A few years ago Iwona Chmielewska, Torunian artist and creator of the picturebooks could speak that the hardest thing is to be a Prophet in his own country. She was the author much more known on the publishing market in South Korea than in Poland. However, her books gradually accustom Polish publishers and readers to their ineptitude, ingenuity, poetry and creativity. An article is a short analysis of the selected (including unpublished yet in Poland) books by Chmielewska for creative workshop of their author: ideas for an intriguing content, poetic image and the specific architecture of the whole picturebook as artifact.
This study presents some of the results stemming from my research on picturebook translations for children and young adults in the context of multimodality, and in particular, the strategies used by translators of this specific type of multimodal message. The aim of the study is to determine whether translation scholars’ postulates on picturebook’s translation are reflected in reality. In order to determine this, I will investigate the choices of translators of this medium and their awareness of multimodality. I intend to conduct a series of individual in-depth interviews with picturebook translators. The first interview has already been conducted and analysed, and in this paper I present the results of this analysis. In the examples cited from the supporting material, it can be observed that the translator took into account the relationship between the textual and visual layers, changing the original text in accordance with the visual layer.
Alicja Baluch discusses recent developments in Polish small children’s literature on the basis of books submitted to the Yellow Ciżemka Award in literature, which has been awarded by the Krakow Library since 2017. Baluch emphasizes that among the entrants are many young authors, including graphic designers and illustrators, who are making their debut. The works she analyses are dominated by visual over verbal methods of narration as well as the forms of picture book and toy book. Among the new solutions, in both verbal and pictorial narratives, particularly noticeable are the interactive motifs of traces, threads, and canvases.
PL
Autorka omawia tendencje rozwojowe w najnowszej literaturze dla dzieci młodszych w Polsce na podstawie książek zgłoszonych do Nagrody Literackiej Żółtej Ciżemki, którą przyznaje Biblioteka Kraków od 2017 roku. Badaczka podkreśla, że dużą grupę wśród autorów stanowią młodzi, debiutujący twórcy, szczególnie graficy i ilustratorzy. W analizowanych utworach dominuje narracja wizualna nad słowną, forma picturebooka oraz książki-zabawki. Wśród nowych rozwiązań zarówno w narracjach werbalnych, jak i obrazowych wyróżniają się motywy śladów/tropów, nici/kanwy.
Using critical analysis of literature and authopsy method, the author describes the various artistic means used by Iwona Chmielewska in her original picturebooks. The author divides these means into two collections, according to the way in which space is depicted. The first set contains artistic means present when space is depicted flatly. The second set contains artistic means present when space is shown three-dimensionally. The paper organizes knowledge on the selected part of the publication output of Iwona Chmielewska. The author refers to the findings of native researchers of the phenomenon of Iwona Chmielewska’s picturebooks. These include: Marta Baszewka, Anna Boguszewka, Alina Brzuska-Kępa, Małgorzata Howorus-Czajka, Marta Kotkowska, Magdalena Sikorska, Katarzyna Smyczyńska. Only picturebook publications published between 2004 and 2020 were included in the study.
PL
Autorka artykułu posłużyła się metodą analizy i krytyki piśmiennictwa oraz metodą autopsji, aby opisać różne środki artystyczne wykorzystywane przez Iwonę Chmielewską w jej autorskich picturebookach. Autorka dokonuje podziału tych środków na dwa zbiory, według sposobu ukazania przestrzeni. Pierwszy zbiór zawiera środki artystyczne zaobserwowane w przestrzeni ujmowanej płasko. Drugi zbiór zawiera środki artystyczne obecne, gdy przestrzeń jest ukazana w ujęciu trójwymiarowym. Tekst porządkuje wiedzę na temat wybranego fragmentu dorobku publikacyjnego tej artystki. Autorka odwołuje się do ustaleń rodzimych badaczy fenomenu picturebooków Iwony Chmielewskiej. Są wśród nich m.in.: Marta Baszewka, Anna Boguszewka, Alina Brzuska-Kępa, Małgorzata Howorus-Czajka, Marta Kotkowska, Magdalena Sikorska, Katarzyna Smyczyńska. Badaniom poddano tylko picturebooki opublikowane w latach 2004-2020.
