Children’s Literature on the Move: Nations, Translations, Migrations

Traversing a variety of places - real and imagined, past and present, new and as old as time - Children’s Literature on the Move traces how children’s books have helped both to create national identity and to resist it, empowering readers young and old with the ability to make meaning from physical, political, and emotional upheaval. The book’s essays examine the close association that has long existed between children’s literature and the construction of national and individual identity in a variety of national and historical contexts. Tracing migrations - both real and metaphorical - between countries, languages, political situations, and stages of life, the book demonstrates how children’s literature has both promoted and resisted certain kinds of national identities. It innovatively examines genres and national contexts not often discussed, including Estonian children’s songs and Turkish periodicals for children. The book’s contributors hone in on the relationship between children’s books and national identity in the Irish context across the 20th century, in both English and Irish language publications. It closes with essays that consider the empowering potential of children’s books in contemporary contexts. Moving between Ireland and Eastern Europe, discussing authors that range from Shakespeare to Siobhan Dowd, and including cutting edge research on children’s books in translation, these essays greatly increase our understanding of how children’s literature continues to inform and be informed by notions of nation, translation, and migration. In March 2015 this book was selected unanimously by the awards committee of the Children’s Literature Association for the Edited Book Award (Series: Studies in Children’s Literature)