poem, ture) on the way to adulthood reflected in novels like Rewriting the Streets “Yuppy Muck,” where she critiques the yuppie city Cynthia Voigt’s Homecoming and best-selling memoirs dwellers (defined broadly as anyone housed or mid- such as Nic Shef’s Tweak (2009) or Jeannette Walls’ dle class or above) who walk past and disdainfully The Glass Castle (2005). In addition, very few com- as Home judge her home on the street. Jae’s poem is only one mercially-published young adult texts take the form example from an under-examined archive of what of zines: Ellen Wittlinger’s Hard Love (1999) remains we call a literature of the streets, written by and for one of the only examples of zine culture in a novel youth—or, as Slice was originally subtitled, “4 BY written for a teen audience. Rarely do adults hear Elizabeth Marshall and Theresa Rogers AND ABOUT STREET KIDS.” In this article, directly from youth about their lived experiences on we focus explicitly on the how youth use poetry as the streets, and few studies to date have considered a mode for social commentary within a larger zine the zine as a form of children’s and young adult lit- project, which includes paper and online texts as erature, even though young adults read and produce well as special anthologies. these texts.2 We contend that zines provide a rich Specifically, we are interested in how homeless perspective on the cultural production of youth in youth “jam” familiar texts (Dery, DeLaure et al.) or alternative communities and that these multi-modal “remix” genres (Knobel and Lankshear). Cultural texts can be defined as another form of young adult jamming is a form of social activism usually associat- literature. ed with revising and subverting familiar texts to make The images and narratives within Slice/Another socio-political commentary. In the zine Slice/Another Slice challenge familiar ideas about age-appropriate Slice, we study how youth use different forms of poet- reading material through gritty representations of You bastards walk with noses high ry to parody and remix children’s ABC books, public drug abuse and the realities of homelessness. Indeed, Lamb skin coats, no wonder why service announcements, and song lyrics to draw at- these writers redefine the street as a sanctuary from tention to policies and practices through which oth- familiar institutions set up to “protect” youth, such as A travesty mole on your city faces ers define them.1 Youth represent themselves in the the family and the school. Like its authors, the zine “Souls of the Street are such a disgrace” zine and in turn create fresh imaginaries and provoc- is consistently on the move, taking new forms and ative storylines about street-involved (or identified) finding different audiences. Nonetheless, it provides (From the poem “Yuppy Muck” by Jae) young adults. In this way, youth use literacy as a tool a glimpse into one group of youth as they bring to- for resisting the status quo through sophisticated and gether poetry and song with political activism. This article focuses on an under-examined archive of young adult literature— often-ironic counter-narratives and, in turn, rewrite Street-entrenched youth created Slice/Another the streets as home. Slice to provide an outlet to share “art, thoughts and words and images created by, for, and about street youth. We describe how As we point out in our earlier study of cultural feelings with their peers as well as others” (from the street-identified youth use poetry and various forms of cultural jamming to texts about homelessness, “textual and visual repre- inside cover). The zines were produced at a youth engage in social commentary. Drawn from the pages of a street youth zine sentations are important to analyze as the discourses services center that provides a safe space and var- about homelessness within them are tied to materi- ious resources for homeless or street-entrenched developed in a western Canadian city, the poems and images analyzed al effects that influence the everyday lives of street youth (Rogers et al.). The group began by creating here illustrate the ways the youth writers remix popular cultural materials youths” (Rogers and Marshall 725). The zine proj- a handmade and photocopied do-it-yourself (DIY) such as signs, songs and alphabet books to create new scripts about drugs, ect under examination here is a unique countercul- paper zine (during the 90s and again from the mid- to tural production that circumvents the structures of late 2000s) and, more recently (in 2010) has shifted homelessness, and youth. In this literature of the streets, youth rewrite the mainstream publishing for youth. Slice/Another Slice is to posting the zine online (see www.anotherslice.ca); discourses of homelessness and create new storylines that critique the way written and illustrated by homeless youth outside the youth have also published two collections of their society serves its citizens. We argue that this archive also asks adult readers, of the circuit of marketing professionals, publishers, work in anthologies, Words from the Street I and II (Mills critics, and teachers to rethink traditional categories of YA literature to and reviewers. While Slice/Another Slice shares a focus and Rogers; Ford). The longevity of this zine as well on realism with the genre of young adult literature, as its multimodal formats makes it an especially rich include writings produced by and for underrepresented youth. youths’ visual-verbal representations of homeless- archive of young adult literature to analyze.

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Zines have a long and complex history in North er, often up to forty or more pages. The youth con- tion about services and surviving on the street. The classic contemporary and traditional genres to pro- America. Fan magazines started in the 1930s are of- sciously “fought against the aesthetic of the book” work we examine here is from the paper versions of vide social commentary and resist the status quo, ten seen as prototypes. Since then, zines have been by rejecting any typesetting in favor of handwriting Slice and Another Slice and the related anthologies. creating a sometimes-radical “literature of the street.” appropriated by a variety of subcultural groups, and hand drawings—“a rough and ruined aesthetic” We locate this theorization within the tradition of such as 1960s political activists, punk rock musi- (James, personal communication). It was important cultural studies, particularly contemporary theories cians in the 1970s, and 1990s feminist and Grrrl that the zine was by, for, and about them; they sold of public pedagogy (Giroux; Sandlin et al.). The con- groups (Piepmeier). More recently, there has been copies of the zine to tourists and spread it among cept of public pedagogy seeks to position “rigorous a proliferation of countless groups posting online street youth in the city. As Adela C. Licona notes, theoretical work and public bodies against corporate zines (Knobel and Lankshear; Rottmund; Block zinesters are often “committed to a free and diverse power” (Giroux 10) and uses public spaces as edu- and Carlip). Zines provide a space for these affinity press” (1). cative arenas (Sandlin et al). The work of the youth groups to come together voluntarily to share infor- At this time, the youth liked to refer to them- poets in this zine—with its social commentary, resis- mation and to participate in appropriating and trans- selves as “scum”—a name one youth took on ironical- tance to the status quo, and use of irony and paro- forming cultural materials to tell their own stories ly to “ennoble the perception of themselves”: “they dy—can be seen as counter-pedagogies to received and build their own communities (Jenkins). wanted to communicate what they considered the discourses about drugs, homelessness, and youth. Slice/Another Slice has its roots in both street truth of their situation to the people who ran the sys- newspapers and zine formats. Street papers such as tem” (James, personal communication). As Stephen Counter-Narratives of Drug Use Megaphone in Vancouver, British Columbia, are pub- Dunscombe argues, the punk aesthetic in zines is Drug usage is a common theme in the writings of lications usually sold by homeless or poor people. one of negative identity and anarchism that creates these youth. In “A Day in the Life of a Stoner” from Many cite Hobo News, which ran from the 1910s and a space where young people form solidarity and ex- the 1990s version of Another Slice, the author Jellyfish 1920s in New York City, as the first street newspa- periment with alternatives to the status quo. In one (street name) cleverly draws directly from the fol- per in North America. Currently, there are an esti- project, participants installed four-by-six-foot posters lowing middle stanza of the John Lennon/Paul mated fifty to seventy street or homeless newspapers of their poems at bus shelters to invade the public McCartney song “A Day in the Life”: and zines (Dodge). Street newspapers and zines like space and public voice so controlled by advertising Slice/Another Slice usually include poverty-related po- and marketing and money-making agendas. Some Woke up, fell out of bed litical issues with the intent of providing a platform of the youth poets also participated in the travelling Dragged a comb across my head for homeless people to regain independence and Lollapalooza music festival’s Spoken Word Revival Found my way downstairs and drank a cup maintain self-respect. They may include investiga- Tent. And looking up I noticed I was late tive journalism for social action; information for the Slice ceased publication sometime in the mid- to Found my coat and grabbed my hat homeless; poetry and other literary writing; and let- late-1990s, after several youth died of drug overdos- Made the bus in seconds flat ters, photos, and essays. They often invoke tradition- es, but it was restarted in the mid-2000s as Another Found my way upstairs and had a smoke al media discourses on the homeless and use sarcasm Slice. Several of the participants were aware of or had And somebody spoke and and irony, and the intended audiences are often local even been involved in the original. Another Slice was I went into a dream (Dodge; Torck). published for several years as paper zine, sometimes Figures 1 and 2. Covers of Slice and Another Slice Slice began in the early 1990s as “a venue for as often as every month and sometimes as themed is- In his version, Jellyfish follows both the beat and self-expression and freedom of thought” and is ded- sues (Halloween, tattoos, special issue for social work- Youth enter into a variety of literary conversations rhyme of the original and cleaves closely to its theme icated “to all young people coping with survival on ers) and occasionally even including color printing through their writing and artwork in the zine. Many as he writes more explicitly than the Beatles about the streets” (from the inside page). The zine began when funding was available. Another Slice continues of the zine creators have gone through some school- being stoned. The Beatles song was, in fact, orig- when a youth worker brought in the poet, perfor- online and includes a range of genres and forms—po- ing and, thus, often appropriate instructional mate- inally banned from the BBC for ending with the mance artist, and small press publisher Kedrick etry, art, photography, announcements, sayings, es- rials for their own uses. Youth who created Another line, “I would love to turn you on.” Paul McCartney James3 to help create a place for young writers to says, and interviews (separately or combined). Many Slice report having read a broad variety of texts on wrote this middle stanza as a reminiscence on his share their work. The zine emerged during a time of the same influences—vestiges of a punk aesthetic their own—from best-sellers by Stephen King and own youth. Jellyfish is able to create a mildly iron- when photocopiers were becoming readily available and Hip Hop and slam culture—remain. The writing John Grisham and periodicals like Playboy and news- ic version of the middle section that draws on the and was influenced by punk culture and the growing in Another Slice also reflects the impact of intensified papers to political commentaries by authors such whole song as sung by the Beatles and even supplies popularity of performance poetry. capitalism, hyper-gentrification, and poverty charac- as Malcolm X and Noam Chomsky, older literary the key for singing aloud (Figure 3). According to The group of up to twenty or more street youth teristic of the 2000s; however, similar themes such works by Marquis de Sade or Jack Kerouac, and phil- James, Jellyfish likely played a version of the song on met weekly in a gallery space where they shared as drug use, homelessness, power, and identity are osophical works by thinkers such as Sartre. the street while inventing his own lyrics. Jellyfish’s pizza and pop (thus, the name, Slice) and produced addressed from these more contemporary perspec- We argue that youth incorporate and flip the counter-narrative directly addresses the materiality the zine using 8.5 x 14 inch bi-fold pages that were tives. The stated purpose of the zine is also to stay in script on these cultural materials and forms in their of street life and drug use as it emanated from the photocopied (black and white) and stapled togeth- touch with other street youth and to share informa- own work, particularly literary forms, as they use panhandling and busking culture.

BOOKBIRD 30 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 31 55.2–2017 YOUTH, POETRY, AND ZINES: REWRITING THE STREETS AS HOME YOUTH, POETRY, AND ZINES: REWRITING THE STREETS AS HOME

In many ways, these two poems reflect street youths’ “HomeLess,” begins thus: complex relationship with drugs and street life that became even more contentious in Another Slice, Homeless that’s what they call us both as a topic of conversation in meetings and in They say we have no homes their writings (Rogers et al). Several of the youth Because we live out on the streets expressed anger about the extent of drug use in And choose to drift and roam the downtown core of the city, well known as the Downtown East Side, which serves as a catchment Throughout this longer poem, Blaze uses a tradi- area for homeless people suffering from addiction. tional stanza and rhyming pattern to slowly unravel The youth often worked in a job program sponsored the many negative assumptions that are made about by the youth center that focused on cleaning up homeless people. The narrator asks, “What about used needles around the city, so they were well ac- the heroes / The women and kids” and reminds quainted with problems of needles in public spaces. readers that it is often not a choice to be homeless This issue is more directly addressed in the concrete but a process of displacement over time and that it poem by Jordan that forms part of a poster in one hurts to be judged and mocked: issue of the zine. But if you think we choose the life Then it’s you who’s lost your mind To suggest we woke up one morning And said I’ll leave it all behind

Figure 5. A page from Another Slice To live the life of a prostitute An addict, or a drunk Through a drawing of a needle, with all the plac- To wear the same clothes everyday es that used needles or “rigs” are discarded written That we carry in a trunk around it, Jordan deploys the persuasive tactics of a poster with a poem and slogan: “Rigs go in a BOX / To sell our bodies like a piece of meat NOT in my parks and schools.” (Boxes are provided Because we cannot cope Figure 3. “A Day in the Life” by Jellyfish in the city for used needles.) Jordan was concerned To beg all day everyday with children put at risk by negligent behaviors of Just to by the dope In a second example taken from the most recent col- chronic drug users in the Downtown East Side—not lection of poetry, Words from the Street II, wordvom- an area these street youth like to go. He makes his To watch the people laugh at us it (street name) chooses the format of a children’s point forcefully with a combination of concrete po- That look right into our face ABC to talk about the panoply of drugs currently on etry, a slogan, and an irreverent photograph. Rather Who forget that we are there the streets of the city (see Figure 4). In “Now I know than blaming the victims for their drug addiction as Unless we’re in their space my ABC’s,” the poet uses every letter up to “W” (for many social policies do, his poster addresses the is- Weed, “by far the best yet, / except now I’m too lazy sue of responsible use, particularly appropriate nee- Near the end of the poem, the narrator directly ad- to finish my alphabet”) to create rhyming couplets dle disposal. In this way, Jordan’s poster presents a dresses the imagined judges: with a fairly consistent count of ten beats per line: counter-narrative about street youth and their rela- tionship to drug use that connects him both to the Well now we have it A is for Acid, a fun thing to do local and highly contested debates about drug use in The materialistic chain B is for BZP, which tastes like poo the city as well as broader cultural narratives of safety That wraps around your human heart C is for COKE and for running about, and and drug use (Rogers). Depriving oxygen to your brain. D is for DXM, which’ll freak you right out. Rewriting the Street Youth (or Homeless) Here, Blaze directly critiques larger society systems The parodic use of the ABC structure clearly ap- Narrative and beliefs that displace people she calls “the long propriates a didactic form to “school” the audience In other works, the youth address homelessness lost relatives / This world tries to forget about.” This about the variety of street drugs and their relative more directly, often using traditional poetic forms. A critique echoes that of Jae’s in the opening poem, merits and downsides. Figure 4. “Now I know my ABC’s” by wordvomit poem from Words from the Street I by Blaze, entitled with its focus on how homelessness is a structural

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rather than an individual problem. Blaze rewrites the tory, complicated, ambiguous, and on the move” (3). WORKS CITED by Henry Jenkins and Tara McPherson, Duke common assumptions and stereotypes about people Rather than relying on familiar scripts about teens CHILDREN’S BOOKS/YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE University Press, 2002, 227–250. Print. on the street in a way that instead demonstrates care “becoming” adults (and presumably drug-free) after Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Gilmore, Leigh, and Elizabeth Marshall. “Trauma and Indian. New York: Little Brown, 2007. Print. Young Adult Literature: Representing Adolescence and calls for a more empathetic cultural analysis. learning hard life lessons, the youth writing for Slice/ Anonymous. 1971. Go Ask Alice! New York: Prentice Hall. and Knowledge in David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir.” Another Slice speak directly about street life and de- Print. Prose Studies 35.1 (2013): 16–38. Print. Flipping the Script liberately intervene in public discourse (of which, of Block, Francesca Lia, and Hillary Carlip. Zine Scene. Gurdon, Meghan Cox. “Darkness Too Visible.” The Wall These examples of street literature written by and for course, YA literature is a part) to challenge stereo- Seattle: Girl Press, 1998. Print. Street Journal. Web. Accessed 15 July 2012. . people or who deliver a piece of wisdom so often Slice/Another Slice asks adult readers to rethink cat- Ford, Colin, editor, with Theresa Rogers, production editor. Guzzetti, Barbara J, and Margaret Gamboa. “Zines for seen in mass-marketed YA fiction (Trites). Instead, egories of YA literature to include zines produced Words from the Street II. Writings from Another Slice. Social Justice: Adolescent Girls Writing on Their these poems and multimodal zine pages share an af- for and by marginalized or under-represented youth. Vancouver: East Van Graphics, 2015. Print Own.” Reading Research Quarterly 39.4 (2004): Frisch, Aaron, and Innocenti, Roberto. The Girl in Red. 408–36. Print. finity with texts that are controversial and defined The poems analyzed here are not stories of privi- Minneapolis: Creative Editions, 2012. Print. Hoechsmann, Michael and Bronwyn Low. Reading Youth as “too much” for a young adult audience, including lege, they were not written for audiences seeking to Mills, Eliah, and Theresa Rogers, editors. Words from the Writing:“New” Literacies, Cultural Studies & David Small’s graphic memoir Stitches (2009) as well learn about homelessness, and they are not filtered Street. Writings from Another Slice. Vancouver, SPN Education. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Print as Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of A Part- through an adult gaze for appropriate content for Publishing, 2009. Print. Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and Moon, Sarah. Little Red Riding Hood. Minneapolis: New Media Collide. New York: New York University Time Indian (2007) (Gilmore and Marshall). About youth. As such, this zine makes visible a gulf be- Creative Editions, 2002. Print. Press, 2006. Print. cultural critics concerned with “ever more appalling” tween representations by and for youth and ones Sheff, Nic. Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines. Jocson, Korina. Youth Poets: Empowering Literacies In commercially produced YA books (Gurdon), Alexie published by mainstream publishers. These texts slip New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, and Out of Schools. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Print. suggests that these critics are “simply trying to pro- outside of pedagogical contexts and literary markets 2009. Print. Knobel, Michele, and Colin Lankshear. “Cut, Paste, Small, David. Stitches: A Memoir. New York: W. W. Publish: The Production and Consumption of Zines.” tect their privileged notions of what literature is and in ways that offer an alternative to young readers and Norton, 2009. Print. Voigt, Cynthia. Homecoming. Web. Accessed 28 December 2016. children. Or the seemingly privileged” (“Why”). discourses of the street, creating new storylines, and Print. Licona, Adela C. Zines in Third Space: Radical For these youth, writing in a zine is not about be- employing social and cultural critique that exposes Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Cooperation and Borderlands Rhetoric. Albany: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005. Print. SUNY Press, 2012. Print. ing saved or redeemed. As Alexie points out “It’s the ways in which society repeatedly underserves Wild, Margaret. Woolvs in the Sitee. Honesdale: Front Marshall, Elizabeth. “Fear and Strangeness in Picture far too late for that.” Rather, writing—and poetry in its citizens. Through reclaimed literary genres, such Street, 2007. Print. Books: Fractured Fairy Tales, Graphic Knowledge, particular—becomes a weapon “in the form of words as contemporary and traditional poetic forms, these Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard Love. New York: Simon & Schuster and Teachers’ Concerns.” Challenging and and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters” youth poets create an original and, at times, radical Books for Young Readers, 2001. Print. Controversial Picturebooks, edited by Janet Evans, Routledge, 2015, pp. 160–177. Print. (Alexie, “Why”). literature of the street. SECONDARY SOURCES Marshall, Elizabeth, and Leigh Gilmore. “Girlhood In The Children’s and young adult literature remains “A Day In The Life.” A-Z Lyrics. Web. Accessed 01 March Gutter: Feminist Graphic Knowledge and The fairly conventional about life on the streets. Even 2017. Quarterly 43.1 & 2 (2015): 95–114. Print. Alexie, Sherman. “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Piepmeier, Alison. Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Roberto Innocenti’s The Girl in Red (2012), Sarah Blood.” Wall Street Journal. Web. Accessed 30 June Feminism. New York: New York University Press, Moon’s Little Red Riding Hood (2002), or Margaret 2016. Poletti, Anna. “Self-Publishing in the Global and Local: agogy that implicitly or explicitly attempts to warn Black, Rebecca W. and Constance Steinkuehler. “Literacy Situating Life Writing in Zines.” Biography 28.1 in Virtual Worlds.” Handbook of Adolescent Literacy (2005): 183–92. Print. youth (especially girls) about the dangers of the city Research (2009): 271–86. Print. Rogers, Theresa, and Elizabeth Marshall. “On the (Marshall; Marshall and Gilmore). So, too, bestsell- Buchanan, Rebekah. “Zines in the Classroom: Reading Road: Examining Self-Representation and Discourses ing memoirs about homelessness, such as Jeanette Culture.” The English Journal 102.2 (2012): 71–77. Print. of Homelessness in Young Adult Texts.” Journal of Walls’ The Glass Castle (2005), are mired in neoliberal Buckingham, David, and Julian Sefton-Green. Cultural Adolescent & Adult Literacy 55.8 (2012): 725–33. Print. Studies Goes to School: Reading and Teaching Rogers, Theresa, Kari-Lynn Winters, Mia Perry, and Anne- discourses of individual choice. From texts such as Popular Culture. London: Taylor and Francis, 1994. Print. Marie LaMonde. Youth, Critical Literacies, and Civic the fictional diary and cautionary tale Go Ask Alice DeLaure, Marilyn, Moritz Fink, and Mark Dery. Culture Engagement: Arts, Media, and Literacy in the Lives of (1971) to Melvin Burgess’s Smack (1996), young adult Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance. Adolescents. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print. titles tend to focus exclusively on the dangers of New York: New York University Press, 2017. Print. Rottmund, Kelly. “A Little Bit About Everything You Need Dery, Mark. Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and to Know About Zines.” Visual Literacy. Web. drug abuse and street life and often rely on didactic Sniping in the Empire of Signs. Westfield: Open Accessed 21 August 2009. . Slice/Another Slice and tell stories of homelessness and Dodge, Chris. “Words on the Street: Homeless People’s Torck, Daniele. “Voices of Homeless People in Street drug abuse that have no easy answers or endings. As Newspapers.” American Libraries 30.7 (1999): 60–62. Newspapers: A Cross-Cultural Exploration.” Print. Discourse & Society 12.3 (2001): 371–92. Print. Licona points out, zines have “much to teach us about Dunscombe, Stephen, “I’m a Loser Baby.” Hop on Pop: Trites, Roberta Seelinger. Disturbing the Universe: Power representations of self and community as contradic- The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, edited and Repression in Adolescent Literature. Iowa City:

