research in children's literature

The Children's Literature Research Collections

The Children's Literature Research Collections, home of the Kerlan Collection, holds books, manuscripts, illustrations, comic books, story papers, and other materials related to the creation of historical and modern children's literature, including manuscripts and original artwork. Find information on upcoming Kerlan events on our events page .

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The Kerlan Collection Endowed Chair Fund

To ensure that the Kerlan Collection of Children's Literature remains at the forefront of children's literature archives worldwide, please consider a gift to the Kerlan Collection Endowed Chair Fund.

Digital and teaching resources

Unable to visit the library in person? Explore our online resources and curated digital exhibits.

Digital exhibits

Our curated digital exhibits bring children's literature into your home or classroom.

The ABC of It exhibit catalog

The catalog for our 2019 exhibit, curated by Leonard Marcus, may be purchased from the University of Minnesota Press or downloaded for free on the Libraries' Publishing Services page.

Writing Boxes: The Reading/Writing Connection in Libraries

Download curator Lisa Von Drasek's guide for librarians teaching writing workshops to early and young adult readers.

A limited amount of our materials have been scanned and made available to the public on the University of Minnesota's UMedia Archive. Browse our collection materials  on their website .

The Kerlan blog

Read curator Lisa Von Drasek's latest children's book reviews and blog posts.

Explore the CLRC

Learn more about our collections, upcoming events, and additional ways to support the work of the CLRC and the Kerlan Collection.

Learn about our collections

Learn about the many exciting collections housed at the CLRC, including the world-famous flagship Kerlan Collection, the Hess Collection (containing story papers, dime novels, and pulps), the Borger Comic Book Collection, and others.

Search the collections

Search the Libraries catalog, and view a list of archival collections, including original manuscripts and artwork held by the CLRC.

Events and news

Learn more about upcoming events, read our newsletter, and explore other related resources.

Fund your research

Interested in researching at the CLRC? Learn about funding opportunities for visiting, available to scholars and children's book creators.

For general reference inquiries or appointment requests please contact [email protected].

Search collections

For more information on finding materials in the Children's Literature Research Collections, including a list of archival collection guides for materials held in the Kerlan Collection, visit the search our collections page .

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Children's Literature Research Collections

Give to the collection, kerlan collection endowed chair fund.

The Kerlan is a leading collection of contemporary children’s literature. Learn more about how you can support the future of the collection with your gift to the Endowed Chair Fund. 

Kerlan Friends

Learn more becoming a member of Kerlan Friends with an annual donation to support the mission and work of the Kerlan Collection.

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Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Cambridge

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Multifaceted research in children's literature and culture

Research in children’s literature and culture at Cambridge is multifaceted and touches upon every aspect of children’s and young people’s lives, exploring what is children’s literature and its role in children’s and young people’s intellectual, emotional, and social development.

The Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Cambridge is jointly funded by the Faculty of Education and Homerton College .

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Children's Literature

Lisa Rowe Fraustino , Hollins University

Journal Details

Editorial correspondence should be addressed to:

The Editors Children's Literature Hollins University P.O. Box 9677 Roanoke, VA 24020 E-mail:  [email protected]

Manuscripts submitted should conform to the style in this issue. Submission as an e-mail attachment (MS Word) is preferred. To facilitate anonymous review, the author’s name should not appear on the essay. Please provide full contact information in a separate document. Double-spacing should be used throughout text and notes.

The Hopkins Press Journals Ethics and Malpractice Statement can be found at the ethics-and-malpractice  page.

Peer Review Policy

Children's Literature  is the annual publication of the Children's Literature Association and the MLA Division on Children's Literature.

Essays submitted to  Children's Literature  should be original work that is not under review elsewhere. We will consider translations of previously published work, if the material is seen as useful for our readers. Submissions are initially reviewed by the editor. Strong submission are then sent to two reviewers. Both author and reviewers remain anonymous to each other throughout the process.

We publish theoretically-based articles that demonstrate an awareness of key issues and criticism in children’s literature. We typically require at least one round of revision in response to reviewers' comments; often published essays go through two or more rounds of revision. Accepted essay are edited by the editor, the JHUP copy-editor, and a proof reader. Authors can expect a twelve to twenty-four month time frame from first submission to publication.

Editor-in-Chief

Lisa Rowe Fraustino Hollins University

Book Review Editor

Melissa Jenkins, Wake Forest University

Editorial Assistant

Lisa J. Radcliff,  Hollins University

Children’s Literature Advisory Board

Janice M. Alberghene,  Fitchburg State University    Ruth B. Bottigheimer,  SUNY at Stony Brook    Elisabeth Rose Gruner,  University of Richmond    Margaret Higonnet,  University of Connecticut    U. C. Knoepflmacher,  Princeton University    Roderick McGillis, University of Calgary

Children’s Literature Association Officers 2016–2017

Kenneth Kidd,  University of Florida,  President   Teya Rosenberg,  Texas State University,  Vice President/President-Elect   Annette Wannamaker,  Eastern Michigan University,  Past President   Gwen Athene Tarbox,  Western Michigan University,  Secretary   Roberta Seelinger Trites,  Illinois State University,  Treasurer

Children’s Literature Association Board of Directors

Philip Nel,  Kansas State University , 2014-2017   Sara Schwebel,  University of South Carolina , 2014-2017   Marah Gubar,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 2015-2018   Joe Sutliff Sanders,  Kansas State University , 2015-2018   Eric L. Tribunella,  University of Southern Mississippi , 2015-2018   Thomas Crisp,  Georgia State University , 2016-2019   Elisabeth Gruner,  University of Richmond , 2016-2019   Jackie Horne,  Independent Scholar , 2016-2019   Nathalie op de Beeck,  Pacific Lutheran University , 2016-2019

Send books for review to:   Melissa Jenkins     English Department     Wake Forest University     P.O. Box 7387     Winston Salem, NC 27109-7387     Email queries to: [email protected]      

Review copies received by the Johns Hopkins University Press office will be discarded.

Abstracting & Indexing Databases

• Web of Science
• Biography Index: Past and Present (H.W. Wilson), vol.22, 1994-vol.38, 2010
• Book Review Digest Plus (H.W. Wilson), 1988-
• Education Research Complete, 1/1/1993-
• Education Research Index, Jan.1993-
• Education Source, 1/1/1993-
• Humanities Abstracts (H.W. Wilson), 1/1/1988-
• Humanities Index (Online), 1988/00-
• Humanities International Complete, 1/1/1993-
• Humanities International Index, 1/1/1993-
• Humanities Source, 1/1/1988-
• Humanities Source Ultimate, 1/1/1988-
• Library & Information Science Source, 1/1/1972-1/1/1982
• MasterFILE Complete, 1/1/1993-
• MasterFILE Elite, 1/1/1993-
• MasterFILE Premier, 1/1/1993-
• MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
• OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson), 1/1/1988-
• Poetry & Short Story Reference Center, 1/1/1993-
• Professional Development Collection, 1/1/1993-
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (Repertoire International de Litterature Musicale)
• TOC Premier (Table of Contents), 1/1/1995-
• Book Review Index Plus
• Gale Academic OneFile
• Gale Academic OneFile Select, 01/1989-
• Gale General OneFile, 01/1989-
• Gale OneFile: Educator's Reference Complete, 01/1981-
• Gale OneFile: Leadership and Management, 01/1981 -
• InfoTrac Custom, 1/1981-
• ArticleFirst, vol.24, 1996-vol.39, no.1, 2011
• Electronic Collections Online, vol.31, no.1, 2003-vol.39, no.1, 2011
• Periodical Abstracts, v.19, 1991-2011
• Education Collection, 1/1/1991-
• Education Database, 1/1/1991-
• Literary Journals Index Full Text
• Periodicals Index Online
• Professional ProQuest Central, 01/01/1991-
• ProQuest 5000, 01/01/1991-
• ProQuest 5000 International, 01/01/1991-
• ProQuest Central, 01/01/1991-
• ProQuest Professional Education, 01/01/1991-
• Research Library, 01/01/1991-
• Social Science Premium Collection, 01/01/1991-
• The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)

Abstracting & Indexing Sources

• Children's Book Review Index   (Active)  (Print)
• Children's Literature Abstracts   (Ceased)  (Print)
• MLA Abstracts of Articles in Scholarly Journals   (Ceased)  (Print)

Source: Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory.

