The UNESCO Courier - Volume 2024, Issue 2, 2024

It wasn’t until the second half of the 18th century that literature specifically aimed at children emerged. Today, the children’s and young adult book industry is booming, and authors and illustrators are vying creatively to help young readers grow up. Yet youth literature still struggles to be recognized for what it is: a literary genre in its own right.

The experience of reading a story is very different if we’re immersed in a book or scrolling through text on a screen, says Douglas Rushkoff, American media theorist and father of concepts like “viral media” and “screenager”.

The first Australian fairy tales were inspired by European stories transplanted to the bush, to familiarise colonists’ children with their new environment.

For a long time the wolf was the ultimate villain in traditional tales, a metaphor for savagery and treachery. It wasn’t until wolves gradually disappeared from forests that their status and portrayal in juvenile literature evolved – to the point where they are now sometimes portrayed as allies of children.

Why let Argentina’s paper shortage and galloping inflation stop you publishing books? The independent publisher, Libros Silvestres [Wild Books] has been defying the odds since it was founded ten years ago. The secret? The unfailing determination and healthy dose of creativity of its managing director, Carolina Musa.

Followed by thousands of young readers, literary influencers have become key players in teen publishing, sharing their favourite reads on social media.

Like former American President Barack Obama, actress Natalie Portman and Meghan Markle, wife of Prince Harry, a growing number of famous Indians are breaking into children’s books. But a famous name is not enough to sell a book; a quality story remains the key to success.

Author and illustrator Delphine Perret, winner of multiple awards, has published some 30 books in which text and images engage in a subtle dialogue of humour and delicacy that leaves plenty of room for the reader’s imagination.

Images in children’s books are much more than simple illustrations for the text. They add another dimension, allowing young readers to create their own engagement with the characters.

Presented in the form of a riddle, this illustrated book by Victor D.O. Santos and Anna Forlati speaks in favour of a diverse and multilingual world. UNESCO has joined forces with publishers around the world to ensure the book is distributed in as many languages as possible.

An award-winning author and school psychologist with a punk past, Marisha Rasi-Koskinen is a unique figure in Finnish literature. Young readers love her ambitious books, which explore issues that concern them without taboos.

In 1998, Nadia Essalmi founded Yomad, Morocco’s first publishing house dedicated to children’s literature, with the aim of offering young readers books that reflect their reality. Its catalogue now includes around a hundred titles, but producing and distributing original books remains a constant challenge.

It’s the art of elevating the ordinary: a sea of colourful hats, an empty bridge in a mountain landscape, a crowd of executives in dark suits. In the images of Yishu Wang, everyday objects and settings hint at a separate world. Figures are often photographed from the back, their faces obscured or perhaps shown in a mirror. Images are seemingly random and evoke different moods, from a man holding a goose on a city street to a flurry of snowflakes viewed through a window at night.

Portuguese actor and director Tiago Rodrigues is also the author of a number of highly acclaimed plays in which he celebrates the power of words and questions the notion of memory, blurring the boundaries between personal narrative and collective history, fiction and reality. In 2023 he was named director of the Festival d’Avignon (France), the world’s largest theatre and live performance event.

Conditions for scientific research in Ukraine have greatly deteriorated since the Russian invasion began in February 2022. As a result of the bombing of Ukrainian cities, more than one-third of scientific institutions have been damaged or destroyed and several Ukrainian scientists have been killed. Many researchers and university teachers have been internally displaced, with one in three now having to work remotely. The budget allocated to scientific work has shrunk, leading to cuts in staff salaries, part-time work and suspension of employment. Productivity in science has suffered as a consequence.