Word & Image

A Journal of Verbal/Visual Enquiry

ISSN: 0266-6286 (Print) 1943-2178 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/twim20

From baby books to picturebooks for adults:

European picturebooks in the new millennium

Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer

To cite this article: Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer (2015) From baby books to picturebooks
for adults: European picturebooks in the new millennium, Word & Image, 31:3, 249-264, DOI:
10.1080/02666286.2015.1032519

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2015.1032519

Published online: 16 Sep 2015.

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From baby books to picturebooks for adults:
European picturebooks in the new millennium
BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
When browsing through bookshelves in bookshops and
libraries, skimming through recommended booklists on differ-
ent websites, and visiting book fairs, such as the Childrens
Book Fair at Bologna and the annual Book Fair at
Frankfurt/Main, one is overwhelmed by the sheer number of
newly published picturebooks.1 Looking at these books, one
encounters a dazzling array, ranging from picturebooks for
infants and toddlers (often called baby books), to picturebooks
for preschool children, to crossover picturebooks, and even
picturebooks targeted at adults only. Moreover, these picture-
books cover various genres, such as fairytale, poetry, non-
fiction, fantastic story, and realistic story. They even establish
genres of their own, for instance the so-called wimmelbooks,
that is, textless picturebooks with doublespreads that present a
panorama of characters and detailed pluriscenic landscapes
composed of various scenes.2
What is more, the variety of artistic styles is astounding, since
the illustrators alternate between pencil drawings, watercolor
illustrations, photography, collage, woodcuts, and acrylic paint-
ing. In addition, an increasing number of illustrators generate
images on the computer, and more and more picturebooks are
simultaneously marketed as print versions and apps.
An attentive observer will also notice that comics, manga,
films, and computer games apparently have a considerable
effect on the creation of picturebooks, as is evident in the
integration of typical patterns derived from these media, such
as speed lines, speech bubbles, camera perspectives, and multi-
ple story levels. Finally, the boundary between picturebooks
and related book formats, such as artists books, altered books,
and graphic novels, is progressively becoming blurred, thus
challenging publishers and readers alike.3
Tellingly, these developments have gone hand in hand with
a growing interest in the academic investigation of picture-
books, which has led to the foundation of scholarly networks
and the deployment of new theoretical approaches. The semi-
nal studies by Perry Nodelman (1988),4 Jens Thiele (2000),5
Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott (2001),6 David Lewis
(2001),7 and Sophie Van der Linden (2007)8 paved the way
for subsequent studies that have taken the investigation of
picturebooks seriously. Due to the multimedial character of
its object, picturebook research has exhibited from the begin-
ning an openness towards interdisciplinarity, embracing
WORD & IMAGE, VOL. 31, NO. 3, JULYSEPTEMBER 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2015.1032519
# 2015 Taylor & Francis
literary studies, linguistics, child psychology, pedagogy, art
history, picture theory, narratology, cognitive studies, and lit-
eracy studies.9
It is no wonder, then, that picturebooks play a crucial role in
experimental studies delving into the analysis of the childs
growing capacities to apprehend symbolic languages. In addi-
tion, literacy study surveys have proved that picturebooks foster
childrens first- and second-language acquisition, introduce
children to visual codes, and ignite young readers imagina-
tions, thus promoting their development of mental concepts
and images.10 Notably, the reciprocal fertilization of picture-
book research and the creation of picturebooks that consider
the seminal steps in the childs cognitive, emotional, and aes-
thetic development is still in its fledgling stage, but it is evident
that a considerable number of picturebook artists respect chil-
drens astonishing facilities to interact with such a demanding
art form as the picturebook.
However, children are generally not consulted about their
likings and what picturebook story they would prefer to read.
As an exception to this rule, the British Childrens Laureate
Quentin Blake collaborated with French schoolchildren on a
picturebook project. Their ideas and suggestions flowed into a
remarkable picturebook, A Sailing Boat in the Sky (2003),11 that
tells the story of two children who build a flying sailing boat
and set out to save children and even adults from terrible
situations. They finally land on an idyllic island where they
make friends with the few inhabitants. The endpapers list the
first names of all the children involved in this project, thus
paying homage to their crucial role in the creation process.