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Readers include: Librarians, teachers, writers, scholars, and those interested in children's literature

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Also of Interest

Joseph Michael Sommers, Central Michigan University

Kate Quealy-Gainer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Linda Mahood, University of Guelph

Dora Malech, Johns Hopkins University

David L. Russell, Ferris State University; Karin E. Westman, Kansas State University; and Naomi J. Wood, Kansas State University

Ted Atkinson, Mississippi State University

Adam Ross, The University of the South

Meghan O’Rourke

Nathan L. Grant, Saint Louis University

Charles Henry Rowell

Maria Farland, Fordham University and Duncan Faherty, Queens College and The CUNY Graduate Center

Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang, Malmö University, Sweden

Hopkins Press Journals

Children's Literature Collections

Approaches to Research

• Keith O'Sullivan 0 ,
• Pádraic Whyte 1

School of English, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

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School of English, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

• Presents the culmination of a two-year project on children’s books in Ireland, bringing together books published across five centuries
• Contributes to the critical resources available on children’s literature in collections, and specifically, in terms of collecting, librarianship, education, and children’s literature studies
• Offers a complex view of children’s literature collections by showing the varied approaches to researching collections.

Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature (CRACL)

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• Table of contents

About this book

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

• Pádraic Whyte, Keith O’Sullivan

History and Canonicity

Instruction with delight: evidence of children as readers in eighteenth-century ireland from the collections of dublin city library and archive.

• Máire Kennedy

Irish Children’s Books 1696‒1810: Importation, Exportation and the Beginnings of Irish Children’s Literature

• Anne Markey

The Great Famine in Irish History Textbooks, 1900–1971

• Ciara Boylan

The Development of the Irish Immigrant Experience in Irish-American Children’s Literature 1850‒1900

• Ciara Gallagher

Author and Text

Time and the child: the case of maria edgeworth’s early lessons.

• Aileen Douglas

Picking Grandmamma’s Pockets

• Jarlath Killeen, Marion Durnin

From Superstition to Enchantment: The Evolution of T. Crofton Croker’s Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland

• Ciara Ní Bhroin

‘Firing for the Hearth’: Storytelling, Landscape and Padraic Colum’s The Big Tree of Bunlahy

Pádraic Whyte

Ideals and Institutions

Kildare place society and the beginnings of formal education in ireland.

• Susan M. Parkes

Homespun Books: Creating an Irish National Children’s Literature

• Julie Anne Stevens

The Puffin Story Books Phenomenon: Popularization, Canonization and Fantasy, 1941‒1979

• Keith O’Sullivan

Picturing Possibilities in Children’s Book Collections

• Valerie Coghlan

Back Matter

• Children's literature
• Archival studies
• Collections
• Irish Studies
• children's literature
• English literature
• history of literature
• twentieth century

This book provides scholars, both national and international, with a basis for advanced research in children’s literature in collections. Examining books for children published across five centuries, gathered from the collections in Dublin, this unique volume advances causes in collecting, librarianship, education, and children’s literature studies more generally. It facilitates processes of discovery and recovery that present various pathways for researchers with diverse interests in children’s books to engage with collections. From book histories, through bookselling, information on collectors, and histories of education to close text analyses, it is evident that there are various approaches to researching collections. In this volume, three dominant approaches emerge: history and canonicity, author and text, ideals and institutions. Through its focus on varied materials, from fiction to textbooks, this volume illuminates how cities can articulate a vision of children's literature through particular collections and institutional practices. 

Keith O'Sullivan

Keith O’Sullivan is Lecturer in English at the Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, Ireland. He recently co-edited Children’s Literature and New York City (2014) and Irish Children’s Literature and Culture: New Perspectives on Contemporary Writing (2011). In 2013, he was co-recipient of a major Government of Ireland/Irish Research Council award to establish a National Collection of Children’s Books.

Pádraic Whyte is Assistant Professor of English and a director of the master’s programme in Children's Literature at the School of English, Trinity College Dublin. He is author of Irish Childhoods (2011) and co-editor of Children's Literature and New York City (2014). He was co-recipient of a major Irish Research Council/Government of Ireland award to establish a National Collection of Children’s Book.

Book Title : Children's Literature Collections

Book Subtitle : Approaches to Research

Editors : Keith O'Sullivan, Pádraic Whyte

Series Title : Critical Approaches to Children's Literature

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59757-1

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan New York

eBook Packages : Literature, Cultural and Media Studies , Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

Hardcover ISBN : 978-1-137-60311-1 Published: 20 May 2017

Softcover ISBN : 978-1-349-93406-5 Published: 29 October 2020

eBook ISBN : 978-1-137-59757-1 Published: 19 May 2017

Series ISSN : 2753-0825

Series E-ISSN : 2753-0833

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : X, 261

Topics : Children's Literature , European Literature , British and Irish Literature , Twentieth-Century Literature , Literary History

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• Children's Literature

About this Journal

Encouraging serious scholarship and research, Children's Literature publishes theoretically-based articles that address key issues in the field. Each volume includes articles, essays, and abstracts of dissertations of note. Children's Literature is the annual publication of the Modern Language Association Division on Children's Literature and the Children's Literature Association (ChLA) .

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Available issues, table of contents, volume 51, 2023.

• Volume 50, 2022
• Volume 49, 2021
• Volume 48, 2020
• Volume 47, 2019
• Volume 46, 2018
• Volume 45, 2017
• Volume 44, 2016
• Volume 43, 2015
• Volume 42, 2014
• Volume 41, 2013
• Volume 40, 2012
• Volume 39, 2011
• Volume 38, 2010
• Volume 37, 2009
• Volume 36, 2008
• Volume 35, 2007
• Volume 34, 2006
• Volume 33, 2005
• Volume 32, 2004
• Volume 31, 2003
• Volume 30, 2002
• Volume 29, 2001
• Volume 28, 2000
• Volume 27, 1999
• Volume 26, 1998
• Volume 25, 1997
• Volume 24, 1996
• Volume 23, 1995
• Volume 22, 1994
• Volume 21, 1993
• Volume 20, 1992
• Volume 19, 1991
• Volume 18, 1990
• Volume 17, 1989
• Volume 16, 1988
• Volume 15, 1987
• Volume 14, 1986
• Volume 13, 1985
• Volume 12, 1984
• Volume 11, 1983
• Volume 10, 1982
• Volume 9, 1981
• Volume 8, 1980
• Volume 7, 1978
• Volume 6, 1977
• Volume 5, 1976
• Volume 4, 1975
• Volume 3, 1974
• Volume 2, 1973
• Volume 1, 1972

Additional Information

Additional materials.

Additional Issue Materials

• Editorial Board -- Volume 48, 2020
• Editorial Board -- Volume 47, 2019
• Editorial Board -- Volume 46, 2018
• Editorial Board -- Volume 45, 2017
• Editorial Board -- Volume 44, 2016
• Editorial Board -- Volume 43, 2015
• Editorial Board -- Volume 42, 2014

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Article contents

Children’s literature in education.

• Kerry Mallan Kerry Mallan Queensland University of Technology
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.157
• Published online: 24 May 2017

Children’s literature is a dynamic entity in its own right that offers its readers many avenues for pleasure, reflection, and emotional engagement. As this article argues, its place in education was established centuries ago, but this association continues today in ways that are both similar and different from its beginnings. The irony of children’s literature is that, while it is ostensibly for children, it relies on adults for its existence. This reciprocal relationship between adult and child is, however, at the heart of education. Drawing on a range of scholars and children’s texts from Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, this discussion canvasses some of the many ways in which children’s literature, and the research that it inspires, can be a productive and valuable asset to education, in that its imaginative storytelling is the means by which it brings the world into the classroom and takes the classroom out into the world.

