Children's Literature in the Nordic World

Children's Literature in the Nordic World

Author: Nina Christensen

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 0299336344

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This book introduces Nordic children's literature and some of the children portrayed in these stories: from the little matchbox girl and the small boy revealing the nakedness of the emperor in Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales to independent boys and girls in more recent children's books.0It provides an account of the role played by books in the lives and upbringing of children in the Nordic countries from the 18th century Enlightenment until today. The emergence of a specific market for children's books coincided with early school reforms, and children's literature has been used for education, entertainment and aesthetic experiences, for disciplining and debate, for strengthening of traditions and for experimenting with new ideals and lifestyles. 0The book addresses these and the changes and continuities in the relationship between child readers and adult authors, artists, publishers, teachers, librarians and parents. Important contexts that explain the world of children's books in the Nordic countries are introduced: family patterns and values, pedagogical methods and everyday routines in creches, kindergartens and schools, different types of libraries - as well as literary and artistic trends in everchanging media. Many such developments interact with European and global trends, but distinctive features of Nordic children's culture, cherishing the voices of independent, active and creative children, are visible - both in the books themselves and in the ways in which they are used.


Nordic Sagas as Children's Literature

Nordic Sagas as Children's Literature

Author: Velma Bourgeois Richmond

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2023-08-25

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1476649782

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This book examines translations of Icelandic sagas and the Victorian and Edwardian children's literature they inspired, some of which are canonical while others are forgotten. It covers authors like William Morris, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thomas Gray, Walter Scott, H. Rider Haggard, W.H. Auden, John Greenleef Whittier and more. In lavish volumes and modest schoolbooks, British and American writers claimed Nordic heritage and explored Nordic traditions. The sagas offered a rich and wide-ranging source for these authors: Volsunga saga's Sigurd the dragon slayer; King Olaf's saga of opposing Nordic Gods and Christianity; Frithiof's model of headstrong youth beset with unfair opposition and lost love. Grettir and Njal tell of men who accepted fate and met conflict and enemies unflinchingly; Aslaug, Gudrida, Hallberga and Hervar exerted remarkable influence; and Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky provided Americans with a Nordic heritage of discovery.


Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany

Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany

Author: Christa Kamenetsky

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2019-06-17

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 082144672X

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Between 1933 and 1945, National Socialists enacted a focused effort to propagandize children’s literature by distorting existing German values and traditions with the aim of creating a homogenous “folk community.” A vast censorship committee in Berlin oversaw the publication, revision, and distribution of books and textbooks for young readers, exercising its control over library and bookstore content as well as over new manuscripts, so as to redirect the cultural consumption of the nation’s children. In particular, the Nazis emphasized Nordic myths and legends with a focus on the fighting spirit of the saga heroes, their community loyalty, and a fierce spirit of revenge—elements that were then applied to the concepts of loyalty to and sacrifice for the Führer and the fatherland. They also tolerated select popular series, even though these were meant to be replaced by modern Hitler Youth camping stories. In this important book, first published in 1984 and now back in print, Christa Kamenetsky demonstrates how Nazis used children’s literature to selectively shape a “Nordic Germanic” worldview that was intended to strengthen the German folk community, the Führer, and the fatherland by imposing a racial perspective on mankind. Their efforts corroded the last remnants of the Weimar Republic’s liberal education, while promoting an enthusiastic following for Hitler.


Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Author: Helle Strandgaard Jensen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0197554156

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In Sesame Street: A Transnational History, author Helle Strandgaard Jensen tells the story of how the American television show became a global brand. Jensen argues that because the show's domestic production was not financially viable from the beginning, Sesame Street became a commodity that its producers assertively marketed all over the world. Sesame Street: A Transnational History combines archival research from seven countries, bolstering an insightful analysis of how local reception and rejection of the show related to the global sales strategies and American ideals it was built upon. Contrary to the producers' oft-publicized claims of Sesame Street's universality, the show was heavily shaped by a fixed set of assumptions about childhood, education, and commercial entertainment. This made sales difficult as Sesame Street met both skepticism and direct hostility from foreign television producers who did not share these ideals. Drawing on insights from new histories about childhood, education, and transnational media, the book lays bare a cultural clash of international proportions rooted in divergent approaches to children's television. In doing so, it provides a reflective backdrop to the many ongoing debates about children's media. In contrasting the positive receptions and renunciations of Sesame Street, Jensen demonstrates that it was only after a substantial rethinking of Sesame Street's aims and business model that this program ended up on numerous broadcasting schedules by the mid-1970s. Along the way, this rethinking and the constant negotiations with potential international buyers created and shaped the business and corporate brand that paved the way for the Sesame Street we know today.