The storys emphasis on childrens power and readiness for
peace forms a striking contrast to those picturebooks that pre-
sent an idyllic world and shun references to environmental
pollution, oppression of the weak, and political conflicts.
Remarkable changes in the picturebook market: a
general overview
In what follows, I will trace the most significant changes in the
European picturebook market since the beginning of the
twenty-first century, with a prognosis for similar developments
in non-European countries.12 Before delving into the breadth
and variety of the picturebook publishing industry in Europe, it
should be stated that the European picturebook market is
249
dominated by English-language picturebooks from the UK, the
USA, and Australia, followed by some Dutch, French,
German, and Scandinavian picturebooks. Picturebooks from
countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, or the Eastern
European countries are hardly known outside their respective
national borders, although the artistic quality of many of these
picturebooks is impressive.
In general, the following tendencies have defined the
European picturebook market since the beginning of the
twenty-first century, although some of them already
appeared in the 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, the conco-
mitant shifts are increasingly characterizing the contempor-
ary picturebook market, which is yielding more and more
syncretic book formats and genres, thus addressing audi-
ences of all ages. First of all, although traditional and long-
selling picturebooks that have gained a classic status are still
predominant, the variety of topics, genres, and artistic styles
is compelling.13 This is partially due to the extension of the
target group to infants and toddlers on the one hand, and to
young adolescents and adults on the other. However, globali-
zation has affected the distribution and design of picturebooks as
well, leading to the creation of global illustrations and stories as
it were, which can be marketed worldwide without adjusting
them to specific target cultures. Astonishingly, this tendency has
not prevented picturebook artists from experimenting with
diverse book designs and layouts, inserting intertextual and
interpictorial references to other works of art, and absorbing
visual codes that are typical of related multimedia art forms.14
The fusion of these different strategies is primarily responsible
for the emergence of new hybrid formats that demand a recon-
sideration of traditional genre categories and familiar concep-
tions of the target group, the latter causing a shift towards
crossover picturebooks.
However, hybridization of forms, styles, and content is but
one trend that exemplifies the most apparent changes in con-
temporary picturebooks. Since the start of the new millennium,
picturebooks have been increasingly subjected to the process of
remediation,15 that is, the transformation of picturebooks into
films, but also interactive and digital media. Media conver-
gence and media assemblage leave their marks on todays
picturebooks, which increasingly display knowledge of the spe-
cific codes of films, computer games, and hypertexts.
Furthermore, more and more picturebooks are simultaneously
merchandized in different media formats, not to mention the
countless accessories, such as dolls, pencils, erasers, mugs, and
sweets, that are decorated with popular picturebook characters.
The sales figures of these so-called non-book products even
surpass those of the picturebooks themselves. Moreover, the
film industry has jumped on the picturebook bandwagon by
launching animated movies and live action films of renowned
picturebooks in order to attract the child audience.16 Since the
beginning of the new millennium, countless picturebooks have
been turned into movies, among them Raymond
Briggss Fungus the Bogeyman (1977; directed by Stuart Orme in
250 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
2004),17 Tomi Ungerers Die drei Ruber (The Three Robbers,
1963; directed by Hayo Freitag in 2007),18 Maurice Sendaks
Where the Wild Things Are (1963; directed by Spike Jonze in
2009),19 and Julia Donaldsons The Gruffalo (1999, illustrated
by Axel Scheffler; directed by Max Lang and Jakob Schuh in
2009).20 The film version of the picturebook The Lost
Thing (2000)21 by Shaun Tan, directed by the artist in coopera-
tion with Andrew Ruhemann and released in 2010,22 even won
the Oscar for the best animated short film in 2011, thus draw-
ing the international publics attention to the hitherto generally
unacknowledged quality of todays picturebooks.