• children’s literature
• reader response
• information literacy
• digital technologies
• cognitive poetics

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date: 07 April 2024

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Children's literature research guide: home, about the children's literature collection.

The UC Berkeley Library houses a very selective collection of children's literature shelved in the Main Stacks, the Morrison Library and the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF). There are also many non-English language children's books held in other campus libraries such as the East Asian Library. The Berkeley Library's collection specializes in literature for school-aged children, books supporting multicultural education and, over the years, has acquired many award-winning books.

Use the UC Berkeley online catalog, UC Library Search , to find children's books in the collection:

• Identify books by title ( where the wild things are ) or author ( myers, walter dean )
• Search subject: juvenile literature ( jazz juvenile fiction )
• Browse: keyword: children's literature collection
• Browse: keyword: jack graves early reader collection (to locate the special collection of early readers and primers donated by Berkeley alum Jack Graves)

Literary Criticism

For academic criticism of children's literature or literature in general, consult the following resources:

Children's Book Awards

• Caldecott Medal For distinguished American picture book for children.
• Coretta Scot King Book Award Awarded annually for outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values."
• Horn Book Award Sponsored by the Boston Globe
• Newbery Medal For distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
• Printz Award For books that exemplifiy "literary excellence in young adult literature."
• Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature (DAWCL) Compiled and indexed by children's librarian Lisa Bartle.

Book Reviews

Web resources.

• Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature: Digital Collection The Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 130,000 books and periodicals published in the United States and Great Britain from the mid-1600s to present day. Noteworthy items include Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
• Center for Children's Books From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Children's Book Council (CBC) Trade association of children's book publishers
• Children's Literature Association Association of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers and institutions.
• Children's Notable Lists Notable children's books, recordings, and videos identified by Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)
• Children's Picture Book Database (CPBD) From Miami University
• Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) From the School of Ed, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• International Children's Digital Library The ICDL collection includes digitized scans of 4619 children's books in 59 languages. The majority of the collection consists of contemporary materials that are in copyright. The remainder of the collection is made up of important historical materials that are in the public domain. more... less... The ICDL collection has two primary audiences. The first audience is children ages 3-13, as well as librarians, teachers, parents, and caregivers who work with children of these ages. The second audience is international scholars and researchers in the area of children's literature. The ICDL was created by an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Maryland in cooperation with the Internet Archive. Funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Microsoft Research
• Publisher's Weekly (Children's Books) Trade magazine for publishing industry.

Other collections

In addition to the collection at UC Berkeley most public libraries have rich and extensive children's book collections managed by knowledgeable and experienced children's librarians.

• Last Updated: Aug 18, 2023 10:12 AM
• URL: https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/kidlit

University Library

Research Children’s Literature

SSHEL Home  >  S-Collection Home   > Research Children’s Literature

• Authors & Illustrators Print and online resources for finding information about children and young adult authors and illustrators.
• Book Reviews Journals, databases, software, and indices with children’s and young adult literature book reviews.
• Collections of Children’s Literature Information about collections of children’s literature.
• Databases & Scholarly Articles Descriptions of and research hints for key databases with articles about children’s and young adult literature.
• Digital Collections of Children’s Literature Links to digital collections and libraries of children’s literature.
• Electronic & Print Journals Includes review & scholarly journals, magazines for children, and related websites.
• History of Children’s Literature Resources for researching the history of children’s literature including online and print resources.
• Children’s Literature Review Children’s Literature Review , a multi-volume reference source, presents significant passages from published criticism of both contemporary and older works for children.

S-Collection Highlights

Children's Literature Research Guide

Find children's literature at atkins library, reference works, secondary source databases, scholarly journals, find primary sources.

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Humanities Librarian

This guide provides links to useful resources to begin exploring the study of children's literature. Need help? Just ask --  please contact me at  [email protected] .

Search for books, articles, and more through our   library search system.

• MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window Provides access to scholarly research pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore.
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window Provides access to academic journals and books covering a wide range of disciplines; it also includes some limited primary source collections.
• Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Biographical, critical and bibliographical information on authors.
• Project Muse This link opens in a new window Scholarly journals and ebooks in the arts and humanities, social sciences and mathematics.
• ERIC Database (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window Provides a comprehensive bibliographic and full-text database of education research and information for educators, researchers, and the general public.
• Children's Literature Review (LCO) This link opens in a new window Critical essays covering more than 750 authors and includes numerous entries focusing on individual titles and topics in children’s and young adult literature, including picture books, folklore, and graphic novels.
• Children's Literature Available from 1972 volume: 1 issue: 1.
• Children's Literature Association Quarterly Available from 03/01/1976 volume: 1 issue: 1.
• The Lion and the Unicorn Available from 1977 volume: 1 issue: 1.
• Children's Literature in Education Available from 03/01/1970 volume: 1 issue: 1.
• The Looking Glass Available from 1997 volume 1: issue 1.
• Journal of Children's Literature Available from 03/01/2011.
• Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures Available from 06/01/2009 volume: 1 issue: 1.
• Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature Available from 01/01/1998.
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• v.10(1); 2020

Children’s literature to promote students’ global development and wellbeing

Manuela pulimeno.

1 PhD Candidate in Human Relations Sciences, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari, Italy

2 UNESCO Chair on Health Education and Sustainable Development, Federico II University, Naples, Italy

Prisco Piscitelli

Salvatore colazzo.

3 Department of History, Society and Human Studies, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy

Background: Tales were transmitted from one generation to another, enriching young people with values, beliefs, imagination and creativity. Children’s literature still plays a crucial part in education as it provides knowledge and entertainment, representing a typical example of "edutainment". In this paper, we carried out a review to examine pedagogic, didactic and psychological/therapeutic dimensions of children’s literature, with the aim of highlighting its role in promoting students’ holistic development and wellbeing.

Methods: We have searched for original articles (from 1960s to 2019), by using the following keywords: "fairytales" or "fairy tales" or "folktales" or "fables" AND "education" or"development" or "learning" or "teaching" or "school" or "curriculum" or "classroom" AND "children" or "child" or "kids" or "childhood" AND "health" or "wellbeing".

Results: We found 17 studies concerning pedagogic aspect of children literature, while 21 and17 studies were selected for didactic and therapeutic dimensions, respectively. From a pedagogic point of view, tales convey basic values useful for children lives. In a didactic perspective, properly chosen storybooks represent a valuable resource for school activities, improving students’ language skills and building up a friendly/respectful classroom environment. Children stories are also used by health professionals for therapeutic purposes (bibliotherapy) to prevent unhealthy habits and addictions, or address psychosomatic disorders. Finally, storybooks and web-based/digital stories can be an effective vehicle for health contents, to encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyles among schoolchildren.

Conclusion: Children’s literature and storytelling could be helpful in promoting students’ global development and wellbeing, when included in school curricular activities.

Introduction

Myths, fables and fairytales – originally founded on oral tradition – allowed adults to communicate with young people in an uninterrupted process until nowadays. 1 Tales have been told everywhere and in every time to educate, entertain and increase individuals’ awareness about moral principles and customs, thus representing an important part of traditional heritage as well as a way to reinforce tolerance and mutual knowledge among different populations. 2

Reading or listening to tales can be considered significant community practices, capable to impact on young generations, empowering and preparing them for the future. 3 Since culture is crucial for learning, stories have a fundamental part in shaping individual’s role in the society, becoming a helpful resource from didactic, psychological/therapeutic and pedagogic perspectives. 4

From a didactic point of view, storybooks can provide children with new information about the world, enrich vocabulary and enhance specific language skills (in the classroom or at home), nurturing communication between the storyteller (teacher, parent or other professional staff) and the listeners. 5 , 6

It is known that stories – by reproducing fictional situations that match with children’s real problems – allow them to feel comfortable and safe in difficult circumstances, ensuring emotional security and providing healthier ways to deal with internal struggles, life adversities and stressors. 7 Story-tales compensate what young people may lack, by presenting them positive patterns of behaviours and constructive models through the characters they could identify with. 8

Storybooks (or digital tales) are easier to understand for all children compared to abstract notions or theories, and might become special instruments for mapping the reality and conveying health contents, especially to the most vulnerable groups. 9 , 10

As suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO), health literacy should be incorporated in school curricula, in the context of a health-promoting classroom environment, in order to provide new generations with useful knowledge about healthy lifestyles. 11 - 13 Actually, school represents the ideal setting to perform health-related interventions and positively influence students’ wellbeing as well as their academic achievements. 14 - 16 The final goal is to involve young generations in practical actions about healthy habits (i.e. balanced nutrition and physical exercise) and prevention of risky behaviours (such as cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use) through a personal re-elaboration of health knowledge.In our previous systematic review, we have provided evidence for taking into account narrative-based strategies among the possible highly motivating approaches to encourage schoolchildren in adopting healthy eating habits since childhood. 17 , 18 More broadly, in this paper we explored the rationale for using children’s literature and storytelling in school setting to promote students’ global development and wellbeing.

