Bookbird 2 / 2024
Tracing the Evolution of Contemporary Italian Children’s Literature
Every two years Bookbird publishes a special issue devoted to the children’s literature of the IBBY congress country or region. This issue is an introduction to Italian children’s literature prepared for the 2024 biennial IBBY Congress in Trieste. As in many countries the development of writing and illustrating for a young audience took place in Italy following developments in education in which children’s books became part of the school curriculum in the 1960s. It also ran in tandem with sociocultural changes in Italy leading to a greater demand for books which reflected these. This special issue of Bookbird provides an overview of the development of writing and illustrating for young people in Italy.
The lasting impact of 1970s children’s literature is the topic for the opening article, explaining how “this epoch witnessed a compelling fusion of radical ideas with educational aims in children’s literature.” The evolution of writing for young people in Italy from the 1950s to the present forms a context for an article on children’s poetry in the preschool. Other articles feature diversity, disability, translation and biographies about women, all subjects in Italian children’s literature.
An interview with Alessandro Sanna, Italy’s first children’s laureate, draws the illustrator out on how he creates his nuanced watercolours and on his future intentions to create graphic novels. And an interview with publisher Fausta Orecchio, founder of Orecchio Acerbo in 2001, returns to the growth of children’s literature in Italy. She explains her attention to the close relationship between word and image in the picturebooks published by her company including those by renowned illustrators such as Armin Greder, Fabian Negrin, Blexbolex and Anne Brouillard.
The issue also includes “Postcards” – short recommendations of books for young readers, reviews of critical works for older readers, and of course, Focus IBBY where you can read about the winners of the 2024 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award and the 2024 IBBY-iRead Reading Promotion Award. Here the account of the activities involved in three truly outstanding projects, in France, in Columbia and in Pakistan shows what can happen when a project brings books and children together.
This is a rich issue of Bookbird which not only informs IBBY Congress participants but will also stand as an enduring focus on the riches of Italian children’s literature.
EDITORIAL
Tracing the Evolution of Contemporary Italian Children’s Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Marnie Campagnaro and Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang | 1
FEATURED ARTICLES
The Long Reach of Creativity: The Lasting Impact of 1970s Italian Children’s Literature .. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Marnie Campagnaro | 5
Words at Play for Emerging Readers: Children’s Poetry in the Framework of Italian Preschool
Education (Ages Zero to Six) .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Ilaria Filograsso | 14
From Queens to Rebel Girls? Biographies about Women within Italian Children’s Literature .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Chiara Malpezzi | 24
Diversity in Italian Picturebooks for Children: Themes, Limitations, and Provocations .. . . . . .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Paul Venzo | 32
The Sound of Silence: Metaphors of Childhood, Disability, and Incommunicability in Italian
Children’s Literature .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Silvia Pacelli | 40
The Power of Translation: Rediscovering the Work of Renée Reggiani for Young Readers Today
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Claudia Alborghetti | 48
INTERVIEWS
Watery Imaginings: Exploring the Watercolor Odysseys of Alessandro Sanna .. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Marnie Campagnaro | 55
When the Five Senses Are Not Enough: An Interview with Fausta Orecchio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Chiara Malpezzi | 58
LETTER
Peperini: A Comics Series for Young Readers by Diabolo Edizioni.. . . . . . . . by Eva van de Wiele | 61
Francesco D’Adamo’s Ordinary Moral Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Maria Rosa Truglio | 64
BOOKS ON BOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . edited by Jutta Reusch—International Youth Library | 66
FOCUS IBBY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . by Carolina Ballester | 75
POSTCARDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . edited by Siobhan Parkinson | 4, 23, 47, 57, 63, & 80