Another significant aspect is the inclusion of taboo topics in
picturebooks, such as war, death, mental illness, and child
abuse. Exceptional examples are Claude Duboiss Akim court
(Akim Runs, 2012)23 about the dangers of war for a young boy
who loses his family and home and Kitty Crowthers La Visite de
petite Mort (The Visit of Little Death, 2004),24 which touches
upon the philosophical question of what will happen after ones
death. Oskar K.s and Dorte Karrebks Idiot (2009)25 presents
a boy who suffers from mental illness, while Aaron Frischs The
Girl in Red (2012),26 illustrated by Italian artist Roberto
Innocenti, intertextually refers to the fairytale Little Red
Riding Hood and relentlessly focuses on the causes of child
abuse and murder. These picturebooks are often characterized
by a melancholic atmosphere and an open ending, thus leaving
it to the reader to reflect on the underlying meanings of the
respective stories.
To all this one may add the psychologized content of many
picturebooks that foreground the depiction of emotions and
psychological processes. Authors and illustrators collaborate to
create idiosyncratic artworks that either highlight the dreamlike
character of the picturebooks scenery or that may be asso-
ciated with the bildungsroman genre. While Gro Dahles and
Svein Nyhuss Sinna Mann (Angry Man, 2008)27 concentrates on
the oppressive situation in a family which is threatened by the
fathers uncontrollable aggressiveness due to his alcoholic
excesses, Levi Pinfolds Black Dog (2013)28 (see figure 1) vividly
envisions the effects of fear and anxiousness on the individuals
perception of his or her surroundings. The outstanding trilogy
about the boy Garmann,29 created by Norwegian Stian Hole,
presents a bildungsroman in a nutshell, since it depicts the
main protagonists development from a shy and fearful boy to
a self-confident character. This development goes hand in hand
with the increasing radius of the boys field of activity, from his
home to the street and finally to the nearby wood, and is
strongly connected to Garmanns increasing capacity to come
into contact with other people and to win recognition among
his peers and neighbors.
In the following sections I will focus on six significant ten-
dencies that can be traced in picturebooks from the beginning
of the new millennium: materiality and interaction, deploy-
ment of postmodern devices, development of new hybrid for-
mats, multilingual picturebooks, picturebooks for adults, and,
finally, digital picturebooks.
Figure 1. Jerry Pinfold, Black Dog (Dorking, Surrey: Templar Publishing, 2013), n.p. Templar Publishing, 2013.

251
Materiality and interaction
A substantial number of picturebooks draw the readers atten-
tion to their material aspects by accentuating the production
process and the physical character of the book itself.
Surprisingly, this tendency already emerges in picturebooks
for infants and toddlers, which are usually printed on thick
cardboard, but even on wood, plastic, and cloth, in other words
on materials that are hard to destroy and can either be washed
or wiped. A new trend in baby book marketing is the combina-
tion of printed pages with inserted items that produce noises,
such as animal sounds, jolly rhymes, and even the flush of a
toilet. The combination of brilliant images, pop-up structure,
and sound design is a unique feature of the popular Sounds of
the Wild series by Maurice Pledger (2008.),30 which offers the
child readers a fascinating and quasi-realistic impression of
animal noises in different environmental settings, such as the
forest, jungle, ocean, and steppe. A new book type is the so-
called knisperboek (crackle book), that is, a picturebook their content and are put in containers that have to be
made of cloth filled with tiny pellets that make a crackling noise
when the pages are touched and turned.
In order to appeal to toddlers, plenty of so-called baby books
are disguised as playthings, for example, with the possibility of
lifting flaps in the pages, pushing on knobs, and pulling paper
strips, or are a combination of picturebook, soft toy, and
puzzle, encouraging the small child to use the picturebook as
a tool. Although the combination of books and toys was
already known in the Enlightenment (toys accompanied some
of British publisher John Newberys books as giveaways), the
technological advancements of modern printing machines
allow the continual development of innovative picturebook
design. For instance, picturebooks for infants can be shaped
like cars with wheels, puppets with strings to pull, animals with
fur-like covers, or technical devices, such as a camera made of
soft material with buttons to push and a silvery lens to spin.