The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature and Culture

The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature and Culture

Author: Claudia Nelson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-30

Total Pages: 776

ISBN-13: 1000984524

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Focusing on significant and cutting-edge preoccupations within children’s literature scholarship, The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature and Culture presents a comprehensive overview of print, digital, and electronic texts for children aged zero to thirteen as forms of world literature participating in a panoply of identity formations. Offering five distinct sections, this volume: Familiarizes students and beginning scholars with key concepts and methodological resources guiding contemporary inquiry into children’s literature Describes the major media formats and genres for texts expressly addressing children Considers the production, distribution, and valuing of children’s books from an assortment of historical and contemporary perspectives, highlighting context as a driver of content Maps how children’s texts have historically presumed and prescribed certain identities on the part of their readers, sometimes addressing readers who share some part of the author’s identity, sometimes seeking to educate the reader about a presumed “other,” and in recent decades increasingly foregrounding identities once lacking visibility and voice Explores the historical evolutions and trans-regional contacts and (inter)connections in the long process of the formation of global children’s literature, highlighting issues such as retranslation, transnationalism, transculturality, and new digital formats for considering cultural crossings and renegotiations in the production of children’s literature Methodically presented and contextualized, this volume is an engaging introduction to this expanding and multifaceted field.


International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature

International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature

Author: Peter Hunt

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 1399

ISBN-13: 113443684X

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Children's publishing is a huge international industry and there is ever-growing interest from researchers and students in the genre as cultural object of study and tool for education and socialization.


Reading the World's Stories

Reading the World's Stories

Author: Annette Y. Goldsmith

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-08-11

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1442270861

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Reading the World’s Stories is volume 5 in the Bridges to Understanding series of annotated international youth literature bibliographies sponsored by the United States Board on Books for Young People. USBBY is the United States chapter of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), a Switzerland-based nonprofit whose mission is bring books and children together. The series promotes sharing international children’s books as a way to facilitate intercultural understanding and meet new literary voices. This volume follows Children’s Books from Other Countries (1998), The World though Children’s Books (2002), Crossing Boundaries with Children’s Books (2006), and Bridges to Understanding: Envisioning the World through Children’s Books (2011) and acts as a companion book to the earlier titles. Centered around the theme of the importance of stories, the guide is a resource for discovering more recent global books that fit many reading tastes and educational needs for readers aged 0-18 years. Essays by storyteller Anne Pellowski, author Beverley Naidoo, and academic Marianne Martens offer a variety of perspectives on international youth literature. This latest installment in the series covers books published from 2010-2014 and includes English-language imports as well as translations of children’s and young adult literature first published outside of the United States. These books are supplemented by a smaller number of culturally appropriate books from the US to help fill in gaps from underrepresented countries. The organization of the guide is geographic by region and country. All of the more than 800 entries are recommended, and many of the books have won awards or achieved other recognition in their home countries. Forty children’s book experts wrote the annotations. The entries are indexed by author, translator, illustrator, title, and subject. Back matter also includes international book awards, important organizations and research collections, and a selected directory of publishers known for publishing books from other countries.


Children’s Literature and Transnational Knowledge in Modern China

Children’s Literature and Transnational Knowledge in Modern China

Author: Shih-Wen Sue Chen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-29

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 9811360839

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This book examines the development of Chinese children’s literature from the late Qing to early Republican era. It highlights the transnational flows of knowledge, texts, and cultures during a time when children’s literature in China and the West was developing rapidly. Drawing from a rich archive of periodicals, novels, tracts, primers, and textbooks, the author analyzes how Chinese children’s literature published by Protestant missionaries and Chinese educators in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries presented varying notions of childhood. In this period of dramatic transition from the dynastic Qing empire to the new Republican China, young readers were offered different models of childhood, some of which challenged dominant Confucian ideas of what it meant to be a child. This volume sheds new light on a little-explored aspect of Chinese literary history. Through its contributions to the fields of children’s literature, book history, missionary history, and translation studies, it enhances our understanding of the negotiations between Chinese and Western cultures that shaped the publication and reception of Chinese texts for children.


Norse Mythology for Kids

Norse Mythology for Kids

Author: Mathias Nordvig PhD

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Published: 2020-06-23

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1646118545

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Awaken a sense of adventure (and maybe a Kraken) with a collection of Norse mythology for kids 8 to 12 What is more awesome than the hammer-wielding thunder-god, Thor; the Queen of Asgard and all-knowing goddess, Frigg; or the gigantic sea serpent, Jormungand? Norse Mythology for Kids transports you into the Nordic lands where extraordinary creatures like giants, dwarfs, elves, and monsters walked among fearless gods and goddesses. Featuring timeless stories from such countries as Iceland, Norway, and Denmark, this is your entryway into the magical world of Scandinavian folklore. With vividly detailed illustrations that pair with each myth, you'll feel like you are defending Asgard on the battlefield with the almighty Odin, shape-shifting from a snake to a hawk with the trickster Loki, slaying dragons with the brave Sigurd, and much more. Follow these engaging Norse mythology legends, and learn everything there is to know about the tall tales of the Norse. Norse Mythology for Kids includes: 20 Marvelous myths—Explore 20 of the most memorable Norse mythology stories from Norse culture, combined into one awesome book. Follow the bloodlines—Discover the fascinating family ties between some of the most well-known and lesser-known mythical Norse characters. Language lessons—Use the glossary and pronunciation guide of essential Nordic terms to easily follow along with each story. Enter the wild world of Norse mythology with this great book for kids.


Radical Children's Literature

Radical Children's Literature

Author: K. Reynolds

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2007-04-12

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0230206204

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This book reappraises the place of children's literature, showing it to be a creative space where writers and illustrators try out new ideas about books, society, and narratives in an age of instant communication and multi-media. It looks at the stories about the world and young people; the interaction with changing childhoods and new technologies.