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Psychological Novel And Children’s Literature
Modern young adult literature bears many similarities to what has previously been called ‘the psychological novel’. A psychological novel is a work of prose-fiction which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterisation, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action. Wikipedia The psychological novel is also called “psychological realism”. A […]
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Stories To Complement The Artifacts
The Artifacts is a story about: the power of imagination the value of memory over material objects loss disappointment betrayal Here are some stories you might like to read/study if you are interested in themes touched upon in The Artifacts. Picturebooks These next three books are similar to The Artifacts in that they share a […]
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Nudity In Picturebooks
This morning Cosmopolitan reports that UK authors are pushing for children’s literature to include sex in fiction for kids. That’s quite a headline grabber. Of course, reading the actual article offers a less sensationalist request: They’re not asking too much, are they? Bear in mind that in the publishing world, ‘children’s literature’ includes the young […]
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Thoughts On The Problems With Boys And Picturebooks
UPDATE: Here is the latest hand-wringing on boys and books, this time from Jonathan Emmett. The New Statesman has published an article by Jonathan Emmett who points out that the picturebook world is dominated by women. I’m simplifying here, but basically he argues that this is one problem with picturebooks today, and the feminisation of […]
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Close Reading: Bringing reader and text closer together
First up, Larry Ferlazzo has a great list Close Reading: Am I Getting Close? from Learning Is Growing Does Background Knowledge Matter to Reading Comprehension? from Russ On Reading What, exactly is close reading of the text? from Grant Wiggins. Part two is here. The first chapter of the book Notice and Note by Beers and Probst […]
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Things Possible With Digital Stories Which Are Not So Possible With Paper Stories
A lot is being said about all the ways in which ebooks and tablet books are not as good as ‘real books’: you can’t smell them, there’s screen glare, you don’t know where you are up to in the book… Ebooks “I hate them. It’s like making believe there’s another kind of sex. There isn’t another […]
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Symbolic Annihilation and Symbolic Glorification
Symbolic annihilation is used to highlight the erasure of peoples in popular communication, including in children’s books, of course.
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Censorship of Children’s Books
App stores add an extra layer of ‘censorship’ when it comes to creating content for children.
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Reading Pictures Is A Skill In Its Own Right
Any sort of close reading of a picture book turns the reader into a semiotician. What does this mean?
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The Opposite Of Beer Brewed By Monks
Episode 55 of the 99% Invisible podcast goes into the strange psychological phenomenon whereby certain consumers will pay huge amounts for a scarce commodity. Alcohol and handbags seem especially open to this marketing manipulation, and in this case beer, not because beer connoisseurs are being manipulated per se, but because there is a monastery in Germany whose […]
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Decisions To Make When Storyboarding For Interactive Books
First things first: Does this story require an active and alert reader, and do the interactions reward interactivity and alertness? 1. Should interactions be user-initiated or autoplay? A mixture? I prefer narration to autoplay, with the option of turning it off completely from the main menu. When I have to press a button to start […]
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Do You Look Like Your Dog?
There are some researchers, who’ve been very lucky with their funding, who have studied the ways in which pets resemble their owners. If you’ve ever been to a dog show you’ll probably have noticed the phenomenon yourself. Sure enough, it’s been noted that when shown a random mixture of owner/pet photos, people are able to match […]