This article sets out to explore the dynamics through which Joyce’s version of the legend of the “devil’s bridge”, narrated in a letter addressed to his grandson, Stevie, entered the world of children’s literature in Italy. This occurred just after the legend’s publication in the USA and the UK under the title The Cat and the Devil. It was immediately turned into a picturebook, a sophisticated literary product aimed at very young readers. In fact, far from being a mere text for toddlers, the Italian Il gatto e il diavolo is at the centre of several intersemiotic and interlinguistic translations that enhance the interpretative potential and richness of Joyce’s narration, already at the crossroads between folkloric and modernist translation. The comparative analysis of three different Italian translations of the story expressly addressed to children (the first by Enzo Siciliano, published by Emme Edizioni in 1967; the second by Giulio Lughi for Edizioni EL in 1980; and the third and more recent one by Ottavio Fatica for ESG in 2010) has highlighted that the differences between them can be ascribed to distinct translation projects, aimed at building bridges between young readers and Joyce’s work in various periods of the history of the Italian literary market for children.
IT
L’articolo intende esplorare le dinamiche attraverso cui la leggenda del “ponte del diavolo”, così come raccontata da James Joyce in una lettera al nipotino Stevie, è entrata nel mondo della letteratura per l’infanzia italiana, subito dopo la sua pubblicazione negli Stati Uniti e in Gran Bretagna con il titolo The Cat and the Devil. Anche in Italia è stata subito trasformata in un prodotto letterario specifico e sofisticato, il picturebook o albo illustrato, indirizzato ai bambini in età prescolare. Lontano dall’essere, però, un semplice testo per “piccoli”, Il gatto e il diavolo si ritrova al centro di molteplici traduzioni interlinguistiche e intersemiotiche che aumentano il potenziale interpretativo e la ricchezza della narrazione di Joyce, già al crocevia della traduzione folklorica e di quella modernista. In particolare, l’analisi comparativa di tre diverse traduzioni della storia specificatamente rivolte ai bambini (la prima di Enzo Siciliano per la Emme Edizioni nel 1967, la seconda di Giulio Lughi per Edizioni EL nel 1980, e la terza di Ottavio Fatica per ESG nel 2010) ha evidenziato che le differenze tra queste edizioni possono essere ascritte a tre diversi progetti traduttivi che in maniera diversa cercano di costruire un ponte tra i diversi lettori bambini e l’opera dello scrittore irlandese in diversi momenti della storia del mercato editoriale per ragazzi in Italia.
Picturebooks are an essential tool in early literacy programs to foster first language acquisition. Hence, supporting second language acquisition through pictures seems obvious. Using symbolic and iconic features to produce meaning not only links to visual literacy, but also to the stimulation of students’ imagination. Interactions with pictures can become a key factor to reveal students’ mental processes and the role of the learners’ first language experiences. This paper focuses on the possibilities for second language acquisition that exist and how they foster visual literacy in primary school classrooms. The insights here outlined are based on a classroom project with primary school students with refugee backgrounds. The project design was based on the picturebook Seasons by Blexbolex, which offers various associations linked to spring, summer, fall and winter. In the book each season is represented by a series of images, captioned with one single word. Since the illustrator sums up the circle of life in the name of childhood, the classroom project aimed at collecting individual anecdotes from the students. During the lessons diverse learning activities were created, not only to get the students to aesthetically engage with the picturebook, but also to focus on their usefulness as a scaffolding context for language learning.
In my article, I show some examples of the reinterpretation of Maurice Sendak’s childhood emotion memories which the author included in his three picturebooks referred to as the Wild Things trilogy: Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There. The analysis covers selected threads of the artist’s rich biography and their exemplifications in the artistic creation of the images and situations he experienced during his childhood (emotions, relationships with the close and distant relatives, illnesses, loneliness, aesthetic impressions, as well as the Holocaust). The recalling of the figures of the author’s memory of emotions allows a more extensive insight into the entire approach and the understanding of his works.