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University of Iowa Press, 1998. Print. Zobl, Elke. “Cultural Production, Transnational “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…” were words Networking, and Critical Reflection in Feminist Zines.” that under-fives during the 1950s in the UK waited excitedly Signs 35.1 (2009): 1–12. Print. to hear. That question heralded the start of “Listen with Mother,” a radio program that transported young listeners into fantasy worlds. This picture book’s delightful visuals BOOKBIRD POSTCARDS 1. Others have studied youth poetry in different contexts. See, for were not available all those years ago, yet they focus on the example, education scholar Korina Jocson’s critical work on youth poets in urban contexts in the United States. importance of finding a special place to share a story. On the title page, a young boy perches in his “crocodile” chair, sharing 2. Zines as unique cultural texts have been taken seriously among a book with his cat—a special moment, enhanced by warm researchers of popular youth culture (Knobel and Lankshear), media studies (Black and Steinkuehler; Buckingham and Sefton- autumnal colors. As the story unfolds, he searches for a quiet Green), feminist studies (Zobl; Piepmeier), life-writing studies place to sit “just for a bit”; somewhere that is “comfy” but not (Poletti) and literacy studies (Buchanan; Guzzetti and Gamboa; Hoechsmann and Low). “buzzy…fuzzy…grimy… slimy,” “not hot” or “too cold.” Each page shows the young protagonist somewhat bemused 3. We would like to acknowledge our colleague, Kedrick James, Are You Sitting Comfortably? who supplied contextual information about the original version of as he encounters unusual places to read his book: in a dark Leigh Hodgkinson Slice through personal communications. forest, next to a giant’s foot, near a smelly dustbin, or even up London: Bloomsbury, 2016. with the stars. He also meets numerous animals—including a Unpaged. crocodile, a fox, a mouse, a frog, a lion, and a polar bear—who ISBN: 976-1-4088-6482-1 become his friends and finally help him realize that “it doesn’t (Picture book; ages under 5) matter where you sit” because “a book is best when you share.” Penni Cotton

This folktale celebrates the power of storytelling in traditional Morocco and comments on what might happen if society ignores its storytellers. It opens with a double- page map of the Mediterranean and Sahara regions, where the story is set, with Morocco highlighted in red. It follows the conventional opening of folktales, contextualizing the culture as it introduces the conflict—a kingdom that takes for granted its storytelling tradition and the ensuing consequences. This kingdom flourishes when storytelling POSTCARDS BOOKBIRD and storytellers play a significant role in the people’s lives, but it later changes after people became complacent and stopped caring about the storytellers. The kingdom loses its water fountains and gradually converts into a desert until one boy in dire need of water encounters an old storyteller. This uplifting story cautions about the importance of stories in human lives. Though set in Morocco, its universal theme resonates across cultures, as communities wrestle with the changing landscape of oral storytelling practices in the context of modern technology. The gorgeous The Storyteller illustrations appeal even after the verbal narrative ends. Evan Turk This book highlights one of Africa’s most prized traditions, New York: Atheneum Books for ELIZABETH MARSHALL is an associate professor in THERESA ROGERS is a professor of Language and Young Readers, 2016. Unpaged. the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia storytelling, reminding readers of its relevance today and of teaching and research focuses on childhood, popular where she conducts research and teaches courses on the necessity of passing on the tradition to the young. ISBN: 978-1-4814-3518-5 culture, and texts for youth. youth literacies and critical perspectives on children’s and Vivian Yenika-Agbaw (Picture book; ages 4+) young adult literature (see http://lled.educ.ubc.ca/profiles/ theresa-rogers/). She is also a poet and a grandmother.

BOOKBIRD 36 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 37 55.2–2017 REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: Articles HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION

Introduction fiction ought to be considered part of the umbrella Children’s and young adult (YA) literature is typi- term “YA fiction” and thus a serious subject of study; cally viewed as a literature that both constructs and as such, this paper considers a specific example of Revising Hegemonic regulates its intended audience because adults cre- Harry Potter slash fanfiction in relation to literary ate and regulate this literature for youth audiences, criticism regarding gender and sexuality. This con- policing the material to which youth have access sideration exposes youth authors’ points of departure Masculinity: by eliding certain content (see, for example, Rose). from accepted practices within the commercial pub- However, the spread of the internet and other digital lishing industry and thus provides important insight media has allowed youth to create and share their into youths’ textual desires. Their nuanced, varied, Homosexuality, Masculinity, own texts outside of the realm of adult supervision and transformative approaches to same-sex desire as never before. Pornography is no longer the realm make glaringly visible the lack of varied LGBTQ of tattered magazines eagerly passed around the representation in commercially published YA texts. locker room but is now instantaneously accessible, and Youth-Authored for example, and young fans are able to interact with Background and revise beloved texts to suit their own desires In his preface to Ways of Being Male, John Stephens ar- within purpose-created fan sites online. This allows gues that “critical and analytical discourses relating Harry Potter Fanfiction them both to circumvent the control of adults and to to children’s literature have seemed surprisingly slow retroactively imbue commercially created texts with to generate a body of discussion … [about] masculin- censored content through fanfiction, photo manip- ities,” but admits this may be because “the question Jennifer Duggan ulation, fan videos, and other media. Many of the of how the … patriarchal ideology structured repre- changes they make relate to gender and sexuality. sentations of male bodies and behaviors … has only The Harry Potter fandom, in particular, is note- recently emerged as an issue” in any area of study worthy as an example of an online space in which (x). Indeed, in YA fiction, the male hero figure more youth authors explore issues of gender and sexuality, often than not reaffirms hegemonic masculine traits, not only because a great number of teenagers partic- including unproblematized heterosexuality. As a ipate in this fandom but also because, as Catherine result, non-heteronormative masculinities tend to Youth participation in the production and consumption of slash fanfiction Tosenberger asserts, slash fanfiction—or fanfiction be noticeably absent from most YA media: “While (fanfiction that queers texts by depicting homosexual relationships) can that actively queers one or more characters—is ex- series like Glee mark a sea change in the gradual ac- tremely popular within the Harry Potter online fan ceptance and representation of gay characters … , be considered revolutionary for a number of reasons, but particularly community (“Homosexuality” 186). This group of historically it was relatively rare to see homosexual because it elucidates what youth determine to be appropriate content fans remains one of the most productive online, with characters represented … outside of marginal, comi- for themselves and because it strategically shifts focus from the the largest fanfiction website, fanfiction.net, hosting cal or occasionally tragic roles” (Duffett 176). over 750,000 fan-authored texts, and numerous oth- An unfortunate truth of the YA publishing in- discourse of non-heteronormativity to the pleasure and romance of er websites hosting more. dustry is that homosexual protagonists very often non-heteronormative relationships. Indeed, in a study in Sweden, youth Because of the popularity of texts that queer express their sexuality in stereotypical ways (Crisp) respondents to a questionnaire about their interest in slash fanfiction characters amongst this online group, and because or engage in relationships in which one partner is cited both the lack of books about gay teenagers whose relationships are many slash texts reference issues of gender perfor- suggested to be effeminate and the other masculine mativity through their depiction of queer characters, (Crisp). Homosexual male protagonists depicted in accepted as normal and the opportunity to explore varying sexualities this paper examines the masculinities and homosex- commercially published YA books are often stereo- as part of the appeal of slash (Wikström and Olin-Scheller 92). However, ual relationships presented in a popular fan-authored typical: verbally or physically bullied, artistic rather most studies of sexuality and slash fanfiction published to date examine slash text inspired by the Harry Potter series. It seeks than sporty,1 these boys embody what Judith Butler to show, through the analysis of this fan-authored might term “foreclosed” or “disavowed” masculini- the sexualities of those who produce and consume it rather than the fan- text, how one youth author reinterprets the hege- ties (3). Although not all sensitive boys in YA fiction authored texts themselves. This article will seek to begin to fill this gap in monic masculinities presented in the original series are homosexual, those who are homosexual are al- research by exploring the conjunction of masculinity and sexuality in Maya’s to create a narrative that defies the stereotypes of most always depicted as sensitive, artistic outsiders homosexual masculinities and focuses on the plea- who spend the majority of their time worrying about Underwater Light, a Harry Potter–inspired slash fanfiction published online surable and physical aspects of homosexual desire masculine performance and societal acceptance. A in installments between the release of Goblet of Fire (2000) and Order of rather than on the stereotypical discourse of homo- common plot device in novels in which non-heter- the Phoenix (2003). sexuality. Furthermore, it is here suggested that fan- onormativity is a central theme is the inclusion of

BOOKBIRD 38 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 39 55.2–2017 REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION

an antagonistic, homophobic foil to allow the pro- transgress their bounds as subjects. Kokkola posits untrue to the characterization of that male in origi- their texts. It is partially for this reason that I have tagonist to symbolically overcome societal prejudice that “queer novels are set within realistic settings nal text (hereafter referred to as canon),2 but moreover chosen to examine the text Underwater Light by Sarah by overcoming a single character or group who rep- in which homophobia undermines the possibility that reading a male character as queer automatical- Rees Brennan, who wrote and posted the fic under resents those prejudices (Crisp; Wickens). This has of pleasure” (97); her argument suggests that queer ly makes him effeminate or somehow less-than-en- the pseudonym Maya when she was a teenager—a led Thomas Crisp to argue that characters in YA are prevented from experiencing tirely male. Woledge’s argument therefore implies fact she has verified on Tumblr (“bornonthebattle- this transcendent amatory connection in full due that the act of reading and presenting a character as ground asked”).3 Underwater Light is also listed as an any book that seeks to educate readers both to the characters’ internalization of a constant gay somehow makes his expression of masculinity influential fic on fanlore.org (“Harry/Draco”) and was about homophobia and intolerance by pre- threat of violence from society and to authors’ hesi- less legitimate. In contrast, Catherine Tosenberger listed as one of four must-read fics by Time magazine senting a world in which homophobia and tation to depict disavowed populations experiencing asserts that academics’ “insistence that slash must (Grossman; “Underwater Light”).4 intolerance are “the norm” on some level … transcendence through carnal delight. transgress the existing canon rather troublingly as- Because the story was posted on numerous sites reinforces these as inevitabilities. (344) However, while this elision of homosexual plea- signs to the canon a heteronormativity it may not and because the author has since removed it from sure may be prevalent in adult-authored YA texts necessarily possess [and] … reinforces the assump- several sites, it is hard to verify when and where this It is, in fact, only recently that mainstream YA fiction depicting homosexual relationships, it is not nec- tion that queer readings are always … ‘imposed’ from story was first published. However, Brennan states has begun to depict physical tenderness and sexual essarily true of youth-authored fan texts (hereafter the outside” (“Homosexuality” 187). Indeed, J.K. that she was seventeen when she began writing fan- encounters between homosexual boys, such as the “fanfiction” or “fics”) that explore homosexuality. Rowling herself has affirmed at least one queer in- fiction, and the fanlore.org entry for the story states that masturbation scene in Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You Although, of course, there exists youth-authored terpretation of Harry Potter characters by publicly its online publication began in 2002 (“Underwater the Sun (2014). Kimberly Reynolds argues that ex- fanfiction that focuses on the rhetoric of homosexu- declaring Dumbledore had a romantic attachment Light”) when the author was eighteen, meaning she plicitly sexual YA narratives usually elide depictions ality, many fics avoid such a focus, detailing instead to Grindelwald when they were both young. She began writing after the publication of The Goblet of of same-sex relationships (127), echoing Roberta the embodiedness and physicality of attraction. Both defends this interpretation as in line with the can- Fire (2000), as the plot of Underwater Light, which be- Seelinger Trites’s suggestion that the stereotyp- slash (fanfiction depicting male-male relationships) on, stating that adults who are “sensitive” to such re- gins with a second Triwizard Tournament, suggests. ical gay male’s “sex acts are rarely described with and femslash (fanfiction depicting female-female lationships will be able to see it between the lines In Underwater Light, the war between dark and any kind of detail” in YA fiction (“All of a Sudden” relationships) tend to be explicit in their focus on (Tosenberger, “Oh My God” 187). We can see, light wizards has become much more serious, and 104), even in books with homosexual protagonists. sensuality, sexual attraction, and jouissance. This focus then, that despite the progress that has been made light wizards have been disappearing. In order to Indeed, Trites argues that YA novels depicting gay demonstrates the desire of youth fans who compose in gender and queer studies towards authenticating boost morale, Hogwarts hosts another Triwizard relationships “privilege the discourse of homosexu- slash to enjoy depictions of “the physical acts of gay and affirming alternative masculinities, there is much Tournament, and Harry is once again the Hogwarts ality over the physical acts of gay men, defining sex- men” rather than to agonize over the “discourse of contradiction in academic discussions of the gender champion. However, when he dives into the lake to uality more rhetorically than physically” (“Queer” homosexuality,” subverting the structure of commer- identities and performances of those who create and save the person he will most miss, he is surprised 143). Furthermore, as Victoria Flanagan argues, “gay cially published homosexual YA narratives like those consume slash. It is perhaps for these reasons that to find his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, instead of Ron sex is either invisible in most YA fiction or associ- discussed by Trites. slash continues to be of central interest to fanfiction Weasley, his best friend. This event sparks a friend- ated with physical pain rather than pleasure” (31), Despite this, and while gender identities and sex- studies, despite its being only one of many subge- ship and, eventually, romance between Harry and while Lydia Kokkola argues that ualities are central to slash in a number of ways, aca- nres of fanfiction (Bauer; Busse and Hellekson). Draco, and their evolving relationship is the main demic discussions of the phenomenon of slash are of- focus of the fic, although the story also follows the after experiencing same-sex carnal desire, ten strangely dismissive of fan-authored texts, as well Homosexuality, Masculinities, and war between dark and light. teenagers [in books] tend to focus on what as dismissive of the masculinities and the relation- Underwater Light Although a great deal of slash follows a similar it means to be gay or lesbian rather than ships depicted therein, judging them to be inferior to Problematically for studies of youth authorship in narrative to the texts discussed by Crisp (mentioned upon the specifics of their relationship…. commercially published texts. Indeed, in her recent the online community, a number of sites on which above)—boy falls in love with boy, someone or sever- Even texts that purport to be positive about monograph on female interest in gay male romances, one can post Harry Potter slash are administered al people dislike that they are together, there is con- same-sex desire … [shy] away from allowing Carola Katharina Bauer critiques the ways in which from the United States and require that members flict, boy and boy triumph in their love—some Harry characters to experience jouissance. (96–7) academics have discussed the men depicted in slash of the community be eighteen or older in order to Potter slash, like Underwater Light, has attempted to as “only nominally male” (Russ qtd. in Bauer 52), participate because of the sexually explicit nature overcome these problems by presenting wizarding Kokkola does not define jouissance in her text, per- thereby criticizing the assumption that men who are of many of the fics. This means that fans younger society as a queer space.5 For example, in Underwater haps because jouissance is an elusive term dealing not presented in a way consistent with hegemonic than eighteen who write and read slash must lie Light, it seems that most of Harry’s friends give no with that which defies definition and comprehen- masculinity must necessarily be gender bending or about their age in order to participate in the online thought to his being interested in a boy, although sion. However, jouissance can be defined as an ephem- “gender blending” (Woledge 52–3) rather than em- community. If they are discovered in their lie, they they are upset that he is first friends with, and later eral “unsettling and destabilizing” bliss (Baldick) or bodying “authentic” masculinities. may be expelled from the website by administrators. in a romantic relationship with, Draco Malfoy, whom overwhelming overflow of emotions linked to desire This suggests an assumption that “real men” However, because most youths who wrote Harry they hate with passion; Ginny Weasley, for example, resulting from amatory connection—and usually as- cannot embody traits typically coded feminine. Potter fanfiction in the beginning of the twenty-first accuses him of “sleeping with the enemy” and states, sociated in physcoanalysis with sexual union—that Furthermore, it implies that any queering of a male century are now adults, they can safely confirm that “You’re supposed to be something good—some- fragments, dislocates, and allows individuals to character within these fan-produced texts is not only they were teenagers when they wrote and posted thing great—why would you choose a power-hungry