Hence, the boundary between book and toy becomes fuzzy,
as children can use the hybrid book-toy in different manners,
leafing through the pages and looking at the images, cuddling
the soft animal-shaped book, and letting the car-like book
cruise on the floor. In order to enhance the realistic character
of the playthings, these books often can reproduce the appro-
priate noises by means of built-in chips. What is more, the idea
of creating picturebooks that appeal to all senses and render an
almost realistic image of the real world can also generate rather
strange products, which are characterized by a mixture of pop-
up design (in order to create the impression of three-dimen-
sionality) with sound and even smells (beholders have to rub
special marked spots on the pages with their fingers and are
then able to smell the odour of plants, spices, and sweets or
even animals flatulence).
Some publishers commission baby books that consider
toddlers eagerness to bite and taste anything that they get
hold of. Accordingly, the margins of the books are adjusted
to infants teeth by either having tiny notches or by having
attached non-toxic plastic corners that resemble cookies.
252 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
Thus, these newly launched books are characterized by an
overarching book concept that connects synaesthesia (books
can be touched, looked at, heard, smelled, and tasted) and
joyful play.
The tendency to call the readers attention to the material
quality of the book itself and to stimulate their active parti-
cipation by including interactive elements is not restricted to
picturebooks targeted at very young children. Movable
books, pop-up books, and above all artists books for chil-
dren are distinguished by their attempts to go beyond the
scope of the books inherent two-dimensionality. By and
large, these books are distinguished by a playful approach
to broadening the childs spatial concept, but they also
demand that the beholders pay active attention to the pic-
turebooks material quality, as in the amazing pop-up books
created by David Carter, for instance 600 Black Spots (2007).31
Other picturebooks are wrapped in binders that conceal
opened. In addition, some picturebooks are printed as accor-
dion books, which by unfolding gradually reveal the storys
overarching meaning.
Several artists even counter traditional picturebook reading
habits by printing text and pictures that go forward and back-
ward on the same pages. In As duas estradas (On Two Roads,
2009)32 by Isabel Minhs Martins and Bernardo Carvalho (see
figure 2), the reader starts reading the book from beginning to
end. When reaching the end, he has to turn the book around
and continue reading the story. Belgian artist Tom Schamps
almost wordless Otto-books, such as Otto in de Stad (Otto in the
City, 2007) (see figure 3),33 go a step further as the story unfolds
on the right and left margins of the book, therefore prompting
the viewer to turn and twist the doublespreads back and forth
in different directions to reveal the multiple connections
between the figures and their actions. In order to distinguish
this book type from wimmelbooks, the new term loop book34
has been suggested and is already printed on the back cover of
Schamps books.
Herv Tullets Un Livre (2010),35 published in English as Press
Here (2011) and a New York Times bestseller, challenges readers
assumptions about what a book is or should be. It is a book that
Figure 2. Isabel Minhs Martins, As duas estradas, illus. Bernardo Carvalho
(Lisbon: Planeta Tangerina, 2009), n.p. Planeta Tangerina, 2009.
Figure 3. Tom Schamp, Otto in de Stad (Tielt: Lannoo, 2007), n.p. Lannoo Publishers, 2007.
pretends to be a computer app with the page as a touch-
screen literally insisting on interactivity by inviting the
reader to press its dots, and then to turn the page to see the
result. While children without access to tablet computer tech-
nology would certainly experience something new, Un Livre is
clearly for readers who are able to understand the joke of a
book simulating an app. Hence, the books mimicry of the app
emphasizes the often dubious value of picturebook apps and e-
books. In this respect, Tullets picturebook also points out the
serious changes in the international book market brought about
by the breakthrough of digital picturebooks (see last section).
