Children As Readers in Children Literature ─ The Power of Texts and the Importance of Reading

We are fascinated by text and we are fascinated by reading. Is this because we are in a time of textual change? Given that young people always seem to be in the vanguard of technological change, questions about what and how they read are the subject of intense debate. Children as Readers in Children’s Literature explores these questions by looking at the literature that is written for children and young people to see what it tells us about them as readers. The contributors to this book are a group of distinguished children’s literature scholars, literacy and media specialists who contemplate the multiple images of children as readers and how they reflect the power and purpose of texts and literacy.

Contributors to this wide-ranging text consider:

• How books shape the readers we become
• Cognitive and affective responses to representation of books and reading
• The relationship between love-stories and reading as a cultural activity
• Reading as ‘Protection and Enlightenment’
• Picturebooks as stage sets for acts of reading
• Readers’ perceptions of a writer

This portrayal of books and reading also reveals adults’ beliefs about childhood and literacy and how they are changing. It is a theme of crucial significance in the shaping of future generations of readers given these beliefs influence not only ideas about the teaching of literature but also about the role of digital technologies. This text is a must-read for any individual interested in the importance of keeping literature alive through reading.

Dr Evelyn Arizpe is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, University of Glasgow, UK.

Dr Vivienne Smith is Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde, UK.