BOOKBIRD 40 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 41 55.2–2017 REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION

bully?” (ch. 19). For Harry, however, this attraction Everybody knew that Harry was absolutely the intense intertextuality of fanfiction, which overt- the enemy (Pugh and Wallace, “Heteronormative” “wasn’t a choice…. No-one else was even a possibili- dizzy for Draco Malfoy…. Harry, of course, ly references not only the canon on which it is based 261)—and her Draco, despite caring about his ap- ty” (ch. 19), echoing the idea that love “never happens had no idea…. Malfoy was [either] quite but also other fan texts, commercially published YA pearance, remains interested in sports and obsessed …, it has always already happened”: “we never fall in love aware of the situation, and setting Harry up texts, film, television, music, art, and common genres with power and social status. Indeed, as in the can- in the present time[;] … we all of a sudden become for a fall, or he was blissfully unconscious of fiction. As Tosenberger has argued, along with on, the two boys constantly battle each other for the aware that we (already) are in love” (Žižek n.p., em- of the whole mess. Tison Pugh and David Wallace, “the Potter books status of alpha male, comparing, for example, how phasis in original). continuously flirt with disruptions to normativity” often they need to shave and debating who is the In order to communicate to readers the abrupt- While in the vast majority of YA novels with homo- (Pugh and Wallace, “Heteronormative” 263) that best at fighting or playing Quidditch. Maya’s Harry ness of love, Maya, the author of Underwater Light, sexual protagonists, the examination by the protag- invite queer interpretations (Tosenberger, “Oh My and Draco take responsibility for other students—as has made clever use of focalization. In slash, focaliz- onists of their sexuality focuses externally—on how God”; Tosenberger, “Homosexuality”). This is likely Hermione observes, “Harry was at his best in times ing characters often differ from the main focalizing society, including friends and family, will react—in due in part to the tradition of non-normative sexual of crisis” (ch. 18), although Harry himself feels inad- character in the canon, privileging alternative voices Underwater Light, the focus is internal, on Harry’s own experimentation or desire in the school story genre equate, wishing “he could be the simple hero he was as well as masculinities that are liminal in the original sexual identity and whether he likes men or women more generally (Lyon Clark 215–7), which has tradi- sure she [Ginny] saw him as, someone uncomplicat- texts rather than the central hero figure. Moreover, (ch. 14). No thought appears to be given by either tionally focused on boys’ “see[ing] or engag[ing] in a ed and unafraid who would never desire anything sometimes these fan texts include the perspectives Harry or Maya, the author, to what others may think variety of sexual activities among males” (Sedgwick but to save the world” (ch. 19)—and despite their of those outside the central romance to add nuance of his sexuality. The text instead questions how one 176). Indeed, Harry references another central as- friendship, they continue to allow their frustrations, or to provide insight into the feelings the protago- can understand one’s own sexuality and whether pect of the school story genre—sport—at another hormones, and feelings of powerlessness to escalate nists are unwilling to explore or of which they are sexuality can be clearly categorized. Harry claims point in Underwater Light, when he shares his dreams into fisticuffs (see, for example, ch. 16), mirroring unaware. This is the case in Underwater Light, in never to have “thought it through” before realizing with some other students in the hope that they will their encounters in Rowling’s series, or, at times, which Harry is the main focalizing character, as in he is attracted to Draco (ch. 14), and later he decides be able to find clues regarding a Death Eater spy in aggressive kissing (see, for example, ch. 18). Indeed, Rowling’s published Harry Potter texts; however, fo- that his “lifestyle choice … doesn’t matter” because, Hogwarts: He states that it was “very unfair … that when Draco tries to talk to Harry about his fear that calization sometimes switches to the perspective of as he tells Draco, “I don’t see why I should be wast- he had no idea whether the details of Draco’s body Harry will die, they end up first fighting and then Hermione or Ginny to provide alternative perspec- ing time going over my feelings like a twit, when it as shown in the dream were accurate” and points out kissing rather than expressing themselves in words tives. Harry is sometimes depicted as being out of can be simple…. I want you” (ch. 19). Similarly, any that “Quidditch teams had … common showers. It (ch. 19). This implies Maya’s belief that homosexual touch with or unable to decipher his own or oth- hesitation Draco feels is, first, caused by his desire was patently unjust that he could have drawn correct boys need not be depicted as either effeminate or ers’ feelings in the canon—such as when Hermione to have clear boundaries between friendships and pictures of Fred and George’s anatomy … and remain in a relationship reliant on one dominant and one has to decipher Cho Chang’s behavior for him in romantic attachments and, later, caused by his worry unsure of the exact curve of Draco’s naked thigh” submissive partner in fiction. Order of the Phoenix, looking at him and Ron “with over the possibility that they could ruin their new- (ch. 18). Here, as elsewhere, the focus of the story In fact, all of the sexual encounters in Underwater an almost pitying expression on her face” as she found friendship: is on the intense physicality of teenage attraction, Light focus on the physical expression of emotion does (405) and “restraining herself from rolling her placing the male-male gaze within the homosocial rather than its verbal expression. Harry, both in the eyes with extreme difficulty” upon hearing how he I don’t want to mess everything up because spaces of the school locker room as a natural occur- canon and in Underwater Light, is uncomfortable with handled Cho’s tears (406). It is likely for this reason you’re confused and I’m weak and excessive- rence. and often incapable of expressing his feelings. When that Maya chooses to include perspectives that allow ly hormonal. I don’t want to—I don’t want Despite some movement towards acceptance he wants to tell Ron that he cares about him, for readers to understand what Harry is feeling without never to see you again because we did some- and diversity within published YA fiction, many example, he hugs Hermione and then turns to Ron, being blinkered by his own inability to understand thing sentimental when we were schoolboys homosexual characters remain stereotypically ef- who states, “I don’t think we should hug…. I think or interpret those feelings. She replicates Rowling’s and you can’t imagine why you did it any feminate. The Harry Potter series is usually seen we’re too manly,” and punches Harry genially on characterization of Harry as “an oblivious git,” as her more. (ch. 19) as having a flimsy “post-feminist façade” that fails the shoulder (ch. 16). And when Harry and Draco version of Draco puts it (ch. 16), in Underwater Light to hide “the novels’ rather traditional gender roles explore each other’s bodies, they do not speak; in- and uses Hermione as a focalizing character to clar- Like Harry, he does not reference any worry over and … erasure of sexual orientation difference” (Pugh stead, Draco looks at Harry in a way that is “almost ify for readers that Harry is indeed falling in love what friends, family, or society more generally will and Wallace, “Heteronormative” 260). As Pugh and a question” before his “fingers slipped an inch under with Draco. For example, Chapter Nine, perceptive- think. Although he cares deeply, like Rowling’s Wallace argue, in the canon, “heteronormative hero- Harry’s waistband” (ch. 20). Both instances empha- ly titled “The Onlooker Sees Most of the Game,” Draco, about blood purity and worries that he can- ism ultimately squelches gender equality and sex- size a stereotype of hegemonic masculinity—that privileges not only Hermione’s worry over Harry’s not live up to his father’s expectations, he connects ual diversity in favor of the ideological status quo” boys are bad at communicating in words and are in- blindness to his own feelings but also confirms the neither class considerations nor his father’s desires (“Heteronormative” 260). Significantly, Maya’s tensely physical—but by doing so defy stereotypes reader’s suspicions about Harry’s unacknowledged to his sexuality. characterization of Harry remains quite true to the regarding homosexual boys. feelings for Draco. According to Hermione-as- Significantly, the speech that he gives to Harry, canon—he is a sporty, bespectacled incarnation of focalizer, cited above, also alludes to the school story genre Campbell’s hero, who protects others, gets in fights Conclusions and to the idea that schoolboys might “do something with those he considers to be on the wrong side Youth-authored slash offers an intriguing site of sentimental” with one another. This reminds us of of the wizarding war, and successfully vanquishes change to depictions of homosexual boys in fiction

BOOKBIRD 42 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 43 55.2–2017 REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: REVISING HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY: HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION HOMOSEXUALITY, MASCULINITY, AND YOUTH-AUTHORED HARRY POTTER FANFICTION

aimed at a youth audience. Indeed, a great number WORKS CITED Children’s Literature: Future Visions and Aesthetic 1. I think here of a number of YA novels with non-heteronorma- Baldick, Chris. “Jouissance.” Oxford Dictionary of Literary Transformations in Juvenile Fiction. Houndmills and tive male protagonists—such as What I Was (2007) by Meg Rosoff, of these youth-authored, internet-published texts re- I’ll Give You the Sun Aristotle and Terms. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. ProQuest. Web. 2 New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 114–30. Print. (2014) by Jandy Nelson, and main more progressive than commercially published, Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) by Benjamin Feb. 2017. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature adult-authored YA texts one decade later, exposing Alire Sáenz. The boys in these novels, like many others depicting Bauer, Carola Katharina. Naughty Girls and Gay Male and Male Homosocial Desire. New York: Columbia non-hegemonic masculinities, share some, if not all, of the follow- online fan communities as sites of subversion and Romance/Porn. Hamburg: Anchor Academic UP, 1985. Print. ing traits: they are outsiders, introverted, interested in the arts, bul- transformation that ought not only to be studied Publishing, 2013. Ebscohost. Web. 15 Aug. 2016. Stephens, John. Preface. Ways of Being Male: lied, or emotionally sensitive. Brennan, Sarah Rees. “bornonthebattleground asked.” Representing Masculinities in Children’s Literature in light of the historical moments in which they 2. In fandom, canon refers to the original work (here, the Harry Sarah Rees Brennan. 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2016. and Film. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. emerged but also considered more seriously as sites Potter series written by J.K. Rowling), while fanon refers to central —. “Anonymous asked.” Sarah Rees Brennan. 4 Jan. ix–xiv. Print. or important fan texts. We could say, for example, that while Draco of social change (see, for example, Duffet; Jenkins; 2012. Web. 16 Sept. 2016. Tosenberger, Catherine. “’Oh my God, the Fanfiction!’: never appears in leather pants in canon, this is widely accepted in Hills). Busse, Kristina, and Karen Hellekson, eds. Fan Fiction Dumbledore’s Outing and the Online Harry Potter fanon. See “Fanon.” Studies Reader. Iowa: Iowa UP, 2014. Print. Fandom.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly The emergence of the vast online Harry Potter 3. Brennan states quite clearly that she regrets having written fan- Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter. New York: Routledge, 33.2 (Summer 2008): 200–06. Project Muse. Web. 15 fandom was an important sociocultural event show- fiction because the stigma attached has negatively affected her 1993. Print. Nov. 2015. career as a professional writer (“bornonthebattleground asks”; casing the ways in which youths are able to circum- Crisp, Thomas. “From Romance to Magical Realism: Limits —. “Homosexuality at the Online Hogwarts: Harry Potter “Anonymous asked”). I refer to her as Maya when referring to vent the restrictions to content adults aim to put in and Possibilities in Gay Adolescent Fiction.” Slash Fanfiction.”Children’s Literature 36 (2008): Underwater Light. Future study of her and other former (and cur- Children’s Literature in Education 40 (2009): 333–48. 185–207. Project Muse. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. rent) fanfiction writers’ experiences with prejudice may be of inter- place. We can certainly consider youth participation est to the future study of youth authorship. Springer. 19 Jun. 2009. Web. 14 Jun. 2016. Trites, Roberta Seelinger. “’All of a sudden I came’: in the Harry Potter fandom and their clear interest, Duffett, Mark. Understanding Fandom: An Introduction Sex and Power in Adolescent Novels.” Disturbing the 4. The must-read fics are not listed in the digital version of the story. through the cycle of production and consumption to the Study of Media Fan Culture. London: Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent they created and enjoyed within that digital space, Bloomsbury, 2013. Print. Literature. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1998. 84–116. 5. See Pugh and Wallace for more on the wizarding world as a queer space. in non-heteronormative narratives as transformative. “Fanon.” Fanlore.org. Web. 20 Sept. 2016. Project Muse. Web. 16 Jun. 2016. Flanagan, Victoria. “Gender Studies.” Routledge —. “Queer Discourse and the Young Adult Novel: Indeed, in a Swedish study, youth respondents to a Companion to Children’s Literature. Ed. David Rudd. Repression and Power in Gay Male Adolescent questionnaire about their interest in slash fanfiction London and New York: Routledge, 2010. 26–38. Print. Literature.” Children’s Literature Association cited both the lack of books about homosexual teen- Grossman, Lev. “The Boy Who Lived Forever.” Time Quarterly 23.3 (1998): 143–51. agers whose relationships are accepted as normal Magazine 7 July 2011. Web. 13 Sept. 2016. “Underwater Light.” Fanlore.org. Web. 2 Sept. 2016. “Harry/Draco.” Fanlore.org. Web. 16 Aug. 2016. Wikström, Patrik, and Christina Olin-Scheller. “To Be and the opportunity to explore varying sexualities Hills, Matt. Fan Cultures. London and New York: Continued… Fan Fiction and the Construction of as part of the appeal of slash (Wikström and Olin- Routledge, 2002. Print. Identity.” Youth Culture and Net Culture: Online Scheller 92). These online texts and spaces, then, Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Social Practice. Ed. Elza Dunkels, Gun-Marie not only highlight youths’ desire to have varied sex- Participatory Culture. London and New York: Frånberg, and Camilla Hällgren. Hershey and New Routledge, 1992. Print. York: Information Science Reference, 2011. 83–96. ualities openly acknowledged in commercially pub- Kokkola, Lydia. Fictions of Adolescent Carnality: Sexy Print. lished YA fiction but also, by their very existence, Sinners and Delinquent Deviants. Amsterdam: John Woledge, Elizabeth. “From Slash to Mainstream: Female accentuate the lack of such variety in commercial Benjamins, 2013. Ebrary. Web. 25 Jun. 2016. Writers and Gender Blending Men.” Extrapolation publishing. If nothing else, Maya’s complex and de- Lyon Clark, Beverly. Regendering the School Story: Sassy 46.1 (2005): 50–65. Liverpool UP Online. Web. 3 Apr. Sissies and Tattling Tomboys. New York and London: 2016. fiant depiction of Harry and Draco as non-stereotyp- Routledge, 2001. Print. Žižek, Slavoj. Event: Philosophy in Transit. London: ical male homosexuals establishing an amatory rela- Maya [Sarah Rees Brennan]. Underwater Light. Geocities. Penguin, 2014. E-book. tionship in a society which does not judge them for Web. 15 Sept. 2016. their same-sex desires demonstrates that youth-au- “Maya.” Fanlore.org. Web. 2 Sept. 2016. Nelson, Jandy. I’ll Give You the Sun. London: Walker thored fanfiction ought to be seen as a serious object Books, 2014. Print. of study rather than being, as it too often is, summar- Pugh, Tison, and David L. Wallace. “Heteronormative ily dismissed as inferior to YA fiction commercially Heroism and the Queering of the School Story in published by adult authors for young readers. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 31.3 (2006): 263–81. Project Muse. Web. 15 Oct. 2015. —. “A Postscript to ‘Heteronormative Heroism and the Queering of the School Story in J–.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series.’” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 33.? (2008): 188–92. JENNIFER DUGGAN is an assistant professor at NTNU Rose, Jacqueline. The Case of Peter Pan, or the in Trondheim, Norway. Her general research interests Impossibility of Children’s Fiction. Philadelphia: U of include children’s and YA literature, science in literature, Pennsylvania P, 1992. Print. the history of science, and Victorian literature, and Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. her previous work has discussed the use of logic in Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2004. Print. the narratological framework of Carroll’s Alice books, Reynolds, Kimberly. “Baby, You’re the Best: Sex and orphanhood in superhero comics, Victorian brain sciences, Sexuality in Contemporary Juvenile Fiction.” Radical and peer response in EFL, amongst other topics.