Deployment of postmodern devices
The reference to the picturebooks materiality smoothly fuses
with metafiction in picturebooks directed toward older children
by integrating material aspects as part of the story. A case in
point is Oliver Jefferss The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (2006),36
which revolves around a boy who loves devouring books
instead of sandwiches and pizzas until he suffers from a severe
stomachache. Finally he learns that books provide the possibi-
lity to unearth new viewpoints on the world and to ignite ones
own imagination. The boys process of education is visualized
in the illustrations and in pages that are often torn, with
missing corners. Although he is eventually able to control his
hunger for books, the damaged back cover indicates that the
boys appetite has not been satisfied. This playful handling of
the book material and its interconnection with the story con-
tribute to the picturebooks metafictional character, thus evok-
ing laughter, while it also creates a tension between real world
and fictional world.37
Metafictional devices, such as mise-en-abyme, the book-within-
a-book motif, narrative metalepsis, and multiple story endings,
are typical features of postmodern picturebooks emerging dur-
ing the 1990s.38 For the last two decades, these aspects have
increased in complexity, as can be seen, for instance, in Emily
Gravetts picturebooks Wolves (2006)39 and Little Mouses Big
Book of Fears (2008).40 Whereas Wolves draws the readers atten-
tion to the material aspect of the book by attaching a library
card and two letters that can be uncased from the endpapers,
Little Mouse not only depicts the tracks left by the mouse when
writing her diary, but also poses questions of authorship.
Although the cover and imprint mention Emily Gravett as
the author and illustrator, the mouse claims to be the true
author, thus casting doubt on Gravetts personal contribution.
Swiss author-illustrator Kathrin Schrs Johanna im Zug
(Johanna on the Train, 2009)41 (see figure 4) emphasizes the
253
Figure 4. Kathrin Schr, Johanna im Zug (Zrich: Atlantis, 2009), n.p. 2009 Atlantis, an imprint of Orell Fssli Verlag AG, Zrich.
books creation process from the book cover to the back cover
by showing the artists preparations for conceptualizing a new
picturebook story. As the story progresses, the main protago-
nists contact the artist and complain about being at the
authors mercy. They suggest possible changes to the narrative
and illustrations in order to generate their own individual
stories. The contact between the characters and the artist is
visualized in the illustrations, which are divided into two parts
throughout and distinguished by different artistic styles. While
the upper half focuses on the train travel of Johanna and her
friends, the lower half of several illustrations shows a table with
drawing materials and two human hands, which obviously
represent the artist at work. Artist and protagonists sometimes
switch positions and interfere with each other, thus urging the
reader to become aware of the picturebooks carefully con-
structed plot.
Another prominent feature of many present-day picture-
books consists in artistic allusions to renowned works of art,
that is, paintings, sculpture, and architecture, familiar picture-
books, and artifacts from popular culture. In a society governed
by mass media, picturebooks are increasingly interlaced with
quotations and references to numerous discourses from differ-
ent sources. Anthony Browne is an oft-cited artist in this
respect, since his picturebooks are crammed with intertextual
and interpictorial references to other artworks, including
Brownes own picturebooks.42 Willys Pictures (2000),43 for
example, playfully alludes to famous paintings such as
Botticellis Spring and Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. It facil-
itates the recognition of the models by attaching reduced
reproductions of the originals in the appendix. The allusions
254 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
to Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Me and You (2009)44 (see
figure 5) and to Beauty and the Beast in Little Beauty (2008)45
can only be understood by those readers who are familiar with
the original stories. In Brownes picturebooks, interpictoriality
does not primarily serve the purpose of introducing children to
renowned works of art, but rather it underscores the psycholo-
gical depth of the respective stories. Other picturebooks, such
as Ed Francks Op zoek naar mij (The Quest for Myself, 2013)46
(see figure 6) with illustrations by Kris Nauwelaerts, even con-
nect different psychological and emotional conditions such as
anger, fear, sadness, and happiness with distinct artistic styles.
