Carol Matas

Perry Nodelman

Follows the adventures of two royal teenaagers who possess extraordinary mental powers.

Of Two Minds

Coping with being poor during the Depression is hard enough, but Sally also has to contend with anti-Jewish sentiment when she ventures outside her familiar neighbourhood near Toronto's Kensington Market. Her cousin Benny is always getting into scrapes or dragging Sally into his hare-brained schemes. But it's also Benny who tries to open Sally's eyes to the wider world, telling her about Hitler's rise in Europe and urging her to stand up for herself when she comes across anti-Semitism. A historical note gives readers the background of the Depression, which hit Canada harder than most other countries. It also describes the way Jews were treated in Canada. Today's readers might be surprised to know that there were people in Toronto who prided themselves on being part of The Swastika Club. A map, photographs and documents provide a visual context for the story.

The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen

Not a Nickel to Spare

Mavis Reimer

Offers an overview of children's literature in the context of professional discussion of children's literature and reading. Focusing on controversial issues and designed to provoke thought and debate, this text examines literary response to and analysis of the field of literary texts written by adults for children.

The Pleasures of Children's Literature

Trouble comes to the kingdom of Gepeth in the form of a flying giant, the appearance of forbidden snow, a tornado, and the loss of Princess Lenora's extraordinary mental powers.

More Minds

Analyzes six popular children's books to define the genre and explains ways that adult experience and expectations can change the meaning of the text.

Defining Children's Literature

The Hidden Adult

Sarah Ellis

Jean Little

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Karleen Bradford

Julie Lawson

Maxine Trottier

Sarah Ellis, Julie Lawson, Karleen Bradford, Jean Little, Carol Matas, Perry Nodelman, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch, Maxine Trottier

A wonderful seasonal anthology for Dear Canada readers, both old and new! A real treat for fans of this series, and all lovers of historical fiction! Eleven stories that each revisit a favourite character from books in the Dear Canada series are included in this special collection. These are completely original tales that stand alone as heartwarming Christmas stories, but also serve as a lovely "next chapter" to their original books. Each story is written by one of Canada's top award-winning writers for children, including Jean Little, Sarah Ellis, Maxine Trottier, Carol Matas and more. This collection is a lovely companion to A Season of Miracles, and will be treasured year after year at holiday time!

Tales of Comfort and Joy

A Christmas to Remember

Determined to rescue his baby sister from the Fairies, John Nesbit travels into the world of the Strangers and discovers an unusual world of human-headed flying dogs and a hollow man. When John Nesbit discovers that his little sister has been stolen by a weird group of fairies and replaced with a changeling, he knows he must rescue her. Although his journey to the world of the Strangers will lead to confrontations with terrifying creatures, John is determined to return his sister home safely through his own determination and the helpful insight of a classmate. Simultaneously funny and startling, The Same Place but Different is a richly satisfying adventure that combines British mythology and oral traditions with contemporary characters and settings.

The Same Place But Different

"A pioneering study of a unique narrative form, Words about Pictures examines the special qualities of picture books--books intended to educate or tell stories to young children. Drawing from a number of aesthetic and literary sources, Perry Nodelman explores the ways in which the interplay of the verbal and visual aspects of picture books conveys more narrative information and stimulation than either medium could achieve alone. Moving from "baby" books, alphabet books, and word books to such well-known children's picture books as Nancy Ekholm Burkert's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gerald McDermott's Arrow to the Sun, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and Chris Van Allsburg's The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Nodelman reveals how picture-book narrative is affected by the exclusively visual information of picture-book design and illustration as well as by the relationships between pictures and their complementary texts."--pub. desc.

The Narrative Art of Children's Picture Books

Words about Pictures

Out Of Their Minds

Of Two Minds (Point Fantasy)

Things sure are wrong, and Lenora wants to right them. The headstrong princess craves an adventure, and defeating the giant who has appeared up north would be a great one. The trouble is, no one will let her help. They want her to stay behind and plan her wedding to Prince Coren of Andilla, but Lenora has absolutely no use for color schemes or pew ribbons. Using the power to create whatever she imagines -- an ability that all Gepethians have, but have agreed not to use -- Lenora imagines a duplicate of herself (a duplicate who cares about pew ribbons) to stay at home, while she sets off on her mission. Quickly, Lenora realizes that the giant is just a symptom of a larger problem, and as she is joined by Coren and both of their duplicates, her adventure spirals out of control.

This book is about the implications of novels for young readers that tell their stories by alternating between different narrative lines focused on different characters. It asks: if you make sense of fiction by identifying with one main character, how do you handle two or more of them? Do novels with alternating narratives diverge from longstanding conventions and represent a significant change in literature for young readers? If not, how do these novels manage to operate within the parameters of those conventions? This book considers answers to these questions by means of a series of close readings that explore the structural, educational and ideological implications of a variety of American, British, Canadian and Australian novels for children and for young adults.

Twice Upon a Time

Alternating Narratives in Fiction for Young Readers

A pioneering study of a unique narrative form, Words about Pictures examines the special qualities of picture books--books intended to educate or tell stories to young children. Drawing from a number of aesthetic and literary sources, Perry Nodelman explores the ways in which the interplay of the verbal and visual aspects of picture books conveys more narrative information and stimulation than either medium could achieve alone. Moving from "baby" books, alphabet books, and word books to such well-known children's picture books as Nancy Ekholm Burkert's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gerald McDermott's Arrow to the Sun, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and Chris Van Allsburg's The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Nodelman reveals how picture-book narrative is affected by the exclusively visual information of picture-book design and illustration as well as by the relationships between pictures and their complementary texts.

Naomi Hamer

This volume represents the current state of research on picture books and other adjacent hybrid forms of visual/verbal texts such as comics, graphic novels, and book apps, with a particular focus on texts produced for and about young people. When Perry Nodelman’s Words about Pictures: the Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books was published almost three decades ago, it was greeted as an important contribution to studies in children’s picture books and illustration internationally; and based substantially on it, Nodelman has recently been named the 2015 recipient of the International Grimm Award for children’s literature criticism. In the years since Words About Pictures appeared, scholars have built on Nodelman’s groundbreaking text and have developed a range of other approaches, both to picture books and to newer forms of visual/verbal texts that have entered the marketplace and become popular with young people. The essays in this book offer 'more words' about established and emerging forms of picture books, providing an overview of the current state of studies in visual/verbal texts and gathering in one place the work being produced at various locations and across disciplines. Essays exploring areas such as semiological and structural aspects of conventional picture books, graphic narratives and new media forms, and the material and performative cultures of picture books represent current work not only from literary studies but also media studies, art history, ecology, Middle Eastern Studies, library and information studies, and educational research. In addition to work by international scholars including William Moebius, Erica Hateley, Nathalie op de Beeck, and Nina Christensen that carries on and challenges the conclusions of Words about Pictures, the collection also includes a wide-ranging reflection by Perry Nodelman on continuities and changes in the current interdisciplinary field of study of visual/verbal texts for young readers. Providing a look back over the history of picture books and the development of picture book scholarship, More Words About Pictures also offers an overview of our current understanding of these intriguing texts.

Perry Nodelman

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