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Jansson’s stylistic development, which saw her writ- (Karjalainen 18). Jansson’s entrepreneurial acumen ing and drawing skills rapidly evolve whilst still in perhaps had its genesis here, for her classmates were her early teens. The aim of this paper is to provide quick to purchase every new homemade magazine, Moominvalley Fossils: an overview and an insight into these early works and she had earlier begun signing her manuscripts via my own translations, exploring how they paved as productions of “The Tove Publishing Co!!!” the way for Jansson’s later work. Additionally, this (Westin 62-66). A few months later in February Translating the Early Comics is supplemented with my provision of an online 1928, thirteen-year-old Tove Jansson approached a resource for researchers who are interested in pursu- publisher with an illustrated manuscript of her poet- ing this material (Moomin History). ry; this was never published. of Tove Jansson Tove Jansson often told of the rich artistic en- The situation changed three months later when vironment in which she grew up. “When I was a she submitted an illustrated storybook entitled Sara, child, I drew all the time,” Jansson told interviewer Pelle och Neckens bläckfiskar [Sara, Pelle, and Neptune’s Ant O’Neill Pentti Nuortimo. “I think it all started when… you Children]. This was a short tale of two best friends, know, you put the child on the potty and, oh, here Sara and Pelle, who along with their pet dog, are it comes. To keep me calm, they put a stool in captured by a water sprite and forced to take care front of me and I drew and drew and drew” (qtd. of the sprite’s fledgling octopuses, living in crystal in Tolvanen 11). Her father, Viktor Jansson, was boxes under the sea. Salvation comes in the shape of a renowned sculptor whose statues and fountains a passing fisherman who catches Pelle’s trousers with are still seen in Helsinki and Tampere, Finland. his hook rather than the juicy perch he was Her mother, Signe Hammarsten-Jansson, was a angling for. graphic designer and illustrator who designed most Although accepted for publication by Tilmanns of Finland’s postage stamps from 1929 until 1962. in 1928, the book would not be published until Indeed, it was through emulating her mother’s work 1933, under the pseudonym Vera Haij. One of the that Tove Jansson first learned to draw, developing contributing factors to this delay was that, shortly in particular the cross-hatching style that would after, Jansson began contributing to the popular dominate her work (Yule). satirical magazine Garm, and her profile as a wry The comic influence also came at an early age, commentator and cartoonist quickly started ris- but Jansson’s choice of reading material was limit- ing; sardonic satirical sideswipes were unlikely to ed. As one of the six percent of Swedish-speaking sit well with the profile of a children’s author, and Finns, she was exposed primarily to Swedish vice-versa. ntil their republication in 2006, Tove perhaps the most comprehensive study of Jansson’s magazines and newspapers. A major influence was Artistically, Sara, Pelle och Neckens bläckfiskar owes Jansson’s (1914–2001) Moomin comic life and accurately lays out the timeline of the early Petter Lindroth’s Jocke, Nicke och Majken, which ran much to the work of Tove Jansson’s mother, in strips remained relatively unex- cartoons. Tulla Karjalainen’s Tove Jansson: Tee työtä in Sweden’s most popular weekly youth magazine, particular, her 1923 work Princessan som inte kunde plored, compared to the well-known ja rakasta (2013) illustrates several of the covers of Allt för Alla [Something for Everyone] (1912–1932). A skratta [The Princess Who Never Laughed]. Adapted Moomin book series. Targeted at Jansson’s early comics, but reveals little of the con- very different strip was equally influential: Oskar from the Russian fairy tale of the same name, this Uan adult audience, these strips—in which the in- tent. “Roses, Beads and Bones: Gender, Borders Andersson’s Mannen som gör vad som faller honom [The slim volume was illustrated by Signe Hammerstan- nocence of the hippo-like Moomins often fell into and Slippage in Tove Jansson’s Moomin Comic- Man Who Does Whatever He Wants]. Sometimes called Jansson, and there are marked similarities between conflict with the mechanisms of modern society— Strips” by K. A. Laity insightfully explores the in- Den Elake Herren [The Evil Gentleman] (1902–1906), the two works: Both employ a limited color palette, were published in English in The Evening News in novative devices that Jansson later pioneered, using this obscure, anarchic strip featured “a strange and with reds and yellows dominating, and both utilize the UK from 1954 to 1968 and fell out of view until the graphic elements from the strips to divide the sarcastic little guy who did whatever came into his a frameless approach with generous usage of white Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly started re- panels. Comics curator Paul Gravett noted that this mind. And what was going through his mind was space. Cross-hatching and shading are employed printing them in hardback form. But Jansson’s work started in the first strip and was a first in newspaper very weird” (Tolvanen 12). in a similar manner, and characters are frequently with the cartoon form long predates this, with her cartoons (Yule). Juhani Tolvanen’s Muumisisarukset The love of these strips and the avidly-read presented with overly rosy cheeks. We also see first published cartoons appearing in 1929 while (2000) explores Jansson’s comic work in detail and comics from back issues of Aller’s Journal kept by her Jansson’s first use of broken shading to convey the she was still in her early teens. And yet, although includes reprints of many of her early cartoons. grandmother meant that it was only a matter of time sense of being underwater. By alternating patches of there is a vast body of scholarly work on Tove However, very few of the analyses of Jansson’s before Tove Jansson would create her own com- shading with blank patches where the mist or water Jansson’s writing, art, and life, little of it covers her childhood cartoons are available in English, and ics. By the age of thirteen, she had produced her passed over a character, an almost three-dimensional pre-Moomin cartoons. there are no published translations of these ear- own homemade magazines such as Julkorven [The effect was achieved. Whilst this had been used on Boel Westin’s Tove Jansson: ord, bild, liv (2007) is ly works. As a result, there is limited visibility of Christmas Sausage] and sold them to friends at school stamps and banknotes, its use in picture books and

BOOKBIRD 46 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 47 55.2–2017 MOOMINVALLEY FOSSILS: MOOMINVALLEY FOSSILS: TRANSLATING THE EARLY COMICS OF TOVE JANSSON TRANSLATING THE EARLY COMICS OF TOVE JANSSON comic strips was unusual for the time and was a (1946), and Tove Jansson featured an octopus prom- rived from the hero of a 1785 folk tale, a goblin And yet a far more developed style is evident in sophisticated approach to be adopted by a thirteen- inently on the cover that she drew for issue 10 of who walked in hundred-mile strides. Published in her fairy-tale illustrations for the same magazine. year-old. Lunkentus, the same issue that debuted her Prickina & Finland by Frenckell, Lunkentus was largely written A good example appeared in Issue 17, where Tove Another similarity between both books is the Fabian strip. Conversely, the Neck has no real ana- in Swedish and, as such, targeted to the community Jansson illustrated “Elefanten och Katten” [The use of peripheral characters performing complemen- logue in English folklore. The nearest analogues are of Swedish-speaking Finns. Elephant and the Cat], a tale penned by eight-year- tary tasks outside of the narrative or echoing the ac- the Knucker that appears in stories in the folklore of Issue 10, published on 31 August 1929, featured old Tove Olsoni; the illustrations were more akin to tions of one of the main characters. In Sara and Pelle Sussex, or Jenny Greenteeth in tales from the North the first installment of a seven-part serial called her later Moomin work. we see their dog pulling a trolley while the children of England (Briggs 242). Terry Pratchett drew upon Prickinas och Fabians äventyr [Prickina and Fabian’s It seems likely that this was a conscious deci- labor to feed the octopuses, and in Princessan a cat is the latter in his novel Wee Free Men (2003). I decided Adventure]. It tells the tale of two caterpillars who sion, that even then, as a young artist, Tove Jansson crying in empathy with the eponymous princess. eventually to use Sara, Pelle and Neptune’s Children for fall in love and set off to find a new home for them- understood the need to switch styles to suit the Peripheral characters recur constantly in Tove the title, based on the look of the character in the selves, with many adventures along the way. These medium and had the skill to do so. Her later illustra- Jansson’s later works. In the Moomin cartoon strips illustration as much as for the sake of familiarity in include almost drowning in a bowl of dessert and tions in Garm took on a variety of forms, from heav- of the 1950s, a small angular character—later re- English. being pursued by bats before hitching a ride on a ily detailed caricatures to line drawings to dense vealed to be named Shadow—frequently adds to the In translating the text, I retained the AABB plane to the North Pole and climbing a high spire paintings. Even as late as 1948, she employed the action in the background. Indeed, Moomin himself structure; however, I did not strictly model the line to the “Caterpillar Land” in the sky. The story very same style used in Sara and Pelle for the cover of started out as a signature character in Jansson’s lengths, opting instead to keep the general feel of concludes with Prickina and Fabian having baby the summer special. work for Garm. Starting life as “Snork,” he appears the poetry rather than offer a more literal transla- caterpillars before transforming into butterflies—a bi- For Prickina and Fabian, Tove Jansson again chose in covers or in the corner of illustrations, sometimes tion. Thus, a direct translation of ological inaccuracy that was frowned upon by Tove to tell her story in rhyme, this time opting for the with his name emblazoned across his chest. Jansson’s biology teacher (Westin 66). tercet form. Jansson adopted a hybrid style for this This particular device can be traced back to Här ser man Pelle och hans nya, fina bil, Again, elements of the story reflect the cur- strip: while the main part of the narrative was in The Yellow Kid, a strip that started appearing in som går I timmen femton, ja tjugu mil. rent affairs of the time. The plane that takes them the text below the panels, the story would often be 1895 in the New York World. Building on established to the North Pole is one of many that are racing moved forward with additional dialogue in speech forms, Richard Outcault’s character spoke in an would be there—Roald Amundsen had famously reached the bubbles. odd, slang vernacular, with his thoughts appearing Pole three years earlier. Another notable feature is I opted to use the quatrain form for my trans- not in speech bubbles but on his shirt. Clever, in- Here you see Pelle and his new, fine car, that the same plane is marked by a swastika on its lations, which gave me room to include (or para- novative, and most definitely aimed at an adult au- Which goes in an hour fifteen, twenty miles. wing. This was the aircraft roundel and insignia of phrase) the speech bubble dialogue and avoid dience, it became the source of the phrase “Yellow the Finnish Air Force from 1918 to 1945, and it is making any changes to the original illustrations. Journalism” (Quimby)—a pejorative term for the While this can be readily understood in English, it likely that this was what Tove Jansson was refer- In keeping with the balladic nature of the tale, my often-sensationalist newspapers in which it ran. does not convey the playfulness of the original text. encing rather than the Nazi appropriation of the translation is told in alternate lines of iambic tetram- The text of Sara and Pelle is structured into ten Here is my version, which fits more into the spirit swastika beginning in 1920; the Finnish insignia as eter and trimeter. Stylistically, I strove to retain the four-line stanzas, one to a page, with an illustration and rhythm of the text: portrayed in the strip is flatly aligned with the wing same sense of whimsy and archaisms typical of the on the following page captioned with the first line rather than rotated through forty-five degrees. Tove period. of each stanza. The form is dipodic in an AABB Here we see Pelle and his brand new coupe, Jansson would be heavily critical of Nazi ideology Following the publication of Prickina and Fabian, structure, with lines of varying length used through- It’ll hit twenty MPH on a good day! in her later work in Garm. Tove Jansson enrolled in the Stockholm School out. Whilst not strictly adhering to the Clerihew Jansson had completed the full run of the sto- of Art and Drawing in 1930, but she had started form, the first line is biographical. This retains the feel and tone of the tale. Pelle is ry months before it was published—when she was contributing to Garm a year earlier at the age of fif- inordinately proud of his car, which is revealed in fourteen years old. Her diary entry of 13 April 1929 teen. The time constraints of both of these factors Translating the Text the illustration to be little more than a barrel with tells of her hope for the strip: “Much depends on led to the demise of her earliest comic strips. Her The first challenge in translating this was the title a broken umbrella nailed on to it. The extent of the success of this,” she wrote, “because if this com- penultimate strip of this period was a 1930 story, itself: Sara, Pelle och Neckens bläckfiskar. Literally, it his arrogance is further underlined by the fact that ic strip is successful, there will certainly be other Fotbollen som flög till himlen [The Football That Flew to translates as Sara, Pelle and the Neck’s Octopuses. The he has painted the word “Buick” on the side of it. commissions” (Westin 64). It was successful. For the Heaven]. This appeared in Vårbrodd, published by Neck or Näcken is a water sprite that appears During the 1920s, Buick was gaining a reputation as strip, Tove Jansson received the premium fee of a the Mannerheim League of Child Welfare. frequently in Nordic folk tales. The choice of oc- a prestigious maker of cars, and by the 1930s, they hundred marks per page, an unprecedented amount The elements of the previous strips are all pres- topuses as children may have been a reference to had become particularly popular with the British for such a young cartoonist (at this time, a packet of ent. In the first panel we meet Augustus, showing Iku-Turso, the demonic villain in Finland’s epic royal family. cigarettes cost three marks, and postage was forty off his new football boots, with which he kicks a folk tale, The Kalevala (Lonnrot XLII). They would With Sara and Pelle accepted for publication, cents for a letter). football so high that it fails to come down again. re-appear in several of Jansson’s other works—The Tove Jansson began work on another picture story, The illustrations for Prickina and Fabian were He leaps into his brand new airplane and finds the Snork Maiden rescues Moomintroll from the this time targeted at a new children’s magazine notably simpler in style than those of Sara and Pelle ball in the custody of an angel sitting on a cloud. A clutches of an Octopus in Comet in Moominland called Lunkentus (1929–1930). The name was de- and bore few of the hallmarks of her latter-day work. burgeoning romance is cut short by the appearance

BOOKBIRD 48 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 49 55.2–2017 MOOMINVALLEY FOSSILS: MOOMINVALLEY FOSSILS: TRANSLATING THE EARLY COMICS OF TOVE JANSSON TRANSLATING THE EARLY COMICS OF TOVE JANSSON

©Tove Jansson/ Moomin Characters™

BOOKBIRD 50 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 51 55.2–2017 MOOMINVALLEY FOSSILS: MOOMINVALLEY FOSSILS: TRANSLATING THE EARLY COMICS OF TOVE JANSSON TRANSLATING THE EARLY COMICS OF TOVE JANSSON of the angel’s boyfriend, who in turn kicks Augustus both of these into her later Moomin books. When on the toilet wall was the first appearance of to drown himself. back to Earth; fortunately, his bed breaks his fall. the limitations of newsprint necessitated the use of Moomintroll. Jansson’s ability to observe and emulate went My translation of this strip was aided by the rubdown halftone sheets for shading, Tove Jansson Jansson left the Stockholm School in 1933 and beyond the creation of pages to her astute under- fact that the verse was already in quatrain form, adopted it as a stylistic element and used it to great continued her studies in Finland and Paris until standings of the mechanisms of the industry that with no additional dialogue in speech bubbles. The effect in her later Moomin strips. 1938. With the exception of one further strip—Pelle printed them. One of the early books in her Tove rhyme scheme employed was AABB, allowing a Even with the demands of her studies, Jansson och Goran gå till sjöss [Pelle and Goran Go to Sea], pub- Publishing Co!!! series carried a list of forthcom- close translation with limited paraphrasing. maintained a steady output for Garm. Some char- lished on 14 November 1933 in Allas Krönika maga- ing titles, many of which were actually completed But whilst her strips were in decline, Jansson’s acters would make regular appearances, such as zine—it would be her last for fourteen years before around the same time (Westin 62). Her business work for Garm was rapidly establishing her as a a pair of Scots who were invariably garbed in full she returned to comic strips with the first Moomin acumen in selling her stories to her classmates was respected cartoonist and illustrator, even while she Highland dress and were the butt of many jokes serial in Ny Tid magazine. echoed in her later concern about the potential for was still in her teens. Like Lunkentus, the magazine involving drunkenness and stinginess. A pair of Prickina and Fabian to bring in new work, and she juggled the publication of the child-friendly Sara och drew its name from Norse mythology: similar to the noblemen also made regular appearances: Count Conclusion Greek Cerberus, Garm was the name of the mon- Bobby and Baron Mucki were depicted as rich, The early, rare, or unpublished works of any re- Pelle with her adult humor in Garm. strous hound that guarded the entrance to Helheim, privileged idiots. Occasionally, her friends and fami- spected author always provoke interest, often pro- The material covered in this paper focuses the Norse realm of the dead. ly would be on the receiving end of the Jansson wit. viding an insight into the creative processes behind on the childhood work of Tove Jansson, yet this Journalist Henry Rein chose this formidable In one cartoon, a sculptor stands before a block of well-known works. Material from Hergé’s Tintin and represents but a fraction of her early work. The beast as the name and logo of his fledgling mag- marble and tells the model to “Smile!” Tove Jansson Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix have been published dividing line between childhood and adulthood is azine, the latter being initially drawn by Signe had endured long hours as a model for her sculptor to great critical acclaim. By contrast, little of Tove seldom easy to draw, and so it is with Jansson, Hammarsten-Jansson. Despite being published for father. Jansson’s pre-Moomin work has been made avail- particularly when viewed through the lens of her an adult readership, the magazine shared some par- While the cartoons were portrayed in varying able in English. work. We see adult themes in even her earliest allels with Lunkentus; stylistically, it harked back to styles, the format seldom wavered—an illustration In Jansson’s earliest works we see, as we work and playful childishness even in her the Finnish caricature press, whose heyday was in with the dialogue underneath. Speech bubbles were would expect, an early talent for mimicry. It is post-Moomin novels. the “golden era” of the 1910s and 1920s. never used. By way of a signature, Jansson began well documented (see Westin; Tolvanen) that she For the purposes of this paper, I have drawn Garm targeted politicians, celebrities, and any incorporating her Snork character in many of her learned to draw at her mother’s side, copying Signe the somewhat fuzzy line at the age of eighteen. newsworthy figures and ran articles by celebrated cartoons. It was during this period that Snork un- Hammerstan-Jansson as she worked on stamp Certainly, from this point on, her work for Garm writers of the time, such as Tito Colliander and derwent a change of name and became Moomin. designs. Her ability to emulate the popular comic became her primary output. But this in itself rep- Jarl Hemmer. It ridiculed both Communism and It was her uncle, Professor Einar Hammarsten, forms and to mix and match drawing styles is evi- resents a vast body of work which, like the material Nazism, even at the height of the Second World who came up with the Moomin name. At the time, dent in her early works. This is particularly true in covered in this paper, has been largely unseen since War, an undertaking that carried no small degree Jansson was living in Stockholm, studying at the her work for Garm, where she was given free reign it was published. My intention, therefore, is to of risk. Had either Hitler or Stalin seized Finland, School of Art and Design. with her designs. Jansson was equally comfortable continue with my translations, to continue to un- the loudest voices of dissent would have been the returning to earlier ideas if they fitted the work. mask some seldom-seen sides of this inspiring and first to be silenced. Jansson continued undeterred, Like most kids at that age, I was always Snork later became both a species and a character influential author. with only one cover being withdrawn by the edi- hungry and I would often sneak into the in the Moomin series, and Thingummy and Bob WORKS CITED tor at the last minute: an unflattering picture of an kitchen at night in search of something to had their genesis on the cover of a 1948 edition of Briggs, Katharine. An Encyclopedia of Fairies, emasculated Stalin was altered to a generic Russian eat. During one of these nocturnal expedi- Garm. Even Prickina and Fabian were revived for Hobgoblins, Brownies, Boogies, and Other Super- soldier for fear of actually jeopardizing the peace tions, my uncle surprised me. He warned the cover of the August 1949 issue of Garm, almost natural Creatures. New York, Random House, 1997. negotiations (Karjalainen 49). me that behind the stove, there lived the twenty years to the day after they first appeared in Holländer, Tove. Från idyll till avidyll: Tove Janssons illustrationer till Muminbök - ema. Tampere: Finnish By the time that Garm ceased publication in Moomin Troll, who would blow cold air Lunkentus. Institute for Children’s Literature, 1983. 1953, with the death of its founder, Tove Jansson on the back of my neck. (Jansson qtd. in Significantly, it is notable from Jansson juve- Karjalainen, Tuula. Tove Jansson: Work and Love. London: had contributed around five hundred drawings to Tolvanen 15–25) nilia how early her wry, often dark sense of humor Penguin, 2013. Translation of Tove Jansson: Tee Työtä Garm, including every single cover from 1944 on- took form. In Sara och Pelle, a pantagruelistic streak ja Rakasta. Tammi, 2013. Laity, K. A. “Roses, Beads and Bones: Gender, Borders wards. Tove Jansson’s style evolved rapidly during Moomin gained a physical aspect in 1930, fol- is evident in the reunion with Pelle’s mother, a and Slippage in Tove Jansson’s Moomin Comic- this period. The increasing demands of Garm and lowing an argument with Tove’s younger brother, scene made all the more joyful by the fact that Strips.” Tove Jansson Rediscovered, edited by Kate the broad range of her studies gave her both the op- Per Olov, which he concluded with a quote from Pelle manages to escape with one of the caged oc- McLoughlin and Malin Lidström Brock. Cambridge: portunity and the motivation to work with a variety Immanuel Kant. The actual nature of the argument topuses, which his mother happily makes into soup Cambridge Scholars, 2007, pp. 166–183. Lonnrot, Elias. The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland. of styles and media. Pen, ink, and paint were her is lost to time, but so irrefutable was his conclusion for the two adventurers. Although seldom overt Trans. John Martin Crawford. Guttenberg, 2002. main tools, but she also experimented with less-ob- that Tove’s only response was to draw a hideous in the Moomin books, the later comic strips had a Quimby, Rachel. “The Adorable Origins of Yellow vious materials. She worked with scraperboard and caricature and sign it IMMANUEL KANT. The downbeat, melancholy tone; in the second story, Journalism.” Back Story (A program of Virginia ballpoint (Hollander 72), and she incorporated hideous, plump, long-nosed beast that she scrawled Moomin despairs of his lack of a family and resolves Foundation for the Humanities), 2009. Retrieved 20

