Jochen Weber

Pequeña memoria recobrada. Libros infantiles del exilio del 39 (review)

No. 3 – 2010 | 61 by hosting the CJ Picture Book Festival with exhibitions featuring the books along with original illustrations by the fi nalists. Both events offer insight into the variety and quality of the international art of book illustration. The exhibitions show one hundred recent picture books and illustrations by fi fty illustrators selected by an all-Korean jury of authors, illustrators, and publishers from a total of more than 700 submissions from about 35 countries in each of the two categories. For the inauguration of the festival, an international jury presents awards to fi ve works each from the fi eld of newly published original picture books and from the fi eld of unpublished picture books. A second exhibition showcases the work of one renowned illustrator. A unique feature of the festival is that it commissions musicians, artists, and fi lm directors to adapt the work of the guest of honor to their own medium, thus demonstrating how picture books can function as sources of inspiration for other forms of art. The festival took place twice in Seoul with David Wiesner and Kvĕta Pacovská as the two fi rst guests of honor. The exhibitions are accompanied by a voluminous, superbly designed and richly illustrated catalog showing the titles and pictures of all fi nalists. Every picture book featured in the exhibition and each fi nalist is presented with a brief bilingual (English/ Korean) annotation and several illustrations. The second part introduces the guest of honor and his or her work. The catalogs thus give an extensive overview of contemporary picture book production and illustration; they allow one to discern stylistic tendencies specifi c to different nations as well as to identify global trends. Despite the (still) disproportionately high number of Korean fi nalists, the CJ festival catalogs offer a unique documentation of the state of the art of international children’s book illustration and, with full-color illustrations throughout, guarantee aesthetic pleasure. The initiative of the CJ Culture Foundation is living proof that Korea enriches the art of picture illustration with valuable impetus and refreshing inspiration.

Gran diccionario de autores latinoamericanos de literatura infantil y juvenil [Big encyclopedia of Latin American children's literature authors], and: Historia de la literatura infantil en América Latina [A History of children's literature in Latin America] (review)

Boie’s books into Swedish. Boie’s publisher, Silke Weitendorf, gives a personal report and even the voices of the primary addressees are taken into account: In her contribution “How do you write such beautiful books?,” Ulrike Verch presents fan mail/letters from children and young adults written to Kirsten Boie. The volume is completed by a list of all of Boie’s published titles as well as by a selective bibliography of secondary literature. The mix of literary analysis, personal reports, and children’s voices makes for a particularly attractive volume. It is a warmly recommended read for anyone who already knows Kirsten Boie’s work or wants to get acquainted with it. Ines Galling

Into the closet. Cross-dressing and the gendered body in children's literature and film (review)

and actions in the stories is explored, and Lowe makes her own contribution to the psychological research about “theory of mind”: children’s growing awareness that other people think and have different perspectives and thoughts about the world. Through this detailed and intimate look at her son and daughter, the Australian scholar presents a compelling and well-documented case for appreciating the marvellous insights that young children bring to literature. She argues persuasively that her naturalistic methodology (in contrast to the clinical settings of many psychological studies of child development) results in understanding that many of children’s cognitive and social abilities may occur much earlier than was previously thought. Lawrence R. Sipe

El fuegos sagrado. Los escritores cubanos para niños se confiesan [The sacred fire. Cuban children's authors speak out] (review)

Contemporary Cuban children’s and young adult literature is little known beyond the shores of the country.A few authors are published in Spanishspeaking countries, but hardly anything has been translated and thus shared with readers outside the Hispanic world.This isolation makes the present book all the more important and interesting. It presents 24 interviews with Cuban children’s authors that Enrique Pérez Díaz, Cuban children’s book expert and himself the author of many books for young readers, conducted over a period of two decades.The portraits, ordered chronologically by year of birth, range from Dora Alonso (1910–2000), the grande dame of Cuban children’s literature, to Eldys Baratute Benavides, born in 1983. Díaz’s colleagues and comrades talk about their life and work and reflect on the autobiographical dimension of their creations.The various interviews, whether they explore the creative process or personal experiences and difficulties, all gravitate around the question of what it means and takes to write for children.They also shed light on current developments and trends in Cuban children’s literature and allow readers to situate this isolated production within the broader international context. Even though important names are missing, this informative and stimulating volume gives a colourful overview of Cuban literature and introduces the interested reader to some of Cuba’s most prominent children’s writers of the last decades. Jochen Weber