The article discusses picturebooks illustrated by a Norwegian artist, Svein Nyhus, to show his specific symbolic manner of depicting the child’s environment. It is argued that the illustrator employs characteristic recurrent elements of home representations and elaborates an interesting interplay of outer and inner spaces, consistently focusing the child’s perspective. This is demonstrated by an analysis of four picturebooks by the Norwegian artist: Pappa! (1998, Daddy!), Snill (2002, Nice), Sinna mann (2003, Angry Man) and Håret till mamma (2007, Mum’s Hair). The books have been regarded as ambitious literature for children, addressing difficult issues or even sometimes breaking a taboo. To show Nyhus’ visual method of thematising childhood’s traumas in relation to a home space is also one of the aims of the paper. The analysis of visual content is carried out with references to the textual narratives, drawing on ideas about heterotopia by Michel Foucault (1984), self-effacement by Karen Horney (1997) and the poetics of space by Gaston Bachelard (1969).
Time and memory can mean very different things when discussed in philosophical and artistic terms. They are associated with the most common and, at the same time, the most intimate aspects of a human being, and they can take many forms: time can be mythic or secular, eternal or portioned in temporalities, while the broad range of memory can be found among different categories. However, both concepts are inevitably linked with artistic representation and with the power of human imagination to capture time and recreate memories via different means of artistic expression. This paper addresses evolving notions of time, particularly drawing upon the archetypal criticism and the distinction that has been utilized in the context of children’s literature between kairos (καιρός) and chronos (χρόνος) (Nikolajeva, 2000). Literature for children very often dwells on the mythic, circular, eternal time of kairos. Chronos, on the other hand, is linear, often conceived and experienced by humans in terms of suffering, loss, and death.
Iwona Chmielewska’s picturebook abc.de published in 2015 has been called a ‘dictionary’, ‘primer’, ‘ABC book’ and it has been compared to an encyclopaedia. Early-concept or concept books have been mentioned in its context, as well as the title of other books by Chmielewska, ‘thinking ABC’, this time as a specific name for a particular type of work. The terms ‘rebus’, ‘puzzle’, ‘riddle’, ‘intellectual game’ also appear frequently. All this together suggests how complex and multi-layered the book is and how much it draws on various forms. The aim of this article, therefore, is to look at what forms, in what way and for what purpose Iwona Chmielewska uses in abc.de and how it all relates to contemporary trends in the development of non-fiction picturebooks.
In the last few years on the book market there are more and more philosophical books intended for children, or at least ‘philosophising’. A large part of the publication of this type are picturebooks, using an image as the main carrier of information. In this article we will try to answer the question whether the adoption of such a convention – it is constructing content based not only on the text, but also as a significant image (sometimes made by the same person) can be helpful with these ‘unspeakable’ concepts. How authors and illustrators are trying to present the most general and the most difficult issues? Whether the use of the image would be helpful in this case, or what ‘unspeakable’ is also ‘unillustrateable’?
PL
W ostatnich latach na rynku księgarskim pojawia się coraz więcej przeznaczonych dla dzieci książek filozoficznych, bądź przynajmniej „filozofujących”. Duża część publikacji tego typu to picturebooki, posługujące się obrazem jako głównym nośnikiem informacji. W niniejszym artykule spróbujemy odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy konstruowanie treści w oparciu nie tylko o tekst, ale i o równie istotny obraz może być pomocne w przedstawieniu pojęć abstrakcyjnych. W jaki sposób autorzy i ilustratorzy próbują prezentować najbardziej ogólne, a zarazem najtrudniejsze zagadnienia filozoficzne? Czy posługiwanie się obrazem jest w tym przypadku ułatwieniem, czy też może to, co „niewysławialne”, jest zarazem „nieilustrowalne”?
In the article we analyze contemporary informational books for children available in Poland: our aim is to review previous research and introduce new concepts into the Polish scientific circuit. The text is divided into four main parts preceded by an introduction: the first discusses selected genres (e.g., early-concept books and comics), the second focuses on paratext, rhetoric, and ideology, the third is an overview of selected topics (sexuality, ecology, and art), and the last examines temporal and cross-border nature of analyzed books.
