Postmodern Picturebooks: Play, Parody, and Self-Referentiality

Over the past 15 years, there has been a pronounced trend toward a particular type of picturebook that many would label "postmodern." Postmodern picturebooks have stretched our conventional notion of what constitutes a picturebook, as well as what it means to be an engaged reader of these texts. The international researchers and scholars included in this compelling collection of work critically examine and discuss postmodern picturebooks, and reflect upon their unique contributions to both the field of children’s literature and to the development of new literacies for child, adolescent, and adult readers.

Dr. Lawrence R. Sipe is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a member of the Reading/Writing/Literacy Program. He teaches courses in children's literature, ranging from picturebooks to young adult fiction, and his research interests focus on the responses of kindergarten, first- and second-graders to picture storybooks. He is the North American Editor of Children's Literature in Education.

Dr. Sylvia Pantaleo is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in language and literacy, and in literature for children and adolescents. Her program of research has focused on exploring elementary students’ understanding, interpretations and responses to contemporary picturebooks, specifically literature with Radical Change characteristics and metafictive devices.