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September 2016. Tolvanen, Juhani. Muumisisarukset. Helsinki: Söderström, Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai became a symbol of 2000. determination and hope when she was shot by the Taliban Westin, Boel. Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words. London: Sort on her way to school in Pakistan. Inspired by tributes of Books, 2014. Translation of Tove Jansson—ord, bild, liv. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2007. presented at the declaration of Malala Day on July 12, 2013, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations Yule, Eleanor, director. Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove BOOKBIRD POSTCARDS Jansson. BBC 4 Television, 26 December 2012. Rosemary McCarney shares the remarkable impact Malala has had on children worldwide. Written as a letter to Malala, simple yet evocative phrases are matched with vivid color photographs of children from various countries and cultures. The powerful imagery provides a sense of realism and immediacy that help young readers appreciate the devastating realities of repression and discrimination. Every Day is Malala Day The letter concludes on a positive note, with a focus on Rosemary McCarney with hope and change inspired by Malala’s courage. Excerpts Plan International of Malala’s speech before the UN bring her voice into the Oxford, UK: New Internationalist, narrative, further adding to the inspirational tone of the 2016. 32 pp. book. This is an appealing, effective presentation of difficult ISBN: 978-1-78026-326-7 issues facing children and the journey to make positive (Picture book; ages 3+) change in the world. Proceeds benefit Plan International. James W. Stiles

Kai, a biracial teen, recounts in first person the March 2011 tsunami in Japan and its aftermath. He and his friends are in school in their coastal fishing town, where he lives with his mother and grandparents, when the disaster wipes out his family. Kai hasn’t seen his American father for many years, but his surviving ANTHONY O’NEILL is a historian, translator and a car- toonist. His research is oriented toward the early works of friend Shin takes Kai in with his family. Kai begins a Tove and Lars Jansson. He curates the Moomin History slow, uneven healing process, and the village rallies web resource, which can be found at http://www.antonuz- to clean up and rebuild. Soccer provides some relief, zo.com POSTCARDS BOOKBIRD but despair nearly destroys Kai as he remembers his absent dad. When he gets the opportunity to travel to New York to meet with persons who, as teenagers, lost parents in the 9/11 attack, nearly ten years earlier, their conversations finally bring some peace. In a poignant conclusion, Kai and his father also reunite briefly back in Japan. The initial chaos and terror of the earthquakes and massive deadly wave are graphically depicted in the language and style of the haunting free verse poems. Spare lines—arranged in short bursts—also Up from the Sea capture the halting, inchoate thoughts and feelings of Leza Lowitz this traumatized boy. An organization by seasons of New York: Crown Books for Young the year, with preface and afterword, provides helpful Readers, 2016. 257 pp. context. ISBN: 978-0-553-53474-0 Barbara A. Lehman (Novel in verse; ages 12+)

BOOKBIRD 54 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 55 55.2–2017 Children & Their Books WRITING OPENS MANY DOORS

have been exposed to two literary modes so far: po- sons—as well as their attitudes towards the reality in etry and prose. Translating from English to Slovenian which they were born: has also provided another opportunity for them to Writing Opens show their creativity. In my experience, pupils are, as Farm a rule, more attracted to poetry than prose as it is eas- I live on the farm, I like it very much. ier “to play” with a few words and yet create a unique I like the animals and they like me. work of art. Prose, however, is more demanding since The tractor is the best, it’s big and very fast. Many Doors it requires more complex language skills, especially in We have four tractors and they all are very big. second-language writing. I live on the farm, which is the best Andreja Blažič Klemenc Younger pupils tend to use stanzas and rhymes because here there are my parents, animals and more frequently than older pupils, who more easily all the rest. express themselves in free verse. Poems by younger (Matija Mihelčič, aged 13) he following is a report on my ex- appropriate age group. Pupils can be informed writers have an element of playfulness; they often periences teaching creative writing about competitions on school notice boards and play with “semi-homophones”—that is, combining Nature to ten- to fifteen-year-old students via email. First, pupils have to feel “inspired” by the words with similar sounds to provoke an element Nature is beautiful, both in their first language, Slove- theme; they have to sense that the theme is rele- of surprise and, consequently, laughter since their nature is good, nian, and the first foreign language vant to their lives. Second, they have to feel they words are combined in an unusual way. it gives us food, like tomatoes and potatoes. Tthey study, English. Writing, as one of the four have something to say about the theme. Their first Pupils often express their personal critical Nature gives us party as the sunset and the sea. language skills, is an important part of the language questions are usually “Can I also write about (insert points of view and their visions of the world. This In it we feel safety, the wind blows free. learning process for children. Above all, creative their favorite topic here)?” or “Does it (for example, can be more explicitly expressed by older pupils. Nature sometimes sleeps like a lamb on a warm writing is rewarding for children. It enables them a poem) have to be long?” (Meaning, I already have The length of students’ poems varies from simple sheep. to learn and create and, as a result, to feel positive a glimmer of an idea but I am not sure if it is strong four-verse texts to much longer and complex ones. The nature is the place I like to be, about themselves. It confirms and develops their enough.) Despite their brevity, some of these include wisdom and every day is fun for me. skills and competences. As there are no wrong Students certainly feel more confident when and insightful worldviews. Below are some exam- (Lucija Posega, aged 10) answers in the process, every draft of a text has reassured that fewer than a dozen lines for a poem ples sent to Buxton Poetry Competition in different some good elements that can be further developed. will suffice, that there is no maximum set length, years (www.buxtonfestival.co.uk): Sometimes, national historical sites are incorporated Teaching through creative writing provides teachers and that it does not have to rhyme. One of the basic into creative texts, for example, the Postojna Cave, a lot of freedom and room for creativity: teachers pieces of information they have to realize at the History the legend of the mean dragon of the cave that was can include a variety of theme-related material, de- start is that a “theme” is not the title of a creative Once upon a time we were little tricked by Jakob, a brave and witty shepherd boy: velop students’ language skills, and share their own text. Teachers should recommend that students but now all grown up. or their pupils’ experience and attitudes, all with the invent a title that is as original and as personal as Once upon a time we cried, The dragon goal of supporting their pupils during the process possible. now we laugh. The dragon of Postojna, of producing a literary text. The writing process is It usually takes some time from the teacher’s Once upon a time we played, the dragon of the Cave, liberating for both teachers and students: it provides first notice of a competition until student submis- now we learn. is big and green an opportunity to discuss the themes children are sions start to arrive. Pupils need to fit their creative (Iza Vidmar, aged 10) but only in a dream. interested in, allows for more personal communica- writing into their schoolwork schedule, and a cre- (Lina Vončina, aged 11) tion, and opens up a door to self-expression. ative spark needs some time to appear and fully History As opposed to creative writing competitions ignite. Teachers should encourage students to think When there was nothing else There can be ethnographic elements as well, such in Slovenian, which are very frequent, searching about the theme as often as possible to support but dinosaurs everywhere as holiday traditions and folk customs related to dif- for the “right” competitions in a foreign language the creative process. Student writers often feel I was on Mars. ferent times of the year. They reveal the way people is mainly a teacher’s independent choice and not encouraged if texts written by their classmates or Now I’m here lead their lives and remind readers of the positive suggested by the school administration. Surfing the schoolmates are read aloud in front of the class by and dinosaurs are maybe on Mars. elements of their common past, as a community Internet proves to be the most useful way to find the student writer or the teacher. They, usually, feel (Neža Vadnov, aged 10) or as a nation. Surprisingly, none of elements men- competitions. In addition, links to competitions good if they receive responses from their teacher tioned above were suggested by mentors; rather, may be found through personal contacts and any and peers. The children’s poems depict cultural, local, nation- they were noticed only when teachers reviewed the events where teachers meet and share information. Pupils can choose to take part in competitions at al, and international elements. They describe the written texts. All this makes them a valuable record The “right” competition has to meet certain cri- various levels—local, national, and international. Lan- rural, semi-urban, and urban environments the child of the way people live within their families, commu- teria: a reasonable timeframe, no entrance fee, an guage teachers work as a team, and all their pupils writers live in—for instance, life on farms; work in nities, regions, and nation. attractive theme and genre, and targeting of the aged ten to fifteen are invited to enter. Our pupils farms; work in fields, meadows, forests; and the sea- Prose texts in competitions usually consist of

BOOKBIRD 56 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 57 55.2–2017 WRITING OPENS MANY DOORS WRITING OPENS MANY DOORS

two text types. The first is the fictionalized true “For God’s sake! We said golden HAIR!!!!” viduals to contribute stories that may just be in one second, or third year of learning English). For them, story, which is usually based on a real story from a (The Princesses of Miami, Nina Pavčič, aged 12) language or that can be translated into one or more learning to use the language creatively is a new skill pupil’s life or else is a story written in such a man- foreign languages. The entries have to be presented that enables quick progress and, consequently, leads ner. The other is fiction, where realistic elements Translation is a part of our pupils’ creative writ- in the form of an illustrated, hand-made book. Each to a rise in their self-confidence. Then, writing be- are combined with fantasy elements that typically ing, too. They have translated into their mother year, a group of pupils would carry out the project. comes a rewarding challenge. occur in contemporary fantasy stories as well as in tongue, Slovenian, and also into English, their first Some contributed the story/poem for the book, For the next group of language learners, writing folk and fairy tales: objects have magical powers, foreign language. In the past few years, they joined others were entrusted with the translation, and the literature in a foreign language is even more import- animals can talk, symbolic numbers such as three or the team of voluntary translators working within rest (usually an individual) created the illustrations. ant as it serves as the vehicle which enables them to seven are central to the plot, and stylized language the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL, Creative writing can be viewed as a challenge open up and express themselves more freely. There such as “Once upon a time” is used. The main char- http://en.childrenslibrary.org/). As a result, they or an insurmountable obstacle by students. Our ex- are pupils who speak fluently in a foreign language acters in the stories vary—most often they are chil- had the opportunity to translate several English perience has been that it depends on the language yet lack ideas or are not able or willing to share dren or teenagers, but sometimes, they are animals picture books and metadata into Slovenian. The ac- required in the writing task. The choice to write in them in their mother tongue. These are not nec- and other creatures. For example, tivities were incorporated into their English lessons. Slovenian is almost exclusively made by success- essarily pupils who are excellent academically but “The Postojna Dudes” were divided into groups of ful learners—that is, those with good marks in the can be those who, in some way, feel touched by the Years ago in a faraway kingdom there lived a three, where the first pupil did the translation, the subject. On the other hand, taking part in a compe- theme of a competition or the approach the teacher princess with her father. second revised the text, and the third did a final tition in English attracts a different learner profile. uses. For them, writing is therapeutic and contrib- Okay. It wasn’t in a faraway kingdom and it revision. In this way, everybody in the group had an According to our experience, more pupils seem to utes to their wellbeing. wasn’t so long ago. It was London, me and my opportunity to contribute according to his or her like to enter competitions in their first foreign lan- A teacher’s role does not finish after presenting father. I was my dad’s best friend and he was own abilities and received corresponding feedback. guage rather than in their mother tongue, especially a competition to his or her pupils. Teachers need mine. We played football every day. But I guess Finally, the texts were edited by the teacher and younger learners (aged ten to twelve, in their first, to give encouragement at every step of the process he still wasn’t happy. He wanted a woman ... posted on the website. Student translators put a lot and provide their pupils with suitable feedback. Fiona. of effort and enthusiasm into the projects. It would Their main tasks are to motivate and support them He married her on 21st March 1998. be extremely worthwhile to participate in a similar so they can express themselves freely and so they However, this is a real life and not a story. So, project in the future. can continue to develop their characters through the other night there was an earthquake and I A number of times, students also had the op- writing. In addition, teachers should incorporate lost my best friend. portunity to participate in a competition that en- appropriate ways to show appreciation for submitted (A Cinderella Story, Žana Mlakar, aged 12) abled them to translate from Slovenian into English. texts and present them to other pupils. Internationaler Kinder- und Jugendbuchwettbewerb I had a dream today. It was about a free bird, he (International Literary Competition of Books for has flown all over the world, there were other Children and Adolescents) invites groups or indi- birds too but he was special. It was like my reflection but with one thing I didn’t have, freedom. I’m Alex Goldburg and this is my story. (My Dreams, My Life, Manca Klun, aged 14)

So in the east of Miami in a great tower lived Rapunzel. One day Cinderella and Snow White came to a visit.

RAPUNZEL, LET US IN!!! Cinderella yelled. “Say the magic words and I’ll let down my hair,” answered Rapunzel. Cinderella and Snow White looked at each other and yelled back with hatred, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your golden hair!” And from her window flew a golden chair. It ANDREJA BLAŽIČ KLEMENC is a teacher of Slovenian almost hit Snow White and Cinderella. and English at Miroslav Vilhar Primary School in Postojna, Slovenia. An author herself, she inspires pupils to write. “Are you nuts?! Why did you throw a chair!?” Two of the hand-made illustrated books: A Marvelous Journey (2010) and The Rainbow World (2011) She is a member of the Slovenian Association of Literary “Well, you said so!” said Rapunzel. Two of the picture books translated for ICDL Translators.

BOOKBIRD 58 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 59 55.2–2017 Children & KIDS’ OWN PUBLISHING PARTNERSHIP: RAISING THE STATUS OF Their Books CHILDREN’S VOICES IN IRELAND AND AUSTRALIA

hy should any society listen to tage—with voices that are almost completely silent children? How can we, as adults, to the ears of the mainstream. support children’s individuality Through the publication of children’s voices Kids’ Own Publishing and their creative expression? and experiences, Kids’ Own strives to counter the How can we make space for perception that publishing is the reserve of an elite Wchildren as active cultural agents within their few and offer an egalitarian context within which communities and on a global level? In the words the artwork and writing of children can have the Partnership: of IBBY’s founder, Jella Lepman, “Let us set this same status as that of adults. The insights gathered upside down world right again by starting with the from children through a creative and meaningful Raising the Status of children. They will show the grown-ups the way to process can be tender and poetic, shocking, humor- go” (qtd. in Said). In its twenty-year history, Kids’ ous, or sad. In I Can Taste the Rain, Aaron observes, Own Publishing has turned the publishing para- “The tide was out. The moon drinks the tide and digm upside-down to give a platform for children’s spits it out.” In Bouncing Away, Tony says: “When I Children’s Voices in Ireland voices in two countries. feel angry I stop smiling and become very quiet. Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, established Sometimes I feel angry and sad at the same time.” in Ireland in 1997 and then in Australia in 2003, These statements and observations offer an alter- and Australia operates from a social change model that seeks to native lens to the world demonstrating how we can address what we perceive as a dismissal of children’s share childhood experiences with other children voices and their contribution to the societies in and give value to what is real in children’s lives. Orla Kenny and Jo Holmwood (Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland) which they live, in Ireland and Australia. Kids’ Own The need for the inclusion of the voice of the Victoria Ryle and Simon Spain (Kids’ Own Publishing, Australia) strives to promote and give status to children’s lives child across Irish and Australian society, as we per- and experiences through publishing and the arts. ceive it, is rooted in a rights-based approach. Since Founded by artist and printmaker Simon Spain and 1997, Kids’ Own in both countries has published educator Victoria Ryle, the organisation evolved over 250 titles made by children across a range of from a workshop model developed in the 1980s culture-specific contexts. In Ireland, these have Children need love because if we didn’t have love we wouldn’t that provided a unique platform for children to included the voices of Traveller children and, in make hand-printed limited edition books—long Australia, the voices of Aboriginal children as well learn how to love. … The Troubles have been part of my family before the technology revolution. The ethos was as refugee and newly arrived migrant communities. history. My granddad was in the Order of Malta and he was about engaging children with a meaningful creative Settings vary widely—from local libraries, early process through which they could develop a sense childhood settings, schools, community centers, and shot at on Bloody Sunday. My dad was hit by a rubber bullet of agency and ownership and be active makers in galleries to community and arts festivals. Kids’ Own and it was very painful. My mummy and daddy used to hear a the cultural field. This process involved the chil- works in partnership with other organizations and dren developing artwork collaboratively alongside agencies to develop work that responds to a wide lot of gunshots. I’ve never heard gunfire in real life. I don’t think the professional artist through an open-ended and range of social needs or areas of interest—includ- non-directive way of working. The name “Kids’ ing strengthening literacy, documenting important my mum and dad will ever forget about the Troubles but they Own” was borne out of a desire to support children cultural stories and important health messages, or don’t mention it. in owning their own work and to celebrate a rights- simply exploring particular themes identified by based approach to children’s cultural engagement. the participants. Published books encompass every- (From Ding, Dong, Right or Wrong, Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland, 2010) In our view, children everywhere have very thing from identity and belonging, to journeys and little visibility as active cultural citizens. From its in- change, children’s rights, mental health, resilience, ception, Kids’ Own has developed a disruptive ap- losing pets, the gift of kindness, movement and trav- When we were living in Africa, there was a lot of fighting proach to publishing by recognising children’s need el, explorations of the environment, and places we all around us. When my mum was born and when she was to be seen and heard within Irish and Australian love. society and supporting the voice of children and, in- Books exploring difficult transitions, for ex- growing up, there was a lot of fighting. When I was born there creasingly, marginalized communities of children in ample, provide valuable insights for other children both countries. If children as citizens are overlooked encountering similar challenges: In Starting School, was fighting and it still goes on today. We never felt safe. and undervalued in terms of the contributions a junior infant child says, “I was afraid of all the (“My Nice Uncle—The story of Nyakim Ruach,” Donkeys Can’t Fly on Planes, Kids’ Own they can make as active cultural agents, those from friends that I didn’t know.” The children of Nar Publishing, Australia 2012. Selected for the White Ravens catalogue, 2014) marginalized communities have a double disadvan- Nar Goon primary school said, “On our first day, we