Generally, postmodern picturebooks indicate multiple levels
of meanings by means of metafiction, ironical remarks, inter-
pictoriality, and twisted endings. Hence, they often prompt the
question of whether children at the preschool and primary
school age are able to cope with the sophisticated structure
and content of these books. Surprisingly, empirical studies in
reader-response theory and developmental psychology have
demonstrated childrens astounding capacity to fathom the
subliminal intents of such picturebooks that display a playful
approach towards ambitious narrative and visual codes.47
Generating hybrid picturebook forms
From the outset, picturebooks have drawn upon various
sources of inspiration, such as comic strips, theatre, and
photography. Blending picturebooks and related art works
like comics and films has been a common practice since the
1970s, while the impact of Japanese manga art on Western
picturebook design surfaces at the turn of the new
Figure 5. Anthony Browne, Me and You (London: Walker Books, 2009). Reprinted with the kind permission of Anthony Browne.
millennium. Scholars apparently find it hard to distinguish
clearly between these genres and media. Significant differ-
ences exist with regard to the target group, the reading
process, the number of pages, the use of color, the visual
style, and the distribution of images and text on the pages.
However, these aspects do not really contribute to an exact
demarcation line between these genres. This is mainly due
to the convergence of picturebooks, comics, and manga.
The proximity of the categories is further enforced by the
globalization of the book market and the tendency to create
artworks that are characterized by transcultural and inter-
medial features.
Picturebooks, comics, and manga appear in a vast range of
visual styles, but what they have in common is that they reduce
the details of the visible world in terms of color, shape, and
texture, and that they typically use explicit contours to draw
their objects.48 A considerable amount of pleasure in reading
comics, manga, and picturebooks consists in imagining how to
fill the gutters between each panel and each illustration.49
Another challenge of picturebooks, comics, and manga is how
much they excite the imagination what the reader perceives
beyond and between the borders of their individual pictures
and panels.50
The growing interest of children and adolescents in manga
has prompted artists to create manga versions of famous chil-
drens classics. For instance, the German illustrator and car-
toonist David Fleki was commissioned by the publisher
Tokyopop to create a newly illustrated version of Heinrich
Hoffmanns Der Struwwelpeter (Slovenly Peter, 1845)51 (see
figure 7) in commemoration of the authors bicentenary. One
condition for the adaptation was that the illustrations should be
drawn in manga style. In the resulting Struwwelpeter. Das groe
Buch der Strenfriede (Struwwelpeter. The Big Book of
Troublemakers, 2009),52 Hoffmanns original verses are
retained. While Fleki strictly kept to Hoffmanns page layout,
he sometimes reduced the number of illustrations per page in
order to emphasize the figures exaggerated gestures and facial
expressions.
255

Figure 6. Ed Franck, Op zoek naar mij, illus. Kris Nauwelaerts (Wielsbeke:
De Eenhoorn, 2013). De Eenhoorn Uitgeverj, 2013.
Whereas Flekis book might be strictly classified as a manga
version of a traditional picturebook story, many contemporary
artists create picturebooks that are distinguished by their
hybrid character. What propels these artists is the idea of
exploiting the possibilities of this multimedia art form by fusing
various artistic styles and techniques on the one hand, and by
combining diverse narrative and visual codes derived from
comics, manga, film, and computer games on the other.
Critics observing the tendency to blur the boundaries of, for
instance, picturebooks, artists books, and graphic novels attri-
bute this position to the globalization of the picturebook mar-
ket, which elicits novel hybrid genres and forms.
The hybridity of Chen Jianghongs53 autobiographical pic-
turebook Mao et moi (Mao and Me, 2008)54 (see figure 8)
where distinctive Chinese aesthetics and Western cultural
forms coexist may be considered as part of a global
approach to the indigenization of foreign cultures.55
Hybridity occurs when one cultural space absorbs and trans-
forms elements from another, as Henry Jenkins states: a
hybrid work thus exists betwixt and between two cultural
traditions while providing a path that can be explored from
256 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
both directions.56 In this respect, Chengs picturebook, which
shows the impact of Chinese manhua57 and traditional ink
drawings in combination with the Western European moder-
nist styles that the artist had encountered at the art academy in
Paris, is distinguished by a collision between different world-
views, borrowing from different cultures, mixing cultural signs
and symbols to create an intercultural, even intermedial
artwork.
