It is often assumed that picturebooks are for very young readers because of their emphasis on the illustrations and their scarcity of text; however, there are increasing numbers of picturebooks where the age of the implied reader is questionable. These are picturebooks whose controversial subject matter and unconventional, often unsettling style of illustration challenge the reader, pushing them to question and probe deeper to understand what the book is about. In addition to the book challenging the reader, the reader often challenges the book in an attempt to understand what is being said. These increasingly popular picturebooks work on many different levels; they are truly polysemic and worthy of in-depth analysis. They push the reader to ask questions and in many instances are intrinsically philosophical, often dealing with fundamental life issues. Challenging and Controversial Picturebooks examines these unconventional, non-conformist picturebooks, considering what they are, their audience and their purpose. It also considers: Children’s and adults’ thoughts on these kinds of picturebooks. How challenging and unsettling wordless picturebooks can play with the mind and promote philosophical thought. What creates non-conformity and strangeness … is it the illustrations and their style, the subject matter or a combination of both? Why certain countries create, promote and accept these picturebooks more than others. Why certain picturebooks are censored and what factors are in play when these decisions are made. The role of publishers in translating and publishing these picturebooks. Children’s creative and critical responses to strange, unsettling and often disturbing visual texts. This inspiring and thought-provoking volume explores the work of a number of highly respected, international picturebook experts and includes an exclusive interview with the legendary Klaus Flugge, Managing Director of Andersen Press, one of the few remaining independent children’s book publishers in England. It is an indispensable reference for all interested in or working with picturebooks, including researchers, students in higher and teacher education, English advisors/inspectors, literacy consultants and classroom teachers.

Product Description: Picturebooks, understood as a series of meaningful text-picture relations, are increasingly acknowledged as an autonomous sub-genre of children’s literature. Being highly complex aesthetic products, their use is deeply embedded in specific situations of joint attention between a caregiver and a child...read more

Product Description: Hands-on lessons can be fun and compelling, but when it comes to life science, they aren t always possible, practical, effective, or safe. Children can t follow a lion as it stalks a gazelle, visit the exotic kapok tree in a rainforest, or swim alongside the underwater life in a pond...read more

Product Description: This accessible text will show students and class teachers how they can enable their pupils to become critical thinkers through the medium of picturebooks. By introducing children to the notion of making-meaning together through thinking and discussion, Roche focuses on carefully chosen picturebooks as a stimulus for discussion, and shows how they can constitute an accessible, multimodal resource for adding to literacy skills, while at the same time developing in pupils a far wider range of literary understanding...read more

Product Description: This book shows how appropriate picture books can bring the world into the primary classroom and promote development education and children’s intercultural understanding. It responds to the research by the United Kingdom Literacy Agency in 2007 which revealed that many teachers are unaware of such books, feel unable to select contemporary literature for children and tend to rely on the books they enjoyed as children...read more

Product Description: Picture books can be portals to far-flung corners of the globe, and the books in this selected bibliography will help children's imaginations soar. Ientifying quality literature for children ages 3 to 8 that conveys a true sense of life outside American borders,k this valuable resource highlights titles that librarians and educators can use to foster cross-cultural education...read more

Product Description: This handy flipchart describes how teachers can effectively use picture books as tools for learning. Through deeper reading, students experience and respond to picture books in a way that enhances understanding and leads to renewed wonder...read more

Product Description: Despite being a source of continuing interest to educational scholars, research into the literary understanding of elementary school students has emphasized written materials over multimodal mediums such as picturebooks. Focusing on students in Grades one and five, this book describes children's interpretations of and responses to a variety of contemporary picturebooks, specifically those books that employ Radical Change characteristics and metafictive devices...read more

Product Description: Book by Teacher Created Resources Staff

Product Description: This guide seeks to identify the best picture books for addressing specific areas of the curriculum. After brief book annotations, the authors outline 20 activities for each of the five disciplines. They include materials lists, tips for success, do's and don'ts, and additional resources...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Product Description: The authors deliver concise annotations of 85 picture books; notations about the illustrative elements found in each book are followed by novel, theme, and curriculum connections. A chart is included, showing how each of the tides connects to different areas of the curriculum...read more

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Product Description: Exactly as title implies.

An annotated bibliography recommends children's books designed to enhance the child's perception, visual literacy, language development, and productive and critical thinking