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felt scared, excited, sad, angry, nervous and happy.” a self-assurance that they take with them into other enabling wider access for all children. In a world Kids’ Own Publishing, 2012. Sometimes children offer surprising perspectives, aspects of their lives and raises the status of their where new technologies can facilitate a global shar- Ding Dong, Right or Wrong: Children’s Rights, Needs and such as the children of Lang Lang preschool, who voices in the heart of their own communities as well ing of stories, Kids’ Own has provided an opportu- Visions for the Future. Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland, 2010. imagined the experience of starting school through as in the wider world. nity for children, too, to share their stories globally. First Day Feelings. Children of Nar Nar Goon Primary the eyes of dinosaurs! The projects provide valu- Over twenty years, this publishing model has The WePublish App gives individuals or groups the School, Kids’ Own Publishing, 2015. able learning opportunities for all the child authors, evolved as a flexible and versatile community-build- chance to make their eight-page book then share a Starting School. Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, but they also ripple out to impact other children ing approach. Working with trusted local partners, copy of that book as a single-sheet imposition to an- Ireland, 2015. The World of Children. Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, embarking on their school journey—empowering a it empowers communities to address local issues as other child in another culture in another part of the Ireland, 2012. cycle of young writers, readers, storytellers, and, im- seen through the eyes of children. Sometimes a spe- world. When Dinosaurs go to School. Children of Lang Lang portantly, young artists to have a say in their world. cific group feels invisible in the wider community; Kids’ Own offers a space for what Loris Preschool, Kids’ Own Publishing, 2015. As an approach to literacy, it is heavily influ- often, cultural connections need to be strengthened. Malaguzzi terms as children’s “one hundred lan- Said, SF. “Can children’s books help build a better world?” The Guardian, 29 September 2015. Web. enced by the holistic approach to language learning Publishing on a small scale is an ideal means to sup- guages” to be heard and published and shared with in classrooms expounded by literacy experts across port language diversity and community languages, a wider audience. Unless we champion children’s the developed world in the 1970–80s—integrating providing valuable resources that may not be com- work and advocate for its value to be recognized, purposeful spoken language, reading, and writing mercially viable. In amongst the titles published children will never be equal citizens or fully and across different genres to provide children with by Kids’ Own in both countries are three linguistic meaningfully engaged within our global society. authentic learning experiences. The high status of world firsts: Cant (Irish Travellers), Fataluku (East Children have a right to creative expression and to books offers a valuable mechanism for delivering Timor), and Chin (Burmese) dialect. contribute towards the creation of their own litera- creative arts practice side by side with literacy Donkeys Can’t Fly on Planes—Stories of Survival from ture and resources. As Ellen, a young participant in development to children. However, mainstream South Sudanese Refugee Children Living in Australia shares Kids’ Own Ireland’s The World of Children education has not nurtured this practice, and under the thoughts, feelings, experiences, and stories of project says, curriculum pressures, it currently has a patchy place South Sudanese refugee children living in Australia in schools’ repertoire in both Ireland and Australia. who have experienced catastrophic trauma in their Maybe children can achieve their dreams In terms of the creative process, the approach lives, and as the project coordinator points out, by believing in their rights, and their seeks to provide a democratic space where children “These are the stories the world needs to hear.” At dreams can come true. Children’s rights from all backgrounds can engage and be considered a time when there is a fierce national debate about include having a say. By writing this book as equals with one another and alongside the adults Australia’s response to a worldwide refugee crisis, our voices can be heard. There are many with whom they work. Our book-making projects the voices of children have the power to change children in the world without a voice, and are a collaboration between writers, artists, and chil- hearts and minds. who don’t have their rights. We hope our dren and are rooted in an approach that begins with In Ireland, a two-year project, the 100-Year book will help them. a sharing of experiences. At the heart of the process History Project, has offered an example of how underpinning all these publications is a meaningful children’s voices can be included as part of a serious For more information about Kids’ Own Ireland, dialogue between children and professional writ- national dialogue about Irish and Northern Irish so- visit: http://www.kidsown.ie ers and artists, giving rise to an arts experience in ciety and history. Over three hundred children from For more information about Kids’ Own Australia, which the work originates with the children’s own the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland par- visit http://kidsownpublishing.com experiences and ideas. This aims to provide a start- ticipated in a two-year research process, developing ing point where children can be themselves and not their own knowledge, opinions, and questions as feel pressure to perform or make up something that part of Ireland’s Decade of Commemorations. The bears no relevance to their lives. The end product publication of their book sends a powerful message is unknown at the outset, but the publishing of the that children’s participation in Irish society is val- work at the end gives validity and real status to the ued. Do children have a right to equal participation children’s work. and inclusion or not? Are their voices important to WORKS CITED JO HOLMWOOD is a writer and Project Manager of Whether non-fiction or fiction, it is a core prin- us as a society or not? If they are, we should consid- Donkeys Can’t Fly on Planes—Stories of survival from Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland. South Sudanese Refugee children living in Australia. ORLA KENNY is a visual artist and the Director of Kids’ ciple of this approach to build a body of literature er giving children a bigger platform for their work to Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland since 2003. that reflects the truth of children’s lives. Our belief be seen, read, heard, and understood. VICTORIA RYLE is the co-founder and Director of Kids’ is that immersion in real lived experience builds One bigger platform is now emerging. The Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland 1997–2003 and a sense of self and can support confident creative technology revolution has changed small-scale pub- Kids’ Own Publishing, Australia since 2003. SIMON SPAIN is a visual artist and co-founder of Kids’ expression. Research shows that these opportunities lishing out of all recognition in the thirty years since Own Publishing Partnership, Ireland and current board can provide the young authors and illustrators with those first hand silk-screened editions and is now member of Kids’ Own Publishing, Australia.

BOOKBIRD 62 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 63 55.2–2017 Children & Their Books WRITING WITH CHILDREN: FROM TEACHER TO WRITER

Writing with Children: From Teacher to Writer Mary Branley

first came to publishing books with children team, facilitating children’s writing about their lives sixteen years ago. I had ten years’ expe- and identities: their cultural background; sense of rience of teaching children with special humor; experience of travel; faith; and rights within needs in Sligo, London, and Boston, where the family, community, and schools. What started as I did an M.Ed. in Intercultural Education at a strong intercultural philosophy for children on the IEmmanuel College. In Sligo, I worked with chil- margins to articulate their realities has evolved into dren from the Travelling community at primary a space for all children to articulate their experienc- level as a resource teacher. (Irish Travellers identify es of childhood. themselves as a separate ethnic nomadic group “What do you think about children writing with defined cultural patterns of movement, mar- books for children?” I often ask children at the riage, and language. Hiberno-English as spoken by beginning of a new book project. The answer is Travellers differs from the settled community and always the same: Children think this a great idea. includes remnants of the Cant language, which pre- They say children understand children better than dates Old Irish.) I realized there were no books for adults do; they know more about what children like children with Travellers in them, and neither were to read. Yet children’s voices continue to be un- there any appropriate pre-reading resources that der-represented in a genre aimed entirely at them— recognized and celebrated Traveller culture. As a children’s literature! result, I started to collect Traveller nursery rhymes In the early days of this ongoing project, I was with a view to approaching a publisher. These keen to harvest individual voices, stories, com- nursery rhymes were part of Travellers oral culture, ments, and opinions without censorship—without completely unknown outside of it. altering children’s language, whether spoken or I met with Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership written. I would often record conversations and (Ireland’s only dedicated publisher of books by chil- type them up verbatim afterwards. This provided dren for children) in 2001 to discuss publishing the the raw material that I edited with the children. nursery rhymes. The Kids’ Own approach to chil- Very simply, I would ask the individual or group of dren’s publishing is radical: children write, illustrate, children whose conversations were typed if they and design the finished books. Following a series were happy with the piece, if they want to change of workshops with children in Sligo—conducted by any words or add more, and if they thought other artist Orla Kenny, Victoria Ryle director, and myself children reading it would understand their work? as teacher—Charlie Barley and All His Friends (2001) All the revisions were done by the children. When was the result. Children illustrated the nursery children have time and space to discuss their views rhymes and jokes and contributed to the design and represent their experiences, the writing comes features of the final layout. What followed created a easily. sixteen-year opportunity of writing and illustrating Collaboration is an essential part of my work- books with children. Of the twenty-five books pub- ing with groups of children. It takes a very broad lished, twenty-four of these were non-fiction. skill set to write, illustrate, and design a thirty-page In that time, I have been part of the Kids’ Own book to publication standard. There are jobs for

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everyone, and children discover just how creative collaborate on film scripts, and mysteries and chil- The researchers took over the computer room the local press, the Mayor, and all the children’s they can be and how ideas emerge and finally dren’s books all have writers and illustrators.” All we in the school and were given various questions to families. It was a fitting, exciting celebration of an evolve through a long process of making art togeth- needed to do was decide on everything: characters, investigate. Meanwhile, in class, the plot lines were incredible achievement. er. Working collectively rather than individually plot line, location, and action. We began the list of progressing, and at the end of each day, several As the facilitator to the novel’s unfolding, I is often a new experience for children. However, possible themes on another white board: scenes were read aloud so the whole group knew was fascinated by the children’s choice of plot: the rarely have I encountered conflict where one child what was happening. The handwritten scenes were absent father and the abandoned child. The hero’s insists that a book go in a certain direction against - A boy framed for something he didn’t do given to the typists, scenes and chapters clearly quest (for individuation) is a very common novel the shared view of the rest of the group. When dif- - A civilization in the wilderness marked, the work was typed and saved. narrative, but for these young writers, the quest ferences arise, we work through the ideas with the - Animal mutilation and aliens The novel progressed. The writers gained con- was not so much individual as collective. Our he- group so that all views are aired and discussed and - Shooting the president and a child solves fidence in the process, trusting they would even- ro’s best efforts, when combined with the rebels, then majority reigns. the crime tually get to the end of a first draft. Then the day brought about action, liberation, and resolution. My own writing has been entirely non-fiction, - An army came when the writing teams were to merge and The father’s sacrificing his life for his son is believ- in poetry, prose, and plays. I find realism most decide on the main characters. Each team read their able, and as he redeemed his absence, he ensured compelling. My approach to writing with children I interrupted. “What army are you thinking of?” scenes up to Chapter 8 and then discussed how his status as noble and brave. mirrored my own practice of writing the nuts and “The British Army,” the student replied. to move forward. Each team wanted to kill off the It can be argued that all children are poten- bolts of what I have experienced. However, when I “In what time frame?” other team’s character. That would have ended the tially creative, but schooling, cultural pressures to was asked at Children’s Books Ireland Conference “Any time frame you like; the British Army was novel double quick, and everyone knew that was conform, and the development of the rational mind during a presentation if I would ever consider work- everywhere.” not what was wanted. threaten that creativity. A self-critic emerges and ing with fiction, I kept that thought in mind for sev- “Yes,” I said, “they were.” Getting stuck is part of the creative process, and gets the upper hand. Holding onto this creativity is eral years before an opportunity arose. “You have to have a war in a novel,” he continued. I knew we would come to a standstill at some point the tricky part. Picasso said it took him four years I was preparing to do some writing workshops “Big things happening.” or another. I lay awake that night trying to pin point to paint like Raphael and a lifetime to paint like a with a class of ten- and eleven-year olds in my Exactly. The ideas kept flowing until soon the the problem, and then I got it. Neither team had child. The same is true for writers, so I am never as- school in Sligo. Rather than run a few workshops, I white board was full. Each child had to tick their clarified the relationship between Leon and Louis, tonished at how creative and talented children are. wondered about having the children write a novel. favorite theme. The themes with the most ticks so until they made those decisions, there could be It is time for children’s literature to include writers This was a bright, well-read class. I was sure they would be developed further. no progress. Becoming unstuck would take us back and artists who are children themselves. were capable. They were delighted. There were roles for everyone—not just writers to the beginning, to our first questions: who are the We had nine weeks to the summer holidays. I and illustrators but also researchers, typists, and go- main characters, and what is their relationship to phers—everyone could try everything. All decisions stopped at the secretary’s office to get some rough each other? This gave rise to a whole new set of MARY BRANLEY is an award winning poet, playwright work writing copies, but all the secretary had to were made by majority vote and, putting our trust details on clarity and character development. and musician. Writes also short stories fiction and non hand were squared sum copies, grid paper more in the creative process, we got started. Differences of opinion emerged amongst the – fiction and lives in North Sligo. She taught in Boston I suggested to the class to pick a local setting London and Sligo for 25 years. Currently, a full time writer suitable for mathematics than creative writing. children about the ending, but all agreed they want- and facilitator with Kids Own Publishing Partnership. Perfect, I thought; this will send exactly the mes- in contemporary Ireland, chiefly to avoid extensive ed a strong emotional impact. By then, these child sage I want—creativity spills out across lines and research. However, through their process of discus- writers trusted their instincts on what sounded squares. sion, they narrowed it down to two revolutions: the right, on what kept faith with earlier events, details, The class had read several novels that year and French or the American. The French Revolution and characters. They became very comfortable had loads of ideas on what makes a novel. As they won the vote. The children had already covered with the writing process. As one child explained, “I volunteered their answers, we wrote on the white this topic in the history curriculum and were deter- had thought I wanted the end to go one way, but board: character development, metaphors, twists mined to go ahead. “Alright,” I said, “there’ll be se- as I wrote something very different happened.” All and turns, the unexpected, a mystery to be solved, rious research needed. Every detail will have to be ten of the writers read aloud the variety of endings. suspense, and an ending that moved readers. Now accurate: their clothes, food, the plants and animals, The vote was decisive. all we needed to do was decide what our novel was village life, and so on.” Editing and copy editing were relatively going to be about. From the main themes, many were in favor of a straightforward and involved working with the A hand went up. “We’re all writing the same boy being framed and having to flee to the wilder- teams separately, improving descriptions, clarifying novel?” Wide eyed-incredulity. “How’s that going ness and befriending a wolf. On the war side, there what was not clear. The day before the summer to work?” I explained that they would work in would have to be rebels and nobles. Two plot lines holidays began, we read through the novel from teams—as writers, illustrators, plotters, and character started immediately: one for Leon, our fourteen- beginning to end. Euphoria permeated the room. developers. “It’s not uncommon now,” I said, “for all year-old hero in the grim, poverty-stricken village of A new novel—Rebellion in the Village—had been born. kinds of writing to happen in teams.” “Soaps in par- Pockseaux, and the other for Louis, a rebel storm- Months later, Kids’ Own agreed to publish it! The ticular,” I said “are written by a team. Writers often ing the Bastille. novel was launched at a packed out event with

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ed books in small numbers. Funding for these was Children are invited to come inside to its packed raised by the community, usually through schools. bookshelves through a small arched opening, easy Children worked with artists over several weeks, a for them but not so for adults. Kids’ Own founder The Library term, or a year to have their voices heard in book Victoria Ryle designed and developed the Book form. Among these was the first known published Cubby in Australia, after relocation from Ireland. book for children written in Cant, the language of She tells the story of being discovered there by a the Travellers, titled Can’t Lose Cant (2005). small person while putting books away and being as Publishing Hub: Kids’ Own Publishing (Australia) was estab- scolded, “Mummies aren’t allowed in here!” lished by Ryle and Spain in 2007 and has since The exterior front and side walls are lined with Children’s Books by Children published over 120 books. (Kids’ Own Publishing Perspex shelving packed with published “origami” Partnership continues in Ireland.) From the or “hotdog” books with colorful covers, beckoning Northern Territory, Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) child readers and inspiring them to tell their own Islands and Western Australia, and wild coastal stories. Just as many books start with a single idea, and for Children in the Ceduna and Coober Pedy in South Australia to the first book many children make is made from a the suburbs and surrounds of Australia’s City of single folded sheet of paper—some of you will know Literature, Melbourne, children in communities all and have made these books with young people. Kids’ Own Book Cubby over the country have told their stories in published A sheet of paper is folded in half lengthwise, then form. Books have been published in English as well opened and folded again top to bottom. Sides to mid- as Kriol, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Dinka, Nuer, and dle and a simple cut produce a neat eight-page book Margaret Robson Kett other home languages. The rapid evolution of dig- that needs no staples or sewing to stay together. ital printing, with the resulting lowered setup costs The face-out shelves inside invite small hands and ease of versioning, has made these multiple edi- to take them down to read published books from tions possible. Edith Cowan University researchers around the world by children for children. The Yvonne Haig and Caroline Barratt-Pugh, reporting exterior ledge for display continues inside to form to the State Library of Western Australia on the a small desk, a writing surface for making and fold- efficacy of a partnership publishing project, said that ing the published books and for signings at book the Kids’ Own Publishing model launches. Best of all, the Cubby’s four sections, with detachable arch and table, fit into custom bags for is a powerful strategy for giving people, in- easy transportation in a hatchback or station wagon. cluding those from diverse backgrounds, an Inside the Cubby, in addition to the titles opportunity to tell stories that are important published by Kids’ Own, there are works by trade ibraries are repositories of community sistance for local scribes: dedicated space for to them and in the process to engage more publishers who make books featuring the words and and personal histories recorded in all them to work in, perhaps together, and books deeply with literacy practices and with their art of children. In Australia, publishers such as Allen forms. Libraries throughout history that will aid them in jump starting their local library. [Findings from the evaluation] & Unwin, Penguin, Random House, Scholastic, have had the technology and space, creativity or improving their writing skills… further suggest that others are attracted to and Magabala Books all produce beautiful engaging both of which have provided support Using this approach, a library can foster a these types of highly personal, instantly and works by children which have earned their place in Land inspiration for people of all ages to tell their sto- welcoming environment for local ingenuity simply published texts and are keen to read the Book Cubby. Publisher Jeanie Adams of Black ries. As you read this (perhaps in a library yourself), and perhaps boost circulation. Tapping ex- them as well as being motivated to write Ink Press says, people are sitting in libraries and writing down their pertise from local authors can promote en- their own books. thoughts, dreams, and memories in the hope that gagement and build community. there are yarns [stories] being enjoyed… publication will bring them a wider audience. Many Enter the Kids’ Own Book Cubby. The Australian by indigenous children every day all over published works began their lives on library surfac- Kids’ Own Publishing was founded in Ireland in the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines “cubby” as “a Australia but few of these make their way es and screens. Libraries are more and more actively 1990s to make books by children and for children, very small room; a snug or confined space; in the into story books… [A]chieving this is not facilitating this process, as described recently by books which reflected children’s own families and Australian vernacular, a cubby house is a child’s simple... The process is also one of com- Henrietta Verma in the Library Journal: communities. Founders Victoria Ryle and Simon playhouse.” The Kids’ Own Book Cubby is, then, munity development; a holistic, practical Spain established the Kids’ Own model as one of a child-sized, cosy reading room-within-a-room, a hands-on approach makes the creation and At the low-cost end of the spectrum for adult artist-led book-making workshops, resulting in bookcase that children can be inside. reading of books part of people’s lives. libraries is providing relatively hands-off as- the publishing of beautifully designed offset print- Standing 150 cm tall, the Cubby assembles from four sections into a mini-library in minutes. Kids’ Own Book Cubbies can be constructed