Material and Methods

A narrative review has been carried out in order to analyze the pedagogic, didactic and psychological/therapeutic dimensions of children’s literature, highlighting the potential of narrative-based strategies in fostering students’ global development and wellbeing. Starting from January 2019, over a five-month period in the context of PhD in Human Relations Science of Bari University (Italy), we have searched on Web of Science for original articles and books, published from 1960s to 2019, by using the following keywords: “fairytales” or “fairy tales” or “folktales” or “fables” AND “education” or “development” or “learning” or “teaching” or “school” or “curriculum” or “classroom” AND “children” or “child” or “kids” or “childhood” AND “health” or “wellbeing”. We summarized definitions of health, presenting “wellbeing” (in its three dimensions of physical, emotional/mental and social health) as the main goal of every educational practice, and school system as the ideal setting to display health-related interventions. We also used citation tracking to detect other papers concerning children literature and narrative-based strategies (from oral storytelling to printed books and digital resources) as effective operational tool for conveying health contents to promote global development and wellbeing in school setting, along with the prevention of risky behaviours. Finally, we have provided brief definitions of children’s literature, presenting some historical insights about its pedagogic or didactic use, and psychological/therapeutic applications (bibliotherapy and narrative medicine).

Children’s literature is broadly defined as any creative literary work that has been especially written and designed for children’s use. 19 Only in the 18th century, with the evolving of the concept of childhood, a separate genre of children’s literature was created. 20 Modern children’s literature comprises short fairytales and fables, picture books, comics, cartoons, novels, nursery rhymes that can be potentially appreciated by most children. 21 In our search, we selected 17 studies concerning pedagogic dimension of children literature, 20 , 22 - 37 while 21 and 17 studies were chosen as addressing didactic 1 , 5 , 38 - 56 and therapeutic dimensions, 6 , 7 , 57 - 71 respectively ( Table 1 ).

Children’s literature as narrative tool in education: pedagogic dimension

The crisis we are facing is not only economic and financial, but also political, cultural and ethical, generating anxiety and fear due to the perception of a precarious existence in the context of a growing individualism and insensitivity to other people’s difficulties. Moreover, our society measures everything in terms of monetary value, giving priority to scientific/technological knowledge and decreasing the relevance of human sciences, which have nurtured the traditional humus of citizenship education. 72

Despite educational system is dealing worldwide with several challenges, school still represents the ideal setting to display interventions aimed at promoting students’ holistic development. Beyond its specific commitment, it is essential to build up healthy, respectful and satisfied citizens: the future adults capable to take care about themselves, the others and the environment. 24 , 73

In the globalization era, characterized by deep socio-economic changes and collapse of the traditional social tissue (i.e. new forms of poverty, increase of inequalities, family mobility etc.), the cultural heritage of folktales – easily available both for parental and teachers’ use – could represent a helpful tool for promoting individual personal growth, social cohesion and sustainable development. 2

Tales were told and are still told in every society and in many different settings to share experiences, customs, norms, and values, providing the listeners with entertainment and new knowledge. 25 In the “culturalistic” perspective, children’s stories belong to a specific cultural niche that could help young people to move into the life, allowing them to understand who they are as human beings and how they can contribute to the progress of the world. 26

Children’s literature continues to be a significant opportunity of presenting moral principles in an enjoyable and engaging way 27 and it is growing fast along with the aim to entertain, educate and provide new knowledge (in line with the new concept of “edutainment”), being able to integrate fun and adventure demanded by children (simulating the activity of free play) with the adults’ objective of offering them a set of moral examples. 20 , 28

A big part of children’s literature is represented by fairytales, which have the final goal of transmitting the basic universal values, and raising children’s awareness on many aspects of the life. 29 That’s why, even before printing press was invented, fairytales have been used by parents to transmit culturally appropriate moral norms to their children from an early age, equipping them with information, attitudes, and skills that could act as a kind of “vaccination” against all kind of threats to individual or collective health. 30

The most famous example fulfilling these criteria can be found in “Pinocchio”, written by Carlo Lorenzini (Collodi) to make children aware about the consequences of adopting wrong behaviours. 31 , 32 Similarly, in Germany, the Grimm Brothers presented noble values and positive models in their amazing adventures, helping children to understand what is good and what is bad. 33

Tales are very interesting for children because they show real aspects of family and community life, reinforcing the relations with the parents and highlighting ethical values related to social life. 34 , 35 Through implicit meanings embodied in the stories, children indirectly acquire pedagogical messages, able to influence their global personality and stimulate a social sense of duty. 27

Children’s stories are the place of endless possibilities, so that young people can open their mind to wide horizons, generate new viewpoints, find possible alternatives or solutions to problems, cultivating their points of strengths such as self-confidence and resilience. 36

The role and importance of children’s books have changed in modern society, but even today, children’s literature (including movies and digital resources) influences our daily lives and contributes to the development of young people in a number of ways, ranging from the transmission of values to didactic purposes. The presence of digital technology represents a challenge but also an opportunity for traditional fairytales’ or fables’ existence. Digital storytelling (the combination of the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia tools) is a helpful instrument to generate more appealing and stimulating learning experiences. 37

Actually, printed publications tend to be expensive, while the Internet-based resources are a cheap alternative (usually available online for free), and might raise children’s interest towards books in many different ways. Combining narrative possibilities and technological potentials can be more powerful in terms of access to information, sharing of work, differentiated and motivated learning models. However, there is a fundamental distinction (at least in terms of establishing good relationships with educators) between watching a fairy tale on monitors (static and passive approach or even by computer-based interactive mode) and listening to a live re-telling of it. 22 , 23 , 74

Didactic dimension of children’s literature

The didactic intention of narrative works was discovered on clay tablets in Sumerian and Babylonian texts, dated back many centuries before Aesop’s fables (successively put into Latin verses by Phaedrus). Myths initially transmitted orally became well-known throughout the Mediterranean area thanks to Greek manuscripts of Alexandrian scribes, who used them in their daily education activities. Also philosophers (i.e. Plato) introduced myths and fables in their academic lessons with students and disciples: the rules of grammar and style were learned through the stories, encouraging young scholars to create new ones. Fables of Aesop were considered as useful didactic means also in medieval schools to teach Latin and rhetoric. 1

Even today, children’s literature – as integral part of primary school curriculum – could be a significant experience in the lives of children, with fables and fairytales being used as motivating teaching tools in both humanistic and scientific disciplines. 38 - 40 Educators are aware that all creative and artistic activities, including literature – while entertaining listeners or readers – can play a fundamental role in improving students’ knowledge, but also in the acquisition of daily life skills, useful to cope with any problematic situations. 41

