Authors:Siri Hovda Ottesen, Aasfrid Tysvær Abstract: “As if it never happened”: Fictional Work with Forgiveness as a Value amongst 5th–7th Graders This article examines how middle school pupils respond to an aesthetic approach to forgiveness as a value. We observed a group of pupils aged 10–12 while they were investigating and discussing Stian Hole’s picturebook Garmanns gate (Garmann’s Street, 2008) together with their teacher. We claim that Garmanns gate can be read as a story about forgiveness, and that it is also a picturebook that invites the reader to take a performative, aesthetic position; the reader is encouraged to pay attention to how the story is told as well as to the story itself (Ørjasæter, “Terskelposisjonen”). The focus of the article is to what extent investigating Garmanns gate will shed light on forgiveness, a value which is central in the Norwegian school’s purpose clause. We analysed their comments in the light of a definition that identifies different aspects of the concept of forgiveness. Our theoretical framework is Martha Nussbaum’s theory on the importance of narrative imagination in taking other peoples’ perspectives, and Louise Rosenblatt’s theory on aesthetic and efferent reading. We also refer to Maria Nikolajeva’s views on how the picturebook can promote emotional literacy. To deal with the concept of forgiveness, we use Paul Leer-Salvesen’s definition, which enables us to look at different aspects of the concept. These aspects together with “the emancipating consequences of forgiveness” are the categories we use in analysing our findings (Leer-Salvesen, Min skyld 96). We find that an aesthetic approach to Garmanns gate may provide an opportunity for a broader understanding of forgiveness, and we find that the teacher’s role is essential in guiding the pupils in the common aesthetic approach to the book, and in bringing forth reflections in the conversations. PubDate: 2022-12-09 DOI: 10.14811/clr.v45.747
Authors:Vanessa Joosen Abstract: Diverging definitions and uses of concepts such as “ageism,” “aetonormativity,” “adultism,” and “childism” point at the relative separateness of the fields of childhood studies, age studies, and children’s literature studies, while also highlighting their shared interest in questions of age, prejudice, and agency. This article uses John Wall’s concept of “childism” to highlight the potential of bringing these fields into conversation to explore intergenerational relationships. Using Anne Fine’s The Granny Book (1983) as a case study, it shows, moreover, that children’s books themselves can help foster the paradigm shift that Wall envisages with childism. Fine’s novel about four children’s resistance to their parents’ plans to move their grandmother out of their home thematises processes of othering, ageist prejudices, human rights, and intergenerational dialogue and care. While provocative scenes and gaps in the story may pose hurdles to children’s engagement and even risk reinforcing ageist stereotypes, the novel testifies to a belief in young readers’ agency and the potential for intergenerational understanding that Wall puts central in his concept of childism. PubDate: 2022-12-09 DOI: 10.14811/clr.v45.745
Authors:Nina Goga Abstract: Doing What and How' New Swedish Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults on Environmental and Climate Issues in Light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child The aim of this article is to examine a selection of new Swedish nonfiction for children and young adults focusing on how environmental and climate issues are presented and in what ways the books encourage children and young adults to actively engage in dealing with the issues that are thematized. The material for the survey is based on the Swedish Institute for Children’s Books’ Book Tasting reports on books published in the years 2015–2020 and the titles mentioned there with relevance to the topic. The theoretical and methodological framework for the study is based on recent and relevant research on nonfiction for children and young adults, and on what is referred to as a child-centered and critical approach to children's literature based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. An examination of the material in question against the background of the Convention on the Rights of the Child should be considered highly relevant because issues related to the environment and climate are affected by Article 24, which states that children have the right to the best possible health care, clean drinking water, healthy food, and a clean and safe environment to live in. PubDate: 2022-12-09 DOI: 10.14811/clr.v45.741
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