Courses /
Summer School 2023
Delivered by Nikki Gamble, Mary Rose Grieve
Overview
The five webinars exploring text, image and design present perspectives on:
- Designing board books – why babies and toddlers deserve serious attention
- Design of children’s nonfiction
- Image and activism in children’s books
- Wordless or silent books?
- Picturebooks, art and history
The webinars from this year’s event are available to watch online.
Audience
- Teachers
- Librarians
- Booksellers
- Writers
- Illustrators
- Anyone interested in discovering more about children’s books
Outcomes
This is an informal learning experience. Participants will have an opportunity to:
- expand their knowledge of children’s books
- develop a critical awareness around issues relating to image and design of children’s books
Areas of focus
- Designing board books – why babies and toddlers deserve serious attention
- Image and design of children’s nonfiction
- Image and activism in children’s books
- Digging deeper into visually rendered storytelling
- Picturebooks, art and history
Included
- Access to the sessions for a term
- A recommended resources and reading list
Sessions
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Module 1 52:55 with Nikki Gamble
Board Books and Interactive Books for 0 - 3 year olds
What do we need to know about books for 0 – 3 year olds?
Can the latest research in cognitive science and literacy acquisition inform how these books are produced?
Is enough critical attention given to these very early books?While there is a proliferation of children’s book prizes in the UK, there is no national award that specifically looks at books for this age group. In the USA the newly inaugurated Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award seeks to promote excellence in publishing books for 0 – 3 year olds. We hear from Mary Anne Wolpert and Cynthai Weill about the selection criteria and process.
Further reading and links can be downloaded from the resource file.
Plus we highly recommend watching the 90 minute presentation of the Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cbc_awards/7/
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Module 2 52.25 with Mary Rose Grieve, Nikki Gamble
Activism and Children's Picture Books
The second webinar in this year’s Summer School series explores activism and picturebooks.
Recently there has been a burgeoning of children’s books published about various forms of activism. From biographies to calls for direct action, these books encourage children to fight for a better world. We explore some of these books and ask the question whether books alone lead to change or whether critical and authentic conversations about difficult topics have more impact.
Resource list attached.
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Module 3 1:03 with Nikki Gamble, Mary Rose Grieve
Encounters with Art and Art History Through Picture Books
In this webinar, we look at the multiplicity of ways that children might encounter art and art history through reading picture books.
We recommend reading the journal articles by Laurence Sipe and Frank Serafini alongside this webinar.
Resources list attached.
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Module 4 1:10:50 with Nikki Gamble, Mary Rose Grieve
Words, Noise and Silence in Wordless Books
In the fourth webinar of this year’s summer school we question whether wordless or silent books are either wordless or silent.
We look at the various ways in which words, sound and silence are inferred through image and discuss the similarities between visual and auditory imagination.
The extent to which auditory imagination is triggered is likely contingent on the strength of the stimulus, some images in books make concrete connections with sound (e.g. dialogue) . whearas other aspects such as colour, shape and line are more abstract. It is also likely impacted by the strength of the individual’s auditory imagination in the same way as the visual imagination. However, the argument in this webinar is that wordless/silent books are neither wordless nor silent.
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Module 5 with Mary Rose Grieve, Nikki Gamble
Designing Nonfiction
In the final webinar of the Summer School 2023, we present an overview of the changes in children’s design amd consider how design both engages and sometimes confounds the reader. The case is made for thoughtful design that puts readers first.
See attached resource list for recommended podcasts that expand the key messages from this webinar.