In this article, Marta Kotkowska appeals to the category of the iconic turn and appoints insignias of picturebooks of Iwona Chmielewska. The researcher also analyses meanings of the artistic expression which author uses in her books. Relying on this characterization, Marta Kotkowska presents how this “in between” words and images works, and how, almost in the real time, it generates and transform meanings. In the description of the almost indiscernible and elusive relation between the word and the image which constitutes picturebook, the semiotic categories, such as the sign, the symbol and the visual metaphor are used. The editorial deliberations concerning the congeniality of analyzing projects are summing the whole article. They emphasize that Chmielewska creates every book even in the smallest detail and with full consciousness and that both format, cover and paper, and words and images, are significant.
Krstoslava (Slava, Krsta) Franić (1881. − 1957.) bila je hrvatska spisateljica, školovana za učiteljicu, koja se često javljala različitim prilozima u dnevnome tisku. Za dječju je književnost osobito zanimljiva njezina knjižica, zapravo slikovnica, Nadzornikova deca oliti huncmutarije gradske dece na ladajnu koja je doživjela čak dva izdanja. Objavljujemo ovdje pretisak drugoga, koprivničkoga izdanja ovoga iznimno zanimljivoga i nepravedno zaboravljenoga djela iz baštine hrvatske dječje književnosti, uz priručni rječnik.
EN
Krstoslava (Slava, Krsta) Franić (1881 − 1957) was a Croatian writer, a teacher by education, who frequently published various short texts in newspapers. Her booklet or, rather, a picturebook, Nadzornikova deca oliti huncmutarije gradske dece na ladanju [The School Inspector’s Children or Town Children’s Pranks in the Country], is particularly relevant as children’s literature. Here we reprint the second, Koprivnica edition of this attention-grabbing and undeservedly forgotten piece from the history of Croatian children’s literature. A short Glossary in Croatian of some less known words is added.
The goal of the article is to show the potential of the war metaphor applied in the picturebook medium and reflect upon the cultural premises of its use. The analysed material includes three Polish and two Scandinavian books, published within four years, 2011–2014: Pamiętnik Blumki1 (Blumka’s Diary, 2011) by Iwona Chmielewska, Powieki (The Eyelids, 2012) by Michał Rusinek and Ola Cieślak, Ostatnie przedstawienie panny Esterki (Miss Esterka’s Last Performance, 2014) by Adam Jaromir and Gabriela Cichowska, Lejren (The Camp, 2011) by Oscar K. and Dorte Karrebæk and Krigen (The War, 2013) by Gro Dahle and Kaia Dahle Nyhus.
My dad became a star: Thanatos in Ukrainian picturebooks After the Euromaidan Revolution, war and death became major topics in many books for children and young adults. The main focus of the article is the representation of death and loss in Halyna Kyrpa’s picturebook Мій тато став зіркою (illustrated by Oksana Bula). After losing her father, the nameless protagonist struggles to understand war and death. The author argues that the genre of the picturebook and the first-person narrative make the story more comprehensible for young readers who can see the protagonist’s maturation.
UK
Мій тато став зіркою. Танатос в українських ілюстрованих книжках Соціо-політична ситуація в Україні змінила статус Танатоса в дитячій літературі. Після Євромайдану війна і смерть стали основними темами багатьох книжок для дітей і молоді. У центрі уваги смерть, змальована в книжці Галини Кирпи Мій тато став зіркою (ілюстрованій Оксаною Булою). Після втрати батька, головний герой, імені якого читач не знає, намагається зрозуміти суть війни і смерті. Автор дослідження твердить, що жанр picturebook і оповідь від першої особи роблять історію більш зрозумілою для юних читачів, які спостерігають за змінами, що відбуваються з протагоністом.
The article concerns contemporary perspectives on early education, early, emergent and visual literacy, and concepts of the development of cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional competencies by using picturebooks in the dialogic reading method. Picturebooks for small children, especially earlyconcept picturebooks, which present nouns, verbs, or adjectives and are aesthetically designed, have a great potential, and are important for the gaining of cognitive, emotional, and visual codes and ideas by the child, especially when they are introduced by an adult (parent at home or teacher in a preschool institution) through an active, dialogic manner of reading. Dialogic reading is shown and described by G.J. Whitehurst and other researchers as an interactive and stimulating method of cognitive and socio-emotional development, which enhances the children’s speaking and reading competencies independently of their class, race, or gender – which is of emancipatory significance. The main aim of the text is to turn the reader’s attention to the significance of interactive reading of precisely selected, high-quality picturebooks by parents and early education teachers in the context of children’s development.