Childhood is a crucial stage for language development, 75 so it is important to make it a pleasing experience: reading or listening to stories could be a joyful way for language training, able to overcome all the possible learning barriers. 42 - 44 Thanks to the recurring narrative passages intrinsic in the fairy tales’ or fables, child is able to deal with some complicated concepts or patterns, which require more repetitions to be better interiorized. That’s why tales are a valuable resource in teaching foreign languages and improving language skills (writing, reading, speaking and listening). 45 The use of narrative in teaching foreign languages has been found to lower the level of anxiety, allowing students to take risks in the language classes, thanks to the familiarity with stories and the relaxing learning environment generated by storytelling. Therefore, telling or reading stories is a successful strategy to acquire grammar structures, syntax, new vocabulary, increasing oral/written competences, and therefore the ability to communicate effectively and successfully. 46

By reading or listening to stories, students enhance their verbal proficiency and learn to accurately express their thoughts and feelings in everyday relations, making practice of peace-making skills (i.e. negotiation and discussion). 47

Learning from stories can stimulate and offer promising insights in other areas of children’s cognitive development such as problem-solving and reasoning skills. 48 Educators should awaken children’s interest towards reading and, at the same time, encourage them to use imagination, finding themselves inside the story; once children become attached to their favourite characters, they can reproduce them while playing, following the time chain and cause-effect relation of narrated events, so that the educational message of the stories can be better interiorized. 5 , 49 Educators should also be aware about their own responsibility when selecting children’s books for didactic purposes (not necessarily following popular titles or “best sellers”), and read the stories in a caring and warm environment. 50 Storybooks are accessible to students of all ages and can be borrowed from libraries or friends, while digital storytelling can be easily and quickly found on the Internet, even for free. 51

Multicomponent narrative-based approaches integrate traditional tales or other specifically developed storybooks, with audio and video resources (including those available on the Internet), cartoons, animated films, puppets or scenic elements. 23 , 52 , 53 Theatre reading or dramatization of children’s literature can be used at school to overcome the risk of short attention span of schoolchildren, and when dealing with difficult textbooks. Reader’s theatre in the classroom involve students as actors as they were really acting on the stage, while the teacher is guiding the scene and giving suggestions to the characters. In a study investigating the impact of readers’ theatre over six weeks, students assigned to the theatre class showed significant progress in reading level, compared to a control group who received more traditional literary and vocabulary education. The readers’ theatre class presented better fluidity in reading and expression, enriched vocabulary, and increased motivation compared to the control group. 54 Finally, it can be said that storytelling activities (including reader’s theatre) in school setting represent innovative didactic experiences, capable to build up also health knowledge and promote students’ global wellbeing. 55 , 56

Therapeutic dimension of children’s literature

Children’s storybooks not only provide new knowledge – by enriching children’s vocabulary and enhancing their communication skills – but also ensure emotional support during problematic circumstances of the life. Encouraging children to overcome fears and inner conflicts, tales act as promoters for change, positively influencing their social behaviour. 57

When parents or teachers provide children with a book, they usually hope that they will absorb the moral values that it contains. 58 - 60 Actually, fairytales can produce positive effects on personality development, satisfying all psychological needs of the children such as contact, entertainment, and cognitive demand. In the Freudian perspective, assuming the absence of a well-defined superego and moral standards in childhood, fairytales are useful to show proper patterns of behaviours needed by children. 61

Children’s literature – as a form of artistic creativity – presents a therapeutic potential for readers and listeners, in the same way that Greek tragedy was able to “heal” the spectators. 62 , 63 In the vision of the cathartic role of literature, we can say that it may influence children through psychological mechanisms, primarily consisting in involvement, imitation, identification, insight and universalism. Story-tales could be used in school-setting for primary prevention programs with the ultimate goal of preventing risky behaviours among young people, thanks to the potential of creative and artistic means such as specifically-developed children’s storybooks. Actually, narrative-based approach as a teaching and learning strategy is omnipresent in the classrooms, but it is infrequently used to promote students’ health. 64

Literature, as well as other forms of art (music, dance, drama, drawing, painting etc.) can be used to empower and motivate children towards the adoption of healthy behaviours, contributing to the improvement of pupils’ quality of life. The educational properties of the stories allow young people to accept their own differences, while showing how the characters of the tale cope with difficulties, enabling readers to enter in a fantastic world of entertainment, and – at the story’s end – to come back into reality in a comfortable way. 65

The main goal of art therapy in education is the holistic human development, to be accomplished by working on imagination, curiosity, and creativity, which represent all the basic features to be preserved in children, along with the natural needs of joy and play. 66 , 67 Artistic activities present also the potential of breaking down cultural barriers, actively involving the most vulnerable and marginalized children, as assessed in a study examining the effect of a creative expression program designed to prevent emotional and behavioural problems in immigrant and refugee students attending multi-ethnic schools. 76 This vision has been already adopted by the famous violinist Menuhin and his Foundation, to help vulnerable and disadvantaged children by using music and other form of arts. 77

Within the broad umbrella of art therapy, we can find “library therapy”, which S.M. Crothers in 1916 has turned into the term “bibliotherapy”, characterized by the fact that the treatment is carried out by the means of literature, using books to foster individual emotional wellbeing. Understanding the principles and practices of bibliotherapy is essential for teachers and educators, working with children, who may take benefit from the exposure to reading materials related to their specific problems.

The “healing” potential of books was known since the time of the ancient Greece and even before: Ramses II in Egypt identified a group of books in his collection as “remedies for the soul”. Aristotle and other Greek philosophers believed that literature could deeply heal people, while the ancient Romans recognized the existence of a relationship between medicine and reading, with Aulo Cornelius Celso explicitly associating the reading with medical treatment. This attitude towards therapeutic opportunities of books was cultivated even in the Middle Age and Humanism/Renaissance times, but also in the late eighteenth century books were proposed as a remedy for different types of illnesses. Today, literature is somehow considered as psychological therapy, especially in childhood, and even as a cure for psychosomatic disorders. 6

In the therapeutic approach, bibliotherapy includes also discussion and reflection on the story’s topics that overlap with the individual needs and have an evocative function that relies on projection and identification mechanisms. Proper storybooks work as a strategy for attitudinal change and self-improvement, acting through a compensatory function in children who lack of positive experiences which are often missing in their family or community. 68 Therapeutic reading can also represent a form of prevention as the readers acquire a more flexible mind to recognize problems and eventually ask for help. There are books that address questions concerning physical appearance, emotions and character traits, family relationships, and socioeconomic problems. 69 Bibliotherapy can be also applied in the field of psychotherapy for the treatment of minor disorders, eating behaviours and some forms of addictions, from alcohol and tobacco to drugs and ludopathy. 7

Narrative medicine, an emerging discipline in healthcare field – which embraces medicine, psychoanalysis and literature – is used to overcome individual traumatic experiences. It helps patients and health professionals to tell and listen to the complex and unique stories of illness through an active approach (subjects are invited to compose poetic or literary pieces) or passive mode (consisting in reading already existing pieces). 70 , 71

Efficacy of narrative-based strategies to promote health and wellbeing in school setting

