#kidbkgrp – Boundaries and responsibilities in children’s literature

Last night we talked about boundaries and responsibilities in children’s literature. It’s a bit of a vague topic but one that has a lot of relevance for children’s books and the world of reading / publishing in general. Children’s books are defined by adults for children and very rarely the other way round. Therefore we may have expectations of the genre that may not be actually reflected by the intendees (intendees is not a word and that point’s also a rampant generalisation so please forgive me but I hope you see where I’m going with it.) It’s also a topical issue with things like Roald Dahl front covers receiving less than positive feedback and The Bunker Diary receiving heated reactions post its Carnegie win.

I think talking about this sort of stuff and questioning both it and ourselves is vital (which is why I love blogging and Twitter in general). It’s through talking that we reaffirm ourselves. We understand ourselves. It’s when there’s silence and fear, that’s when understanding starts to become something quite foreign.

You can find the storify of the chat here and here’s a link to the previous chats.