Bookbird

A Journal of International Children's Literature

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature (ISSN 0006 7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly by IBBY. Bookbird aims to communicate new ideas to the community of readers interested in children's books and is open to any topic in the field of international children's literature. Bookbird also includes themed issues for which the editor will post calls for manuscripts on the IBBY website. Bookbird also includes news of IBBY projects and events which are highlighted in the Focus IBBY column. Other regular features include coverage of children's literature studies and children's literature awards around the world as well as reading promotion projects worldwide.

Bookbird is indexed by Scopus and is available in print and online through Project Muse. For more information see below and the Bookbird Facebook page.

Bookbird en Español

Bookbird, Inc. se complace en anunciar que Bookbird, la revista de literatura infantil internacional de IBBY está disponible en versión digital en  español. Bookbird en español reproduce el contenido íntegro y el formato idéntico al de la edición en inglés, y se edita trimestralmente, poco después de la publicación del número en su versión original.

Bookbird en español es una publicación de Jacarandá Editoras (Argentina). Para más información sobre la revista y cómo suscribirse, visite bookbird-esp.com.ar.

¡Disfrute de la maravillosa revista de IBBY desde ya, en su idioma!

Bookbird, Inc. is delighted to announce that IBBY’s journal Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature  is now available in Spanish in an online edition. The contents and layout will be exactly the same as in the English language edition, and each issue will appear soon after each English language issue is published. 

Bookbird en Español is produced by Jacarandá Editoras in Argentina. Details about subscribing may be found at bookbird-esp.com.ar.

Now Spanish speakers can read IBBY’s wonderful journal in Spanish!

Latest Bookbird issue

Bookbird Issue 2 / 2024 (62.4)
Tracing the Evolution of Contemporary Italian Children’s Literature

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Call for Papers - "Nonfiction in children's books"

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature is seeking contributions for a special issue on Nonfiction in Children’s Literature
Call open until 30 August 2024

We are living in the age of information and misinformation, where the current state of technology both promises remarkable advancements in knowledge and continually blurs the lines between reality and fiction. From AI advocates envisioning a future where humans exist as immortal programs within machine to DNA studies tracing the peopling of every continent over the thousands of years, from bots masquerading as people and “deep fakes” emulating artifacts plaguing our screens, to our ever-expanding ability to access and translate archives in any language, we imbibe and exhale information with every breath. Texts, images, videos, and sound can be ever more easily manipulated, manufactured, and distorted. In this fast-changing environment, the world of books for children and young adults is inevitably affected and transformed. What are the boundaries of fiction and nonfiction? Where do children’s books fit in this universe where digital information both connects and entraps us? Or a more extreme question, how do we define, use, and understand nonfiction books for children and young adults in this era?

 

The scholarly exploration of youth nonfiction is an emerging field in this challenging time. As Nina Goga, Sarah Hoem Iversen, and Anne-Stefi Teigland argue in their edited volume, Verbal and Visual Strategies in Nonfiction Picturebooks (2021), there has been an “unwillingness to include the many verbal and visual strategies of nonfiction within the concept of children’s literature.” This gap in the research opens up a new opportunity. On the one hand, we have the chance to explore with fresh eyes what “nonfiction” books have the capacity to achieve—how they narrate, engage, challenge, inspire readers through words, design, and images both created by artists and discovered in archives. On the other hand, we must examine the beliefs, biases, prejudices, and assumptions that result in excellence in children’s literature being overwhelmingly associated with fiction. What is the aesthetic excellence in children’s nonfiction? What role can nonfiction play in the reading lives of children and young adults?

 

The focus in this special issue of Bookbird is on nonfiction for children and teenagers—what it has to offer to those readers and its place in the worldview of the adult gatekeepers. We are looking for submission addressing the following matters:

 

  • The ability, or inability, of nonfiction to inspire imagination
  • When nonfiction uses photographs as illustrations, the book designer rather than an artist shapes the flow of art and text. How do these choices influence readers?
  • How do we draw the border between narrative nonfiction and historical fiction for young readers?
  • The artistic consideration in image replication / reproduction in nonfiction graphic novels or pictureboosk, including the use of paratexts
  • The positioning of nonfiction and reading for pleasure
  • The historical study of nonfiction and its place in children’s literature
  • The uses of nonfiction in libraries, schools, and reading promotion
  • The attitude towards nonfiction books for children and young adults, including the abiding preference for fiction books in various awards for children’s books.
  • History is often taught as a national pageant in order to inculcate specific values of patriotism and citizenship in students, how can books with transnational and transcultural narratives bring readers broader perspectives on subjects such as migration, climate, trade, science, disease, biology, the spread of ideas and philosophies?

Full papers should be submitted to the editor, Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang (chrysogonus.siddha.malilang@mau.se), and guest editor Marc Aronson (aronson.marc@gmail.com) by 30 August 2023. We also welcome submissions for “Letters” and “Children and Their Books” with the same topics. Full submission details are available in the section "Call for Paper: General guidelines" located on this web page.

Submission Guidelines

Call For Papers - General Guidelines

Bookbird: A Flight Through Time

Subscriptions and Back Issues

Editor and Editorial Review Board

Ethics and Malpractice Statement