BOOKBIRD 68 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 69 55.2–2017 THE LIBRARY AS PUBLISHING HUB: THE LIBRARY AS PUBLISHING HUB: CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY CHILDREN AND FOR CHILDREN IN THE KIDS’ OWN BOOK CUBBY CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY CHILDREN AND FOR CHILDREN IN THE KIDS’ OWN BOOK CUBBY locally from plans bought under license. At least substantial increase in government funding made of Armadale has its own digital print facilities, so make eight pages, so it can be unfolded, opened up three have been made by community volunteers Creating Books in Communities possible in 2011.) the book was able to be printed in-house. At the to be a single-sided storybook which can be cop- in Mens’ Sheds, an Australian community-based, Victoria Ryle travelled to WA to deliver Kids’ Own launch, everyone concerned was justifiably proud ied on a color copier and re-folded. Most authors non-profit health and wellbeing initiative, with Publishing training to staff of public libraries and of their book We Are Champion Children (2011). One make a copy for their grandparent, teacher, or best in-kind and material support from local hardware other agencies affiliated with Better Beginnings. hundred copies were given away at that launch, and friend—not forgetting the legal deposit one for the stores. (Cubbies can also be delivered fully con- This “Train-the-Trainer” model ensured that the since then, hundreds of additional copies have been host library! My request for copies of Kyron, Hafsah structed.) To date, there are eighteen Book Cubbies ethos was enthusiastically embraced and led to a printed for sale or gift by the City. State Library and Fatma’s books was able to be met on the spot: in Australian libraries and local governments, and commitment to six book projects in diverse com- of Western Australia’s Better Beginnings Program Talk about hot off the press! Most importantly, New Zealand’s first will be constructed in Selwyn munities statewide. reprinted sufficient copies to go into the collections author-illustrators retain their originals, as most District by 2017. The Australian Early Development Index of the state’s 238 public libraries and produced an children want and expect to do when they create The Kids’ Own Book Cubby is a mini publish- (AEDI) census results in 2009 for Perth’s City of offset-printed “big” book to extend the book’s sto- artwork and writing of significance to them. This ing house: a hub of bookmaking within a library. Armadale were a cause for concern for all early rytelling capabilities. process can be facilitated by an artist (as it was in Inspired by the books they have read in the Cubby, childhood professionals who were meeting together We Are Champion Children was a celebration of Carnarvon in Western Australia with the town’s children of all ages get the urge to make their own. regularly as a local Early Years group. The results everything the author-illustrators love to do and was Vietnamese community or in conjunction with a Last year in Australia, at least three thousand indi- showed that almost ten percent of the over one a true community production. The learnings from, play program in Wanneroo) or simply be a drop-in vidual hotdog books were made and published at thousand children surveyed in their first formal and success of, this book informed the production activity with minimal intervention by library staff, library events and literary festivals in and around a year of schooling were vulnerable in the Language of eight books under the partnership statewide who act as the publisher. Kids’ Own Book Cubby. Susan Wright explains, and Cognitive Skills domain, with twelve percent (two more than originally planned). Two years later, Kids’ Own Publishing has additionally devel- of children vulnerable in two or more domains the library built its own Book Cubby to continue oped a twenty-first century bookmaking tool: the Art allows children to “say” and “write” (Australian Early Development Census). Consequently, book publishing by children for children in its three WePublish app, which allows children to make digi- what they think and feel, usually without an AEDI Champion was appointed, and she branches and throughout the City of Armadale. tal books using both their own photos and pre-load- adult intrusion. Through such open-ended worked with the Early Years group to look for The art teacher at Challis Primary School, pub- ed content. Libraries provide universal access to experiences, children develop a reper- opportunities. The librarian at the Seville Grove lished author-illustrator Sean Avery, directed the technology like iPads to enable children to explore toire of marks, images and ideas. They Library, Shirley Reilly, had done excellent work original Champion Children who had created the bookmaking in the digital sphere and the resulting refine these through practice and skill and with Better Beginnings; this prepared her well to book in using their present-day art to personalize books can be exported as e-mail attachments and through exposure to the art of other chil- work with this group and an AEDI Champion to the City’s Book Cubby. printed at low or no cost, with, of course, a copy for dren and adults. In the process, children address these results. Child authors of three hotdog books that trav- the Cubby. experiment with the ‘language’ of the A group of four-year-olds from Challis Primary el with the Book Cubbies nationwide are Kyron, The Book Cubbies, being fully transportable, materials and develop a “grammar” of com- School, as well as a Best Start playgroup of parents Hafsah, and Fatma. Seven-year-old Kyron lives in a are an ideal center for book-making in the local munication… The artwork’s compositional and toddlers, came to the city’s Champion Centre remote community in the Northern Territory and literary and art scene and a distinct library presence component is a vital element of the child’s once a week (for eight weeks) for “Full of Beanz” wrote an adventure about a man who walked into a at civic events and festivals. As well as in structured communication. It is the organizational activities and art making. The children hopped, spider web. Eight-year-old Hafsah wrote her book community spaces such as schools, libraries, and force used to project ideas and to illustrate jumped, skipped, and crawled; listened to stories; about her friends who also live on the Home Island playgroups, Kids’ Own Book Cubbies have enabled relativity and relationships. Composition and made art in response to their experiences. A of the Cocos (Keeling) group. Nine-year-old Fatma children’s book-making in gardens, on riverbanks, not only makes the contents accessible, it member of the Early Years group was a photogra- in Melbourne wrote a book about a “grate” writer, at shopping centers and fresh fruit and vegetable also heightens the young artist’s percep- pher and took photos of the children in action. The who was “so excited. Then she put her pencil in markets, and in parks. Since 2011, the Book Cubby tions and stimulates his or her imaginative talk that arose out of the activities and art making her bag. Then she looked out the window and saw has been a feature of the Perth International Arts involvement. was recorded and made into a text by workshop- a fairy.” Scraps of cloth, plant and animal products, Festival Family Day. The very first Book Cubby ping with the children and adults each week. The as well as crayons, colored pencils, and stark black constructed by Better Beginnings was present at Longer books have been made in purposeful part- photos and artwork were given to students studying markers were used by the authors of these books to Perth’s highly regarded Awesome Festival for Bright nerships with state and local government libraries. photography and design at the local community illustrate the story; the books were then hand-let- Young Things later that year, and each year since The program Making Books, Making Readers at college (called Technical and Further Education, or tered. Libraries offer the trusted, safe, accessible, eq- then, children return to make books at these events. the State Library of Victoria resulted in several pub- TAFE in Australia). The students laid out elements uitable environment—plus the glue sticks—to make The Book Cubby is a perfect hands-on activity lished books and was a model for Creating Books in draft pages so that the children could check and these books happen. for library staff to connect with parents and carers, in Communities at the State Library of Western modify them, as professional authors and illustrators Visitors to the Book Cubbies now enjoy these who may not otherwise have ventured into the Australia. (SLWA established the multi-award-win- do. Each TAFE student was challenged to design hotdog books in the same way readers enjoy them physical building, and to have conversations about ning Better Beginnings Family Literacy Program a cover for the book. Of the dozen produced, the on the shelves of any library: they have been pub- the importance of children’s reading and writing. As in 2005. Following the publication of an indepen- Early Years committee, acting as managing editors, lished. Libraries big and small have the technolo- Haig and Barratt-Pugh’s evaluation notes, dent evaluation demonstrating its effectiveness, a helped the children vote for their favorite. City gy—the photocopier. As the paper was folded to

BOOKBIRD 70 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 71 55.2–2017 THE LIBRARY AS PUBLISHING HUB: THE LIBRARY AS PUBLISHING HUB: CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY CHILDREN AND FOR CHILDREN IN THE KIDS’ OWN BOOK CUBBY CHILDREN’S BOOKS BY CHILDREN AND FOR CHILDREN IN THE KIDS’ OWN BOOK CUBBY

In the short term, the number of books that 11 July 2012. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/ the participating families had in their homes It’s important that libraries support this programs/ockhamsrazor/indigenous-literacy/4083764 did not increase but eight months after the effort. The consumer marketplace is Australian Early Development Census. Commonwealth of Australia. Web. Accessed 18 September 2016. book was launched, several mothers report- … not about to change its book-buying https://www.aedc.gov.au/ ed that their children’s increased interest in habits on the basis of social conscience. Better Beginnings. State Library of Western Australia. books had led them to buy more and one But libraries are in a position of—are, in Web. Accessed 18 September 2016. of these mothers had joined the library and fact, in the business of—taking chances https://www.better-beginnings.com.au/ Cox, Sue. “Intention and Meaning in Young Children’s was borrowing additional books regularly. and doing the right thing, which is en- Drawings.” International Journal of Art and Design While the parents reported that they had thusiastically making available all kinds Education 24:2 (2005): 115–125. considered reading with their children to of books for all kinds of readers. “cubby.” Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary. be important before participating in the Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2012. Haig, Yvonne and Caroline Barratt-Pugh. “Evaluation of program, the findings suggest that their The Kids’ Own model of publishing has proven four family literacy projects developed as a part of the understanding of the range of practices that particularly effective in promoting all community Better Beginnings Program: The CaLD Project would support their children’s literacy devel- languages. Stories made as hotdogs can be told in Creating Books in Communities.” Report for State opment had increased as a result of involve- the home language of the teller. Books made with Library of Western Australia 2012. Kett, Margaret Robson. “Kids’ Own Publishing.” The Horn ment in the program. the WePublish app appear in the language set on Book Magazine, July/August 2015. the iPad. Dual-language texts and print runs of —. “One World.” Magpies: About Books for Children A local government in outer-suburban Melbourne, the same book in different languages are possible 26.3 (2011): 18–20. the Shire of Cardinia, owns two Cubbies which and affordable with digital printing. Kids’ Own Sutton, Roger. “Editorial: Why #WNDB.” The Horn Book. 29 December 2014. Web. Accessed 31 December showcase the eight locally made twenty-four-page Publishing’s The Book of Sudanese Cows (2010), for 2014. http://www.hbook.com/2014/12/opinion/ books. These books were made in partnership example, is available in Dinka, Nuer, Arabic, and editorials/editorial-wndb/ MARGARET ROBSON KETT is an Australian specialist with Kids’ Own Publishing by playgroups, school English; and the three editions of River Boy (2014) Verma, Henrietta. “Write here: writing programs in children’s librarian, reviewer and commentator. She has classes, and an after-school adult-to-child mentor- are in English, Wugularr, and Kriol (Aboriginal libraries range from providing space and simple published in print and online in Magpies, Australian Book support to ambitious instruction and promotion.” Review, ABC Splash, Every Child, Viewpoint and The Horn ing program. One Book Cubby moves on demand English). Library Journal 141:13 (2016): 40–43. Book Magazine. For the past five years she has worked as between early education centers, family hubs, and A world in which every community makes its Wright, Susan. Understanding Creativity in Childhood. project manager and editor for over a dozen community events in the Shire. The other is permanently in own books, in which all children can see their lives London: SAGE, 2010. Print. books published by children for children in her roles at the foyer of the Shire Offices so that all visitors can and experiences in print, is not so far away when Better Beginnings Family Literacy Program and Kids’ Own Publishing. She is currently a freelance writer and editor enjoy the output of their youngest resident writers libraries are publishing hubs. Kids’ Own Book and established her own imprint Kettlestitch Press. and illustrators. Cubbies help make it happen. The Kids’ Own Book Cubby is both forum and center point for children as citizens to have WORKS CITED their voices heard. Recently, the historically im- Adams, Jeanie. “Indigenous Literacy.” Ockham’s Razor. ABC Radio National. 24 June 2012. Web. Accessed portant City of Hobsons Bay was working on a comprehensive plan for the city’s future. In a pur- poseful engagement with all citizens, they included schools and libraries in a project in which children expressed their hopes for the future: the city’s liva- bility in 2030. A Kids’ Own artist worked with the children to make first the hotdog books which ex- pressed their individual hopes. My personal favorite began, “Dear Future Me, I hope there are more skate parks.” Ideas and pages from these books be- came a published twenty-four-page book that is part present-day snapshot and part visionary document. The Kids’ Own Book Cubby is a physical testament to a community’s respect for the diverse voices of its residents of all ages. As The Horn Book’s Roger Sutton has suggested in reference to the We Need Diverse Books campaign,

BOOKBIRD 72 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 73 55.2–2017 FOCUS IBBY: NEWS 1/2017 Focus IBBY promotion. Today, the world is a very disturbing and Read with Me, Iran; and Big Brother Mouse, Laos. changeable place, and our children need protection Read with Me was nominated by IBBY Iran, and of their rights, including the right to read, as never Big Brother Mouse was nominated by IBBY Swit- before. This Award represents the goal and tasks of zerland and endorsed by the IBBY sections of Den- 55.2/2017 our organization—the spirit of IBBY—connecting mark, France, and Germany. children and books in often very difficult and differ- Warm congratulations to these two winning ent situations, including hot spots of military conflicts projects and to all the people who work for them! By Liz Page and in regions facing a huge influx of refugees. Many thanks to the IBBY National Sections for It was a pleasure for me to announce the winners their nominations, and I would especially like to in April 2016 at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, thank again the Asahi Shimbun, our generous long- and now it is a very special feeling and a historic time sponsor of this valuable award. moment because the winners are among us and they Thank you. are waiting for me to invite to the stage and tell you in their own words about their wonderful work. Angela Lebedeva The 2016 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion President of the 2016 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award Awards are given to the following two projects: Auckland, 18 August 2016

LIZ PAGE is Executive Director of the International Board on Books for Acceptance Speech: Big Brother Mouse, Laos Young People (IBBY)

IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award 2016

Introduction by Angela Lebedeva • Is there existing or possible support for the It is a great honor and a pleasure for me to present project from other funding sources? the winners of the 2016 IBBY-Asahi Reading Pro- • Has the project been in existence for at least two motion Award. years prior to its nomination? Is the project sus- This Award was founded in 1986 in commem- tainable? Does it provide a framework for growth? oration of the 20th IBBY Congress in Tokyo, and • What is the impact of the project? Does it reach it is made possible by sponsorship by the Asahi its stated target audience? Shimbun Japanese newspaper company. For the last • Is the project original and innovative? thirty years, the Award has been presented to out- • Can the project provide a model for others? Is it standing activities by groups or institutions around easily replicated? Are any printed materials avail- the world that have been judged to be making a able, and are they of high literary quality? lasting contribution to reading promotion programs • Can the results of the project be evaluated? for children and young people. I would like to express my very special gratitude For the 2016 Award, we received eleven sub- to my colleagues of the 2016 IBBY-Asahi Reading missions from fourteen IBBY National Sections: Promotion Award Jury: Evelyn Freeman (USA), Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Iran, Mexico, Sunjidmaa Jamba (Mongolia), Vagn Plenge (Den- Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden, mark), Serpil Ural (Turkey), and Timotea Vrablova Big Brother Mouse, Laos: Kamala Panyasouk, Siphone Wuttisaky, Fusako Go, and Angela Lebedeva (photo by Doris Breitmoser) Switzerland, Denmark, France, and Germany. The (Slovakia). You worked hard and honestly to make a Jury, selected from the members of the current IBBY choice, and I am proud to be a member of this fine Executive Committee, judge every nominated proj- team with you. Thank you. It is an honor to receive this award along with Read best job we can in Laos. Our job is to make books ect very strictly based on the following criteria: This Award is unique, prestigious, independent, with Me from Iran. that children are eager to read and then give them • How well does the project support IBBY’s and the only international award that supports con- Big Brother Mouse is ten years old this sum- opportunities to read. That keeps us very busy. We Mission Statement? crete projects in the sphere of children’s reading mer. Most of that time, we have just tried to do the put some pictures on Facebook but do not do much

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other publicity. So that is why it is exciting that many of them could read one of those stories. Now Do you hear the children weeping ? reinforce their creativity to find the best solution other people have seen what we do and think it is they know that books are fun. The young birds are chirping in the nest; when they are surrounded by their difficulties. We important and will help us tell more people about With this award, we will be able to get books The young flowers are blowing toward the west— can empower them to cope with problems. We can our approach—which is to make books that children and a reading program into more than fifty class- But the young, young children, O my brothers, teach them how to comfort themselves when they are eager and excited to read; and then, children rooms, and it will also let us keep trying out new They are weeping bitterly! are upset. will want to read, and they will learn more quickly. ways to get children interested in reading. Do you question the young children in the sorrow, Then for such a tremendous responsibility, we When we had tested reading skills in villages, we This is the first time we have been to a confer- Why their tears are falling so? need a very flexible, well-structured, and thoughtful found that most children who enter the third grade ence of people from around the world who are es- (“The Cry of the Children,” Elizabeth plan. We need a well-designed and effective pro- cannot read even a single word. Their teachers stand pecially focused on reading and literacy. So we feel Barrett Browning) gram to be adaptable, expandable, and sustainable. at the blackboard and have them repeat the alphabet like you, and we are one family, and we are excited Let us speak about our experience with Read because that is how the teachers themselves learned. to be able to talk to many of you. So if you see us “The history of childhood is a nightmare from with Me in Iran. But it does not make children love to read. and there is a chance, please come tell us about which we have only recently begun to awaken. The In our deprived regions—where in the border This summer, for the first time, we started a what you are doing, and we would like to share further back in history one goes, the lower the level villages most of the families are poor and unem- small summer school so we could try other tech- ideas. of child care and the more likely children were to ployed—many of them are involved in drug traffick- niques, especially the idea of just having a lot of Thank you very much. be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized, and sex- ing, and their children experience neglect, abuse, books available—some easy, some a little harder— ually abused.” Lloyd deMause, the American psy- and violence. These children need much more that children want to read. For the easiest books, we Kamala Panyasouk and Siphone Wuttisaky on behalf of the chohistorian, wrote these words on the horrors of than access to books. They need to be read to and made stories that children can read after they learn Big Brother Mouse Project, Laos childhood throughout history, four decades ago. share quality books, they need to speak about their only one-quarter of the letters. After just a month, Auckland, 18 August 2016 But what about today? Are we standing at a stories and their lives, and they need to be able to point very far from those horrors and disasters? construct a fantasy world much more beautiful than Today our world is struggling with a bitter issue: the world around them: immigration. Refugees spill across borders seeking Acceptance Speech: Read with Me, Iran shelter not just in Asia, the Middle East, or the US/ That very night… a forest grew and grew until Mexican border but everywhere: France, the Neth- the walls became the world all around. erlands, Germany, Greece, and Poland. No nation (Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak) has been untouched.