Health is defined by WHO Constitution as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing”. 78 WHO has demonstrated that many early deaths can be avoided if each stakeholder in the society takes its piece of responsibility in promoting healthy lifestyles. 79 Health promotion and prevention represent two sides of the same coin being both focused on proactively maintaining people healthy. 80 Primary prevention should start as early as possible and school has the opportunity to guide people since childhood on the right path towards healthy life. Actually, education and health are intertwined, and it is undoubtable that wellbeing has also a remarkable impact on students’ learning outcomes. School represents the ideal setting to convey proper contents about risk and protective factors 81 by using motivating approaches (including “teaching narratively”), able to capture the interest of pupils and generate a harmonic and non-competitive learning environment. 82 Narration can be regarded as an interesting way to trigger students’ motivation 82 and develop a “narrative thinking”, which is fundamental for every human experience, including learning and interiorization processes. 83 - 86 Specifically developed storybooks can foster children’s self-responsibility towards health and stimulate critical thinking about the consequences of adopting risky behaviours (i.e. unhealthy eating habits), thanks to psychological processes based on the identification with the characters of the stories. 17 Actually, children literature and storytelling have been proved to be effective in specifically conveying health knowledge: the persuasive effects of narrative engagement have been illustrated in many researches and reviews. 87 - 95 De Graaf et al have specifically performed a systematic review of 153 experimental studies on health-related narrative persuasion with a focus on the narrative characteristics as potential explanatory factors in the effectiveness to convey a health message. 87 , 88 The results showed that stories that presented a healthy behaviour were more often associated with effects on the intention to adopt it, and stories with high emotional content were usually more effective, as well as the use of a first or second-person perspective in the text. No differences were observed between the media used for the narrative intervention (book or video etc.), while the familiarity of the setting and the way of displaying the health message in the narrative was found to be a promising persuasive factor. 88 Shen and Han assessed 25 studies comparing narrative to non-narrative messages, showing a significant effect of narrative for primary prevention and detection of risky behaviours, but not for cessation of negative attitudes (e.g., quitting smoking). 89 Zebregs et al included 15 studies that recorded positive persuasive effects of narrative. 91 Braddock and Dillard metanalyzed 74 studies that compared narrative-based interventions to a control group that did not receive any relevant message. 92 Their results showed that, compared to a baseline zero-effect, narrative had positive effects on story-consistent beliefs, attitudes and intentions. By reviewing 45 studies, Tukachinsky et al concluded that engagement with the narrative and its characters was positively related to attitudes and intentions implied by the narrative itself. 93 Other authors have focused on the persuasive effects resulting from the “transportation” into a narrative world: when children read, they “enter” into tales and act out together with the characters. 94 Dahlstrom et al have shown that it is important to consider whether the persuasive message is integrated in the causal structure of the narrative or not. 95 Stories with two opponent main characters seem to have an impact on narrative persuasion in the context of social issues, while tales presenting a transition of the characters from unhealthy to healthy behaviour may be particularly beneficial. 90 Moreover, the content and form of the narrative - such as characters, events, and the setting of the story - are very important: characters can be more or less similar to the readers, thus producing a different persuasive effect. 96 , 97 A further dimension relevant to health-related “narrative persuasion” is the context of the presentation used in the narrative: an entertainment format where the reader is unaware that the narrative has a persuasive intention or a narrative frame in which the persuasive intent is more explicit. 98 - 100 In addition to narrative characteristics, variables related to target recipients – like the predisposition to become engaged in narratives and prior knowledge of the readers – as well as the environment/situation in which the story is narrated may increase or reduce the engagement and effectiveness of narrative-based interventions. 101 , 102 Most likely, the full process of persuasion is determined by the interaction of narrative, recipient and situational factors (such as noise in the environment) that can distract the student and decrease engagement. It should be emphasized that contents of the stories must be close to the children and the main character’s mental states needs to be as much as similar to the feelings of the child. Finally, it seems that multicomponent approaches including printed stories or tales told by a health educator in a face-to-face settings (i.e. live storytelling) can produce effects on beliefs, attitudes, intentions and even on the behaviours of recipients. 103

Oral and written tales are part of a collective memory, maintained from one generation to the next as an intangible cultural heritage for the transmission of moral values (i.e. Homer’s epic poems). As emphasized by the UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003, folktales play a dynamic role in bringing people closer together, thus ensuring knowledge exchange among different cultures and increasing the respect for others in a tolerant peaceful way.

At the start of 21st century, school system faces new challenges worldwide, pushing educators to display innovative strategies in order to motivate students and engage them in stimulating and “transformative” learning. 104 This perspective goes beyond the passive acquisition of knowledge, moving toward a more active, experiential and participatory approach to lifelong learning. 105 The adoption of cooperative practices into daily classroom activities can contribute to the enhancement of students’ wellbeing, lowering the competition and anxiety due to the pressure of success, currently detectable among schoolchildren. 80

To achieve these goals, narrative interventions may be considered as one of the possible strategies for teaching and learning because children’s stories create the comfortable atmosphere that is usually lacking in school setting. 5 , 106

Since ancient times, myths, legends, fables and fairytales have supported individuals to understand who they are as human beings and the world around them, allowing people to map the reality through the use of words and language. 107 , 108

From fairytales and fables – plenty of adventures, heroes, personified animals, enchanted forests and magical objects – children gain additional experiences, feelings and thoughts, learning to cope with inhibitions, vulnerability, and shyness. According to the psychoanalytical interpretation, children’s stories lead readers towards a deep level of consciousness, dealing with the fundamental human questions expressed in the language of symbols. Beyond its educational purposes, children’s literature can positively influence mental wellbeing, nurturing thoughts, feelings and behaviours of young generations. 63

Stories – as a kind of creative form of art – help children to fight (like the heroes) for good things and success in their life, satisfying their spirit of play, spreading good mood, with benefits on physical health, mental brightness and moral virtue. These latter represent the three dimensions of wellbeing – pillars for the integral growth of the child – in the perspective of building up the future mature and socially active man. 109

Children’s literature presents a strong pedagogical component and should be regarded as a real educational strategy with the potential of being incorporated into school curricula. Learning experiences carried out in a friendly school environment generate improvement of emotional health and better academic achievements 8 , 110 - 116 A properly chosen book stimulates children’s power of observation, reason, memory and imagination, broadening the range of experiences, compelling the readers to reflect on their behaviours, and find out possible solutions to their troubles while providing entertainment. A famous sentence of Albert Einstein was: “If you want your children to be intelligent, tell them fairytales; if you want your children to be more intelligent, tell them more fairy tales”. 117 Unfortunately, in today’s busy society, adults lack the time to talk with children, so that reading or telling stories could represent a great opportunity of constructive exchanges in the family and at school. 28

Multicomponent narrative-based approaches (storytelling, role-playing, games, post-reading activities) are able to satisfy children emotional needs, provide sensory input, increase attention span, and shape the aesthetic taste. 43 , 44 The power of listening and speaking is able to create artistic images and induce schoolchildren to produce their own stories or tales. This is well accomplished by introducing them to literature from early childhood, and ensuring them interesting, funny and attractive materials. Telling or reading a story is cheap, pleasing, inclusive, it can be used in any setting without special equipment except the imagination. 50 , 118 Moreover, it generates catharsis, resulting in reduced anxiety, better comfort, self-esteem, thus helping young people to cope with any adversity and improving communication of feelings.

According to Richard-Amato, 119 students find themselves in the characters or narration, and learn how to behave adequately while facing similar situations in the future life. 6 It happens that the child becomes aware about the topic of the story, unconsciously solves the problems, increasing self-confidence, with positive implications for personality development. 119 By developing the imagination and creativity, children can discover new ideas and increase personal motivation to achieve their objectives. Albert Einstein was used to say: “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant to me more than any talent for abstract or positive thinking”. 117

Finally, it can be considered also the contribution of literature to stimulate individual agency, applying the already acquired knowledge, to make the world more fit to human needs. 120 In this perspective, the Italian writer Leonardo Sciascia was used to say that if he did not believe that literature could produce a change, he wouldn’t have continued to write. 121

Stories are also able to convey health information about prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Several researches highlight the role of storytelling as a source of beneficial effects in primary prevention. Reading a storybook or listening to stories is helpful for children as it promotes pupils’ emotional expression and psychological wellbeing; it can be used to stimulate changes in young people lifestyles, encouraging them in practicing physical activity and reducing the consumption of sweets and soft-drinks, ultimately resulting in a measurable reduction of body mass index in specific cohorts. 122

Bibliotherapy facilitates behaviour´s externalization, promotes empathy and prosocial behaviours, and helps solving problems such as bullying and teasing, which represent common situations in every school. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of treating bullying through bibliotherapy, that can become an innovative approach to promote a respectful school environment. A huge amount of children’s stories has been used in order to prevent and give other perspectives on bullying, demonstrating that children’s books can serve as a useful channel of exchange between parents, teachers and children. An example for that is the Child Adolescent Teasing in Schools (CATS) book review project and website, where – after the exposure to a fictional story about teasing and bullying – children share their own experience and are guided to develop successful coping strategies against teasing and bullying occurring at school. 123

Children’s books have been also used to let students learn peaceful alternatives to the violence of modern society, focusing on conflicts prevention in the classroom and the way for overcoming the problem. 124 This has led to the creation of specific lists of books which help children to better understand and cope with some situations of discomfort such as traumatic stresses.