W artykule zawarto rozważania i pytania o możliwe odsłony ideologii dzieciństwa egzepmlifikowane we współczesnych książkach obrazkowych dla dzieci. Podjęto także zadanie ukazania pracy dyskursów i ideologii dzieciństwa (dziecka jako „wdzięcznego stworzonka”, dzieciństwa jako stanu przedludzkiego oraz dzieciństwa o politycznej i etycznej potencjalności) oraz zróżnicowanych sposobów traktowania kulturowego tabu we współczesnych książkach obrazkowych dla dzieci. Jako metodę badania obrano analizę zawartości treści i formy książek ilustrujących dane ideologie i ich relacje z tabu oraz krtytyczną analizę dyskursu, pozwalającą ukazać sposoby utrzymania, omijania i zerwania tabu w książkach obrazkowych tworzonych dla dzieci.
EN
This article analyses the question of the possible presentation of childhood ideologies in contemporary picturebooks for children. It attempts to show the work of discourses and ideologies of childhood (the child as a „sweet creature”, childhood as a pre-human condition, and childhood with political and ethical potentiality), as well as a variety of ways in which cultural taboos are tackled in contemporary picturebooks for children. The research was based on an analysis of both the contents and the form of books illustrating specific ideologies and their relation with the taboo, as well as critical discourse analysis, facilitating the presentation of various ways in which taboos are maintained, omitted, or broken in picturebooks created for children.
Celem artykułu jest analiza publikacji zilustrowanych przez Emilię Dziubak. W ich opisie wykorzystano metodę analizy dokumentu, a w niej analizę estetyczną poszczególnych ilustracji z książki i ich całokształtu oraz analizę formalną, która obejmuje takie cechy fizyczne książki, jak format, objętość, kolor stron i czcionek. Istotnym elementem było badanie poszczególnych ilustracji pod względem ich proweniencji estetycznej. Korzystając z wiedzy na temat twórców, którymi się inspiruje E. Dziubak, porównywano ilustracje z obrazami Pietera Bruegla Starszego i Romana Kochanowskiego.
EN
The aim of the article is to analyse publications illustrated by Emilia Dziubak. Their description uses the method of document analysis, which includes an aesthetic analysis of individual illustrations from the book and their entirety, as well as a formal analysis that includes such physical features of the book as format, volume, page colour and font. An important element was the examination of individual illustrations in terms of their aesthetic provenance. Using the knowledge of the artists inspired by E. Dziubak, the illustrations were compared with paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Roman Kochanowski.
This article discusses the possible uses of picturebooks in an ESL classroom (grades 1-3). First, it offers an overview of the picturebook theory, focusing on its educational potential as far as teaching English is concerned. Then the selected examples are presented: "I will not ever never eat a tomato" (Lauren Child); "Meerkat mail" (Emily Gravett); "The rabbit problem" (Emily Gravett); "Have you seen who’s just moved in next door to us? "(Colin McMaughton); "Katie and the Mona Lisa" (James Mayhew). These texts are then analysed as useful material in an ESL classroom, with due attention paid to the requirements and recommendations put forward in the Ministerial curriculum for grades 1-3 of elementary school.
PL
Niniejszy artykuł omawia możliwości zastosowania książek obrazkowych podczas lekcji języka angielskiego w klasach 1-3 szkoły podstawowej. Pierwsza część artykułu traktuje o książkach obrazkowych jako gatunku literackim, ich definicjach oraz ogólnych założeniach dotyczących ich zastosowania w nauczaniu dzieci języka obcego. Następnie pokrótce przedstawione zostają wybrane anglojęzyczne przykłady gatunku: "I will not ever never eat a tomato" (Lauren Child); "Meerkat mail" (Emily Gravett); "The rabbit problem" (Emily Gravett); "Have you seen who’s just moved in next door to us? "(Colin McMaughton); "Katie and the Mona Lisa" (James Mayhew). Zasadniczą część artykułu stanowi analiza powyższych książek obrazkowych, wskazująca na ich możliwe wykorzystanie w nauczaniu języka angielskiego w oparciu o założenia podstawy programowej dla klas 1-3.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.