We have all seen images of immigrant chil- They need to be healed of their injuries through dren in the camps without a home, enough food, books, where they share how to heal a broken wing: or access to education. Many of you are involved

intimately with this recent crisis. These immigrant No one saw the bird fall. In a city full of hurried children we see on our screens are experiencing a people, only young Will notices the bird lying complex trauma far greater than the adults in their hurt on the ground. world. They experience war, violence, homeless- (How to heal a broken wing, Bob Graham) ness, starvation, illness, the death of loved ones.

If they are lucky, these children will live through They need to be prepared to face big and serious dislocation and terror. Their world is going to be an problems, like the illness and death of a loved one. unsafe place for them to live.

Is there any rescue from this misery and injus- I asked mam, “will I die?” tice? As individuals, we cannot stop the wars and Mam said, “One day, yes, but not now!” change the political landscape. But we can act as an “Is it painful?” umbrella to protect these children so they do not “Everything goes quiet. Dying is like falling lose hope. Without hope, all is lost. It does not take asleep, like a dream. But beyond the dream!” a grand act to make these children’s lives a little (Bigger than a dream, Jef Aerts) better. Maybe reading promotion projects could be They need to have language skills. Often bilin- the most accessible and effective way to reduce gual children are not exposed to official academic and calm down the anger, anxiety, and stress of language before the age of seven, when they start these children. We can give them the tools to pro- school. Children who are not exposed to Farsi in Read with Me, Iran: Fusako Go, Zohreh Ghaeni, Nehzat Ghoreyshinejadesfarjani, and Angela Lebedeva (photo by Doris Breitmoser) tect themselves and solve their problems. We can their daily lives face many problems when they be-

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gin first grade and must read and write in Farsi, our creative material and activities is an urgent need group of four to sixteen, and more than five hun- Now I have to carry a computer, a digital cam- official language. It is only through literature, where for children who cannot achieve literacy through dred teachers, preschool tutors, and volunteers have era, a couple of smart phones, tablets, etc. My life they connect with stories and their meanings and the formal education system. It is very difficult to been trained through this project. The project is is getting heavier and heavier. But I love my career concepts, that these kids can get the language skills convince this part of society to finance learning designed to be flexible so that it can be implement- as a journalist, and I am pretty sure the origin of they need for school. through modern methods. With its extended scale ed at home, at school, at the library, or any place in my passion to write and send stories from all over So, based on this reality, the Institute devel- and multi-layered program, Read with Me could not the community. the world goes back to my childhood, when my oped the Read with Me project, aiming to make a have reached many children in deprived areas had it Big Brother Mouse is a non-profit publishing mother used to read me children’s books almost meaningful change in the lives of deprived children not been able to absorb and manage sponsorships. project, which aims to promote the love of reading every night before going to bed. My mother is now through books and reading. This project is a valuable experience, not be- and learning amongst children in Laos. Many Lao seventy-eight, and amazingly enough, she still does We have traveled hundreds, sometimes thou- cause it promotes reading among a certain group children have never seen a book, let alone a text- that for hundreds of children in Tokyo as a volun- sands, of kilometers to reach children to help them of children when it reaches a fraction of the kids in book. In order to enhance their literacy, BBM helps teer storyteller at local elementary schools and chil- develop phonological and phonemic awareness need; it is valuable because it presents a model. It getting books into remote villages. Even though the dren’s libraries. through stories, rhymes, drama, fun, and play. We shows that it is not impossible or even very tough if books are primarily aimed at children, many Lao I spoke with her over the phone a few days ago assist street and working children in keeping them- we want to have an impact on children’s lives. adults can also use the books to improve their quali- and told her that I would be in Auckland to present selves away from violence and crime by reading We read quality books to children to open a ty of life. the Asahi awards at the IBBY international con- books and reconstructing their worlds through dra- window to hope, peace, and friendship for them. These two projects are playing creative and gress. She told me that was the best job I had expe- ma. We have crisscrossed Iran to change the gray, We read quality books to children who have no effective roles to help children enter the world of rienced as a journalist; she never liked me going to cold, and barren walls of our children’s classrooms shoes to wear. But we believe, more than even shoes books and reading. cover crime scenes, international conflicts, and wars. to colorful and literacy-rich environments. for running on the ground, they need wings to fly— Just to briefly explain about this IBBY-Asahi She also asked me while in Auckland, if I happened In the beginning, we were very worried about to depart from their pains and sorrow. Reading Promotion Award, it was initiated in 1988 to encounter a black hairy dog like Hairy Maclary, teachers’ contributions in remote areas, where it was On behalf of my colleagues in Iran and on be- under the sponsorship of The Asahi Shimbun, to take a photo and send it her. I told her I would expected that teachers are unmotivated and ineffec- half of all teachers who share Read with Me with which is a Japanese newspaper company. The Asahi definitely do that. And I thank IBBY for letting me tive in their classes. We knew the most critical part the children of remote and deprived areas, I would Shimbun was inspired by the IBBY World Congress become a good daughter again for the first time in of our program, and our biggest challenge, would like to thank IBBY for its support since the begin- held in Japan in 1986 and decided to have this hon- nearly three decades. be the teachers. But after years of experience, we ning of this project in Iran. I would like to thank the or to join the IBBY activities. The Award is given As one of the beneficiaries of enjoying chil- have found that when there is a proper foundation IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award Jury for see- to groups and research institutions around the world dren’s books, I would like to congratulate IBBY for and the teachers are motivated and trained, a mira- ing this effort in this part of the world. And I would for their work in distributing books and reading pro- promoting books and bringing the joy of reading to cle happens. So many talented and creative young like to thank the Asahi Shimbun newspaper compa- motion activities among children and young people. children throughout the world. I must admit, we do teachers have been recognized, even in very remote ny in Japan for their sponsorship of this prestigious Including the two winners for this year, The Asahi have a hidden agenda to guide those children into regions. Their passion and commitment to their award, which is the only international recognition of Shimbun has presented the IBBY-Asahi Reading newspaper readers in the future to keep our circula- work is unbelievable. reading promotion projects in deprived areas of the Promotion Award to twenty-nine programs around tion! Another achievement of this project was attract- world. the world so far. We are very proud of the fact that But really, it is our sincere hope that IBBY will ing and managing financial sponsorship. Financial Thank you! we have been able to pay tribute to such a worthy continue with its good work, and we look forward sponsors in the private sector are mostly interested cause, continuously, for nearly thirty years. to seeing the activities bear ample fruit in the years in building schools. Although building schools in Zohreh Ghaeni on behalf of Read with Me, Iran If I may add a few words about The Asahi to come. The Asahi Shimbun is humbled to pro- deprived areas is very important, building an al- Auckland, 18 August 2016 Shimbun, it was founded in 1879 as a Japanese vide our support to the best of our ability towards ternative education system based on literature and newspaper, and its current morning edition has promoting books among young readers. Thank you a circulation of about 6.6 million. We have been very much. through ups and downs during these years, but probably our biggest challenge at the moment is Fusako Go, Asahi Shimbun Bureau Chief in Sydney, Message from the Asahi Shimbun how to keep this circulation and reach more and Australia and representing the Asahi Shimbun. It is my great pleasure to welcome you today on the prestigious judges and those associated with IBBY more digitally-oriented readers. Auckland, 18 August 2016 occasion to present the IBBY-Asahi Reading Pro- for their dedication and commitment in making the Talking about myself, I joined the Asahi twen- motion Award. First of all, I would like to congratu- final selections for the awards. ty-seven years ago, and back then I carried only late the winners of the 2016 Awards—Read with Me Read with Me is a project to promote reading a pen and a small notebook and a tiny beeper. I from Iran and Big Brother Mouse from Laos. for or with disadvantaged children who are gener- am sure some of you, or I should say most of you, I would like to also congratulate every one of ally at risk. Started as a pilot project in 2010, the would not understand what a beeper is, but it was you who have taken part in the activities for your project has been successfully expanded, and by a communication device before telephones became outstanding efforts. And I should thank the panel of 2015 it had reached over 13,000 children in the age mobile.

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The 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Long-Serving IBBY Member Award Jury Patricia Crampton Dies Aged Ninety

Eva Kaliskami (from Athens, Greece) works as a Patricia Crampton sadly passed away on 1 Decem- teacher of English for primary private schools and ber 2016 at her home in Calne, Wiltshire in the UK is responsible for the selection of English children’s after a lifetime dedicated to translation. She was literature titles. Eva has also worked as a translator of involved with IBBY in the UK and internationally English and American children’s books into Greek. from the 1960s onwards and is especially associated Shereen Kreidieh (from Beirut, Lebanon) has been with the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. the General Manager for children’s books at Asala Patricia was a lively, engaging person with a Publishing House in Beirut since 1998. She is also marvelous sense of humor who made friends far and is a member of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture wide. Her intellect and enthusiasm for children’s committee for reading, where she advises on promo- books and especially the importance of translation The Hans Christian Andersen Award is the high- tion and development. made her a formidable advocate for the role of est international distinction given to authors and María Beatriz Medina (from Caracas, Venezuela) translators. Patricia successfully argued the case for illustrators of books for young people. Given every is currently the Executive Director of Banco del translators receiving a share of the payments based other year by IBBY, the Hans Christian Andersen Libro in Caracas. on library borrowings when the Public Lending Awards recognize lifelong achievement and are giv- Yasmine Motawy (from Cairo, Egypt) is senior Right was introduced in the UK. en to an author and an illustrator whose complete instructor at the Department of Rhetoric and Com- Born in Bombay in 1925 (where she learnt Hin- works have made an important and lasting contribu- position at the American University in Cairo. She is di), her family returned to England in 1930. Patricia tion to literature for young people. also a free-lance translator from Arabic into English studied modern languages at Oxford University and The following were selected as members of the and the reverse. at the age of twenty-two became a translator at the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury: Lola Rubio (from Buenos Aires, Argentina) is a Nuremburg trials in Germany. Patricia spoke nine Professor of Fine Arts (Painting) from the National European languages and, amongst others, translated Denis Beznosov (from Moscow, Russia) is the School of Fine Arts, Priliduano Pueyrredón (IUNA), as books by Paul Biegel, Anne Holm, Astrid Lindgren, Head of the Cultural Project Department of the well as a specialist at the children and young adults’ and Gudrun Pausewang. She also translated Dick Russian State Children’s Library in Moscow. His book department of the Fondo de Cultura Económica Bruna’s Miffy books, and although they sold world- Patricia Crampton expertise is in culture and literary studies and liter- and the Cultural Centre manager of its bookshop in wide in Dutch, Bruna did not think they could be (photo by kind permission Harriet Crampton) ary criticism. Buenos Aires. easily translated into English. Patricia proved him Yasuko Doi (from Osaka, Japan) is the current Junko Yokota (from Evanston, IL, USA) is Profes- wrong, and the translations made his books even won many prizes, including the Marsh Award in Director and Senior Researcher at the International sor Emeritus at the National College of Education, more popular in homes and libraries throughout the 1999 for her translation of Gudrun Pausewang’s The Institute for Children’s Literature in Osaka. For the National Louis University, and was the Founding English-speaking world. Final Journey and the Eleanor Farjeon award in 1991 last twenty years, she has been a part-time lecturer of Director of the Center for Teaching through Chil- Patricia was very involved throughout her life for outstanding services to children’s books. She school librarianship at the Osaka Kyoiku University. dren’s Books at the University. in IBBY and was also the UK representative on the was also awarded the Fédération Internationale des Reina Duarte (from Barcelona, Spain) is current- Hans Christian Andersen Jury for the 1976 and Traducteurs medal for worldwide services to trans- ly the Publishing Director of Edebe Publishing Former IBBY Vice President Elda Nogueira (Rio de 1978 awards and then president of the Jury for the lation. House, which specializes in books for children and Janeiro, Brazil) and IBBY Executive Director Liz Page 1984 and 1986 awards. The role of juror and then Patricia’s funeral took place on Monday, young adults. She is also member of the Consultant (Basel, Switzerland) are ex officio Jury members. The president of the Jury required considerable work 12 December 2016, in her home town of Calne Committee of the Department of Culture of the 2018 Jury was selected by IBBY’s Executive Com- and dedication in evaluating so many novels and on what would have been her ninety-first birthday. Government of Catalonia. mittee from seventeen nominations made by its na- picture books from National Sections. She was also Her family chose a photo for the cover of the order Andrej Ilc (from Ljubljana, Slovenia) was a chil- tional sections. Jury President Patricia Aldana (Toron- a frequent attendee at international Congresses of service which summed up her sense of commit- dren’s book editor, and since 2013, he works as an to, Canada) will lead the Jury to select the winners of and was especially pleased to see so many friends ment and enjoyment, featuring Patricia with a glass editor of translated fiction for adults at Mladinska the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Awards. worldwide when the Congress was hosted in Lon- of wine partly hidden by a copy of The New Oxford knjiga. Since 1985 he has been writing regularly don in 2012. English Dictionary. about music and literature for the leading Slovenian During her lifetime, she translated more than newspapers and magazines. two hundred children’s books and fifty adult books John Dunne (including Thor Heyerdal’s The Ra Expeditions). She IBBY UK

BOOKBIRD 80 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 81 55.2–2017 Calls Calls Translating and Would you like to write for Transmediating Children’s IBBY’s journal? Literatures and Cultures

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s • the visibility and/or the invisibility of mediators of FEATURE ARTICLES authors, and parents. Short articles of ca. 2500 words Literature seeks contributions for a special issue on children’s literature Bookbird publishes articles on children’s literature discussing the ways in which you have worked with the translation and transmediation of children’s liter- with an international perspective four times a year. children and their literatures, or have watched chil- atures and cultures. Mediation – whether in the form • intergenerational dynamics in translation and Some issues are devoted to special topics. Details dren respond to literature are welcomed. of adaptation, translation or remediation – allows for transmediation (crossover fiction, family adventure and deadlines of these issues are available from a reevaluation of a variety of notions ranging from film, dual audiences, age appropriateness) Bookbird’s web pages. Articles should be approxi- LETTERS authenticity, textuality, authorship, audience agency, mately 4000 words in length.Reviews Bookbird publishes “Letters” of 700 words on indi- age appropriateness, creativity, and storytelling. • image-textual dynamics (translating illustrated vidual works of children’s literature, or focusing on a Henry Jenkins’ definition of “transmedia storytell- stories, picturebooks, novelizations and subtitlings BOOKS ON BOOKS particular author or illustrator. ing,” in particular, encapsulates the worldbuilding of children’s cinema) Bookbird also publishes reviews of critical and schol- strategies of most of today’s popular children’s arly work on children’s literature. Reviews should be POSTCARDS literary/cultural products. The lure of Alice in Won- • translation/transmediation of children’s/YA no more than 1000 words in length. The “Books on Finally, Bookbird receives “postcards” from all over derland, Harry Potter, or the Moomins is consider- literature as a negotiation process (between Books”-section is handled by the International Youth the world. These are brief presentations of ca 200 ably enhanced by the plethora of interconnected publisher demands, parental expectations, social Library in Munich, Germany. If you wish to review a words on individual books. Postcard suggestions media platforms – novel, film, animation, computer norms, children’s cognitive abilities, emotional scholarly study of children’s literature, or if you would should be sent to Barbara Lehman, who edits this game, fanfiction, cosplay, collectibles, etc – all of needs, and imaginative worlds) like to submit a review copy, contact the IYL (Jutta- section for Bookbird ([email protected]). which maximize audience engagement by unfold- [email protected]). ing an increasingly elaborate fictional reality. The • importing and exporting children’s literature and For further information, please contact: way in which each media “adds a new cultural layer, culture through translation and transmediation: global CHILDREN AND THEIR BOOKS Editor Björn Sundmark: [email protected] supporting more diverse ways of communicating, challenges, glocal specificities, East meets West Bookbird provides a forum where those working Read more about Bookbird: www.ibby.org/bookbird thinking, feeling, and creating than existed before” with children and their literature can write about Subscribe to Bookbird: www.press.jhu.edu/journals/ (Jenkins, Clinton, McWilliams) resonates with how • interfacing the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of their experiences – teachers, librarians, publishers, bookbird translation as an inventive “act of both inter-cultural translation and transmediation and inter-temporal communication” (Bassnett) allows us to see in different ways the original text that • mediators’ changing the image/voice of the child always already “bears in itself all possible translations reader and gets richer with each additional reading-rewrit- ing,” as Walter Benjamin put it.Topics for papers • metatextual and metamedial self-reflectivity in the might include, but are not limited to: service of audience engagement

• de/reconstructing fictional realities and expanding Full papers should be submitted to the editor, Björn storyworlds through media/language change Sundmark ([email protected]), and guest editor, Anna Kérchy ([email protected]) by 1 November. • domestication and foreignization as strategies of Please see Bookbird’s website at www.ibby.org/book- translating/transmediating children’s literature bird for full submission details.

BOOKBIRD 82 IBBY.ORG IBBY.ORG 83 55.2–2017 Those with Subscribe today professional interests in children’s literature or you may miss need Bookbird! something you Kimberley Reynolds, Professor of Children’s Literature should have read! University of Newcastle, UK

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