Children’s Literature in the Nordic World

Om bogen

Nordic children’s books and media have changed greatly over the past 250 years. Form and content, materiality, concepts of childhood, and media technologies have all developed over time. The access to such media has varied too, depending on social differences and the establishment of schools, libraries, and the new institutions of the Nordic welfare states.

Nina Christensen and Charlotte Appel explore the reading cultures of Danish children from around 1750 until today. They consider specific children’s experiences, influential adults, and examples of Nordic children’s literature and translations in their historical contexts.

Pressen skrev

Ida Dybdahl, Politiken
"Uortodoks lille forskningsbog om nordisk børnelitteratur sætter store tanker i gang.

(...) Childrens Literature in the Nordic World' ... lægger et både opkvikkende og, ja, pionerende snit på børnelitteraturens historie.

[Bogen] satte væsentlige tanker i gang hos mig om betydningen af og forudsætningerne for store læseoplevelser i barndommen.

(...) Childrens Literature in the Nordic World' [kan] absolut anbefales som ansats til at fundere videre over litteraturens betydning i barndommen. En oplysende og opløftende læseoplevelse.”

Mia Österlund, Barnboken: Journal of Children’s Literature Research, Vol. 45, 2022
"Den behändiga Children’s Literature in the Nordic World (2021) med behaglig mossgrön mjukpärm är en liten pärla.

Den riktar sig i första hand till en internationell publik och är därför särskilt lämplig som kurslitteratur för internationella studenter. Men även för nordiska forskare är den överblickande studien till stor nytta.

De [författarna] är välformulerade, tydliga och deras argument är fast förankrade i aktuell forskning.

Nina Christensens och Charlotte Appels studie om nordisk barnbok gör med sin luftiga layout och sina välvalda illustrationer läsningen lätt. Det är ett läckert material som dukas upp, och egentligen vill en bara ha mer av allt och ogärna sluta vandra genom barnläsningens landskap med dessa mångkunniga ciceroner."

Signe Kjær Jensen, Nordicom Review, Volume 43, Issue 2,2022
“That the book is a much-needed and welcome contribution to the field is apparent from the beginning, when the authors draw up the contemporary landscape of children’s literature histories from the Nordic countries (...)

What sets Christensen and Appel’s book apart from other Nordic histories of children’s literature, besides the publication language, is the broad geographical and contextual scope, covering general social and cultural tendencies across the Nordic region (...)

The book will be highly useful for students of children’s literature, particularly in the Nordic countries, but also for researchers who are new to the field and wish to get a quick overview. The book would also be relevant to international researchers who want to learn more about the Nordic context of children’s literature or to study the complex interrelations between social structures and children’s learning and literature. I could even imagine using the book with international students in film or media studies, as a historical contextual overview of life and childhood in the Nordic welfare states.”

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