Postmodern Picturebooks: Play, Parody, and Self-Referentiality

Summary

Over the past 15 years, there has been a pronounced trend toward a particular type of picturebook that many would label "postmodern." Postmodern picturebooks have stretched our conventional notion of what constitutes a picturebook, as well as what it means to be an engaged reader of these texts. The international researchers and scholars included in this compelling collection of work critically examine and discuss postmodern picturebooks, and reflect upon their unique contributions to both the field of children’s literature and to the development of new literacies for child, adolescent, and adult readers.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Postmodernism and Picturebooks Sylvia Pantaleo and Lawrence R. Sipe.  1. What is a Picturebook, Anyway? The Evolution of Form and Substance Through the Postmodern Era and Beyond Barbara Kiefer  2. The Artist and the Postmodern Picturebook Martin Salisbury  3. Radical Change Theory, Postmodernism and Contemporary Picturebooks Eliza T. Dresang  4. Play and Playfulness in Postmodern Picturebooks Maria Nikolajeva  5. Postmodern Picturebooks and the Transmodern Self Karen Coats  6. “They are Always Surprised at What People Throw Away”: Glocal Postmodernism in Australian Picturebooks John Stephens  7. Postmodern Picturebooks and the Material Conditions of Reading Margaret Mackey  8. The Paradox of Space in Postmodern Picturebooks Bette Goldstone  9. Imagination and Multimodality: Reading, Picturebooks, and Anxieties about Childhood Christine Hall  10. Postmodern Picturebook as Artefact: Developing Tools for an Archaeological Dig Michèle Anstey  11. Lauren Child: Utterly and Absolutely Exceptionordinarily Susan Lehr  12. Would I Lie to You?: Metalepsis and Modal Disruption in Some “True” Fairy Tales  Robyn McCallum  13. “It Doesn't Say How?”: Third Graders’ Collaborative Sense-making from Postmodern Picturebooks  Caroline McGuire, Monica Belfatti, and Maria Ghiso  14. The Voices Behind the Pictures: Children Responding to Postmodern Picturebooks Evelyn Arizpe and Morag Styles with Kate Cowan, Louiza Mallouri & Mary Anne Wolpert  15. First-Graders Interpret David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs: A Case Study Lawrence R. Sipe  16. Ed Vere’s The Getaway: Starring a Postmodern Cheese Thief Sylvia Pantaleo.  Editor and Contributor Biographies.  Index.

Author(s) Bio

Dr. Lawrence R. Sipe is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a member of the Reading/Writing/Literacy Program. He teaches courses in children's literature, ranging from picturebooks to young adult fiction, and his research interests focus on the responses of kindergarten, first- and second-graders to picture storybooks. He is the North American Editor of Children's Literature in Education.

Dr. Sylvia Pantaleo is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in language and literacy, and in literature for children and adolescents. Her program of research has focused on exploring elementary students’ understanding, interpretations and responses to contemporary picturebooks, specifically literature with Radical Change characteristics and metafictive devices.