“Therapeutic libraries” have been established for paediatric patients or their families in hospital setting according to the vision that literature can help children to improve their quality of life, reducing stress and pain levels associated with the hospitalization process. 125

In a randomized trial, a combination of storybooks and workshop sessions have been successfully tested in primary prevention programs for anxiety management, showing a significant improvement in coping skills and perceived self-efficacy: every session was based on a story describing characters facing common stressors and how they deal with their daily problems. 126 It can be said also that children’s literature offers strategies to overcome the anxiety and the fear of the unknown, stimulating reflection and re-elaboration of personal criteria to be applied in real life. 127 Bibliotherapy is used in school setting (from primary to high school) to foster social and emotional growth, offering the opportunity to find a deeper understanding of self, solutions to personal problems and enhanced self-image. 128 , 129

Finally, as demonstrated by the worldwide success of self-help manuals, bibliotherapy could be a helpful resource to reduce unhealthy food habits for the prevention or treatment of obesity, as well as in supporting who want to quit smoking or other addictions both in young people and adults. 130 - 132

Limitations of this work are mainly due to the initial design of the study, representing an exploratory work that found few on-field experiences concerning the use of narrative-based strategies to promote health and wellbeing among schoolchildren. A future work, carefully planned as systematic review, could take advantage from the findings of this first attempt, in order to better refine a comprehensive search in scientific literature.

Children’s literature offers young people the possibility to acquire a system of values (educational role), to be engaged in motivating learning activities (didactic aspect), and to deal with inner conflicts and life difficulties (psychological value). Based on international evidence, children’s literature and specifically developed storybooks can encourage the adoption of healthy choices and represent a useful preventive tool to foster young people’s global wellbeing, helping them to better cope with emotional/social problems while proposing proper patterns of behaviours and conveying health contents. 133 - 136 Children’s literature is a helpful tool to “educate”, “teach” and “heal”, so that narration could be considered among the possible educational strategies which can be used for pedagogic, didactic and therapeutic applications in the promotion of children’s global development both at home and at school.

Implications for practice

This review indicates that children’s literature not only presents a strong pedagogical and didactic value, but it can also generate benefits for global development and wellbeing of young people. Moreover, children’s literature can be regarded as a flexible instrument that facilitates the transmission of health contents to the students, allowing teachers to become “health educators”. Narrative-based strategies have the potential to be integrated as useful approach in the school curricular activities to specifically convey health contents (at least in primary and secondary school). 135 , 136 Being able to impact emotional experiences and individual motivation, children’s literature should be considered as a powerful educational tool also for health professionals, who can take advantage from the use of stories to spread health information. Actually, narration is a “transformative” mean that can be useful – in the frame of educational contexts – especially for the prevention of obesity, risky behaviours and addictions (cigarette smoking, alcohol, drugs, bet). Finally, beyond the possibility to prevent future diseases at individual level, thanks to well-designed narrative-based interventions in school setting, children can become themselves “health promoters” and “inter-generational multipliers” of desirable effects by influencing in a positive way their families and community. In this perspective, the use of children’s literature to convey health contents and promote wellbeing in school children might represent an interesting instrument to foster collective health.

Ethical approval

This review did not need any formal approval from ethical committee.

Competing interests

There are no competing interests concerning this article. This research has been carried out in the frame of institutional activities of the PhD in “Human Relations Sciences” of Bari University and UNESCO Chair on Health Education and Sustainable Development, without receiving any external funding or economical support from third parties.

Authors’ contributions

MP, PP and SC have conceived, prepared, written, approved and revised the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to Prof. G. Mininni, Director of PhD Course in Human Relation Sciences at University of Bari “Aldo Moro”.

The UNESCO Courier

Children’s and youth literature, a flourishing genre

Cath Pound Freelance culture journalist 

That children are still avid readers in our ever increasing digital age may come as a surprise to those who think youngsters are permanently glued to their screens, but sales are booming. According to a report by the United Kingdom-based market research firm  Business Research Company the global children’s and young adult book market has been growing steadily in recent years and is set to increase from US$11.76 billion in 2023 to over US$12 billion in 2024. 

The huge, global popularity of the British author J.K. Rowling’ Harry Potter series and fellow Britain Philip Pullman’s fantasy novel series His Dark Materials, both of which began in the 1990s, spearheaded a new renaissance in children’s literature. The past twenty years has seen a massive expansion in the number of titles available which provide children with an unprecedented choice of reading matter.

Traditional tales and best-selling stories, such as Roald Dahl's  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or René Goscinny's  Les Aventures du Petit Nicolas (France), are still very popular. The same can be said for illustrated classics such as the American author Eric Carle’s  The Very Hungry Caterpillar  (1969), whose greedy title character eats his way through a series of beautifully illustrated foodstuffs before turning into a butterfly, or American author Maurice Sendak’s  Where the Wild Things Are (1963). 

But over the past three decades, the offer has become incredibly diverse. Talented authors have emerged in many countries, among them Ana Maria Machado (Brazil) and Nahoko Uehashi (Japan), both winners of the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Prize. Meanwhile, a new generation of inventive illustrators is following in the footsteps of famous children’s book makers like Tomi Ungerer (France) and Bruno Munari (Italy), which plays a major role in the renewal of the genre.

In the teenage and young adult (YA) age bracket, romance, romantasy (combining romance and fantasy), crime and thrillers are the big sellers. A rise in audiobook sales is also helping to propel the market. A 2023 report by Bookwire GmbH, a service provider for the delivery of e-books based in Germany, revealed that the sale of audiobooks in Spain and Latin America increased by almost 52 per cent from 2021 to 2022. 

The invention of children’s literature

Given the widespread popularity of children’s literature today it may seem hard to believe that it has only been in existence for around 250 years. This can be explained by the fact that children were seen as “miniature adults” until the latter half of the 18th century. Once they were recognized as independent beings, along the lines of philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a literature dedicated to them began to emerge, in particular in the United Kingdom, the United States and Scandinavia. 

“A factor in all three regions was the influence of the Protestant Reformation, which inspired parents to ensure that their children could read in their home languages. A lot of early children's literature was focused on encouraging Christian understanding and values,” explains Professor Karen Coats, Director of the Centre for research in children’s literature at Cambridge University (United Kingdom). Indeed, children's literature has long struggled to find its way between educational virtues and moral requirements.

Although the 19th century saw the publication of classics such as Lewis Carroll’s  Alice in Wonderland and Mark Twain’s  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, children’s literature didn’t really come into its own until the 20th century. A new era for children's books began with the Arts-and-Crafts movement in the United Kingdom, which laid the foundation for what still makes the book unique: the author's freedom to tell a story, a special attention to the relationship between text and image, the importance of colour, and a vision of the book as an object.

Moomins and Pippi Longstocking

There may be many other forms of entertainment available to children today but books still have a unique value. “Reading is one of the most immersive, personal ways for children to spend their time – they are free to explore that subject that fascinates them, get involved in high-risk adventure, or just indulge in the most absurd comedy. When children encounter the right book for them, the attachment is deep: you’ll see it on their faces at so many author events,” says Nick Campbell, a children’s book buyer at Waterstones bookshops in the United Kingdom.

Reading to preschool children is a marvelous way to build vocabulary, familiarize them with written language and feed their imagination

We all know that reading to preschool children is a marvelous way to build vocabulary, familiarize them with written language, feed their young imaginations and give them positive, different heroes to identify with. Since 1945, the Finnish author Tove Jansson's Moomin books have featured quirky characters and a strong sense of inclusivity, whereas the Swedish author Astrid Lindgren’s delightfully independent  Pippi Longstocking books have embodied freedom, originality and female strength. More recently, the American author Todd Parr’s  It’s OK to be Different  (2001)   promotes an accessible message of love and acceptance. 

Grappling with the reality of the world around them, teenagers need books that will help them in their transition to adulthood. The winner of the 2018 Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature,  The Dark of the Sea by the Guyanese author Imam Baksh explores teenage anguish through fantasy. 

