148 pages
250mm x 168mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 183 3
ISBN-13: 978 185856 183 7
September 2000

Picture Books sans Frontiéres celebrates the universal childhood themes which permeate children's literature across Europe. Not only does it introduce teachers to the wealth of excellent material from Europe with which they are unlikely to be familiar, but it encourages children to empathise with one another and learn about cultural similarities and differences. Through a study of varied visual narratives, the book identifies ways of enabling children to begin exploring literary forms and gain greater linguistic understandings.

England's National Literacy Strategy requires pupils to have an understanding of literature at word, sentence and text levels but guidance on the literature to be used is limited to picture books by British authors. Penni Cotton has researched how a broader spectrum of books could be used to meet the requirements of government initiatives in literacy while at the same time introducing a variety of literary, linguistic and cultural knowledge into the primary English curriculum.

The book has particular relevance for courses in children's literature, language in education, sociolinguistics and early language/literacy development. Because no specialist knowledge is a prerequisite, it will be invaluable in the primary classroom.

Dr Penni Cotton teaches at Kingston University. The project described in this book was funded by the European Commission and won the award of Innovative Reading Promotion in Europe, presented by the International Reading Association in Brussels in 1997.