Picture Books as Crossover Literature

Authors:

Pages: 159-177

Abstract:

This article offers a brief overview of key contemporary perspectives on the specificity of literary communication initiated by picture books, with their interdependent verbal and visual text. The focus is on their potential to engage readers of various ages, which projects them beyond a narrowly defined domain of children’s literature and transforms them into crossover literature. The main part of the article is devoted to the analysis of four such books: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, the Bulgarian When I Want to be Silent by Zornitsa Hristova and Kiril Zlatkov, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Sciezska and Lane Smith, and Battle Bunny by Jon Sciezska, Mac Barnett and Matthew Myers.

Keywords:

picture book, crossover literature, intergenerational communication, power

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