Unrealistic expectations of physical perfection, death or racism are recurrent themes for this age group. They are woven into dystopian fiction titles such as American author Scott Westerfeld’s  Uglies  or British author Malorie Blackman’s  Noughts and Crosses . Their increasing concern for the environment is also being addressed by authors, particularly in the Nordic countries, where a whole genre of dystopian climate fiction has emerged.  The Blodregn  (Blood Rain) series by the Swedish author Mats Wahl and Memory of Water  by the Finnish author Emmi Itäranta both address the impact of humans on the environment.

More and more books for teens address their concern for the environment

Although too much screen time is often seen as a bad thing by parents, BookTok, an offshoot of TikTok, has actually encouraged a love of reading among young adults. “It is a popular way to get genuine word-of-mouth book recommendations, and we regularly see the influence those recommendations can have on the demand for books,” says Campbell. “Our teen and YA sections are filled with young people, excited to chat to their friends about the books they love.”

Happy ending

The fundamental role children's literature plays in helping them grow has kept it from being overshadowed by other forms of storytelling and screens.  “Books enable children to explore danger, confront difficult truths, and find hope in the endings of stories. Nearly all children’s literature is defined by a more hopeful ending and the opening up of possibilities rather than closing down ways forward. Hope is often found in the everyday truths and learning how to make a difference through actions,” says professor Vicky Macleroy, Head of the MA Children’s Literature programme at Goldsmiths, University of London (United Kingdom) and specialist in children’s literature. 

And yet, despite the fact that youth literature is a flourishing genre with bestsellers, dedicated prizes and fairs, it struggles to be perceived as “real literature”. The literary qualities of children’s books are often considered subordinate to their educational value. As a result of this lack of recognition, children's books are rarely reviewed in the mainstream media. “We continue to expect children's books to teach lessons and influence worldviews,” Karen Coats analyzes.  

“Nonetheless”, she continues, “youth literature can be treated in the same way as any other category of literature: read for enjoyment, studied and analyzed for aesthetic qualities, critiqued for degrees of truth, and interpreted for symbolism and ideologies.” Provided we treat this genre with the seriousness it deserves, and don't perceive it through the prism of our adult prejudices, keeping in mind the words of the author of  The Little Prince , Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, "All grown-ups were once children... but only a few of them remember it.”

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"We are proud to host the Children’s Literature Lecture of the Association for Library Service to Children with the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh,” said Mary Kay Biagini, chair of the Department of Information Culture and Data Stewardship. “It honors the roots of our Master of Library and information Science program that began in 1901 in the basement of the Carnegie Library as the first program in America to educate librarians to work with children and youth. For more than 120 years, we have collaborated with the Carnegie Library to continue this proud tradition of educating public and school librarians.”

Last held in Pittsburgh in 1989, the ALSC Children’s Literature Lecture is an annual event geared toward adults who work with children and/or who have an interest in children’s literature. This prestigious honor features an author, critic, librarian, historian or educator presenting a paper considered as a significant contribution to children’s literature. 

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• BOOK REVIEW
• 29 March 2024

The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?

• Candice L. Odgers 0

Candice L. Odgers is the associate dean for research and a professor of psychological science and informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She also co-leads international networks on child development for both the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in Toronto and the Jacobs Foundation based in Zurich, Switzerland.

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Social-media platforms aren’t always social. Credit: Getty

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness Jonathan Haidt Allen Lane (2024)

Two things need to be said after reading The Anxious Generation . First, this book is going to sell a lot of copies, because Jonathan Haidt is telling a scary story about children’s development that many parents are primed to believe. Second, the book’s repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science. Worse, the bold proposal that social media is to blame might distract us from effectively responding to the real causes of the current mental-health crisis in young people.

Haidt asserts that the great rewiring of children’s brains has taken place by “designing a firehose of addictive content that entered through kids’ eyes and ears”. And that “by displacing physical play and in-person socializing, these companies have rewired childhood and changed human development on an almost unimaginable scale”. Such serious claims require serious evidence.

Collection: Promoting youth mental health

Haidt supplies graphs throughout the book showing that digital-technology use and adolescent mental-health problems are rising together. On the first day of the graduate statistics class I teach, I draw similar lines on a board that seem to connect two disparate phenomena, and ask the students what they think is happening. Within minutes, the students usually begin telling elaborate stories about how the two phenomena are related, even describing how one could cause the other. The plots presented throughout this book will be useful in teaching my students the fundamentals of causal inference, and how to avoid making up stories by simply looking at trend lines.

Hundreds of researchers, myself included, have searched for the kind of large effects suggested by Haidt. Our efforts have produced a mix of no, small and mixed associations. Most data are correlative. When associations over time are found, they suggest not that social-media use predicts or causes depression, but that young people who already have mental-health problems use such platforms more often or in different ways from their healthy peers 1 .

These are not just our data or my opinion. Several meta-analyses and systematic reviews converge on the same message 2 – 5 . An analysis done in 72 countries shows no consistent or measurable associations between well-being and the roll-out of social media globally 6 . Moreover, findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, the largest long-term study of adolescent brain development in the United States, has found no evidence of drastic changes associated with digital-technology use 7 . Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, is a gifted storyteller, but his tale is currently one searching for evidence.

Of course, our current understanding is incomplete, and more research is always needed. As a psychologist who has studied children’s and adolescents’ mental health for the past 20 years and tracked their well-being and digital-technology use, I appreciate the frustration and desire for simple answers. As a parent of adolescents, I would also like to identify a simple source for the sadness and pain that this generation is reporting.

A complex problem

There are, unfortunately, no simple answers. The onset and development of mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression, are driven by a complex set of genetic and environmental factors. Suicide rates among people in most age groups have been increasing steadily for the past 20 years in the United States. Researchers cite access to guns, exposure to violence, structural discrimination and racism, sexism and sexual abuse, the opioid epidemic, economic hardship and social isolation as leading contributors 8 .

How social media affects teen mental health: a missing link

The current generation of adolescents was raised in the aftermath of the great recession of 2008. Haidt suggests that the resulting deprivation cannot be a factor, because unemployment has gone down. But analyses of the differential impacts of economic shocks have shown that families in the bottom 20% of the income distribution continue to experience harm 9 . In the United States, close to one in six children live below the poverty line while also growing up at the time of an opioid crisis, school shootings and increasing unrest because of racial and sexual discrimination and violence.

The good news is that more young people are talking openly about their symptoms and mental-health struggles than ever before. The bad news is that insufficient services are available to address their needs. In the United States, there is, on average, one school psychologist for every 1,119 students 10 .

Haidt’s work on emotion, culture and morality has been influential; and, in fairness, he admits that he is no specialist in clinical psychology, child development or media studies. In previous books, he has used the analogy of an elephant and its rider to argue how our gut reactions (the elephant) can drag along our rational minds (the rider). Subsequent research has shown how easy it is to pick out evidence to support our initial gut reactions to an issue. That we should question assumptions that we think are true carefully is a lesson from Haidt’s own work. Everyone used to ‘know’ that the world was flat. The falsification of previous assumptions by testing them against data can prevent us from being the rider dragged along by the elephant.

A generation in crisis

Two things can be independently true about social media. First, that there is no evidence that using these platforms is rewiring children’s brains or driving an epidemic of mental illness. Second, that considerable reforms to these platforms are required, given how much time young people spend on them. Many of Haidt’s solutions for parents, adolescents, educators and big technology firms are reasonable, including stricter content-moderation policies and requiring companies to take user age into account when designing platforms and algorithms. Others, such as age-based restrictions and bans on mobile devices, are unlikely to be effective in practice — or worse, could backfire given what we know about adolescent behaviour.

A third truth is that we have a generation in crisis and in desperate need of the best of what science and evidence-based solutions can offer. Unfortunately, our time is being spent telling stories that are unsupported by research and that do little to support young people who need, and deserve, more.

Nature 628 , 29-30 (2024)

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