These picturebooks prove that the appropriation of comics
and manga has definitely contributed to innovations in modern
picturebooks insofar as the resulting products require a skilled
readership that is able to recognize the multiple relations
between text and image, and to decode the intertextual and
intermedial allusions to comics and manga. The hybrid juxta-
position of these genres shows the conspicuous dynamic
changes that have occurred in picturebook design and that
have opened the genre up to new ideas and concepts.
Multilingual picturebooks
Multilingualism is a phenomenon that exists in many European
countries, especially in those countries and regions that have
more than one official language, such as Belgium, Spain, South
Tyrol, Switzerland, and the Ukraine, but also in countries with
a high number of migrants, such as France, Germany, and the
United Kingdom. Despite language policy, the majority of
these countries do not publish multilingual picturebooks in a
strict sense, but diverse linguistic editions of the same book.
Nevertheless, multilingual picturebooks have progressively
been capturing the book market. These books serve different
purposes: they foster childrens second-language acquisition
and they contribute to the appreciation of the immigrants
language(s) and culture(s), thus supporting intercultural under-
standing. Usually, these picturebooks are translations of two to
four languages printed on the same or on alternate pages.
Bilingual picturebooks may also be interlingual, with a primar-
ily English, German, or French text interspersed with words
and phrases from another language, thus inviting readers to
switch between two to four languages on the condition that
they have at least a basic knowledge of these languages.
Some small publishers in Germany, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom, to name just a few countries, are devoted
to publishing multilingual encyclopedias, picture dictionaries,
and picturebooks. Interestingly, these books are not only
focused on prestige languages, such as English or French, but
they also address the languages of large immigrant groups, such
as Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian.
Accordingly, these publishers commission picturebooks that
are created by artists from the countries in which these lan-
guages are spoken.
An outstanding example is the award-winning Korean-
German picturebook Wann kommt Mama? (Waiting for Mama,
2007)58 by Tae-Jun Lee with illustrations by Kim Dong-Seong
(see figure 9). The story, which was originally written in the
1930s, focuses on a little boy who is going to the tram stop to
Figure 7. David Fleki, Struwwelpeter. Das groe Buch der Strenfriede (Hamburg: Tokyopop, 2009), 7. David Fleki/Tokyopop GmbH, 2009.

257
Figure 8. Chen Jianghong, Mao et moi (Paris: Lcole des loisirs, 2008), 41. 2008, lcole des loisirs, Paris.
wait for his mother. Each time the tram arrives, he asks the
driver whether his mother is inside. In most cases the drivers
react gruffly, claiming that they do not know the boys mother.
Just one driver shows empathy and advises the boy to take care
of himself. After several futile attempts the boy does not ask any
more questions, but he perseveres despite the bitter cold. This
enigmatic story has an open ending, because the reader does
not find out whether the boys mother finally arrives or not.59
Only those readers who delve into the spaces between the
lines and have a basic knowledge of Korean history are able to
understand the underlying message of the picturebook, which
subliminally refers to the devastating political situation in
Korea in the 1930s when the country was occupied by Japan.
The oppression of the Korean language and culture and the
sudden eradication of political adversaries are indirectly mir-
rored in Waiting for Mama, which could escape censorship due
to its status as a story for children.
This picturebook and other bilingual examples, like the
Arabic-German Mein neuer Freund, der Mond (My New Friend
the Moon, 2004)60 by Egyptian author Walid Taher and the
258 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
Turkish-German Mert Ve Acayib Fes. stanbul Tarihine Bir Yolculuk
Mert und der wundersame Fes. Eine Reise durch die Zeit in Istanbul
(Mert and the Wonderful Fes. A Journey through Time in
Istanbul, 2008)61 by Betl Sayn, usually print the original
language next to the translated version. By contrast, the
English text in the interlingual picturebook Subway Sparrow
(1993)62 by Leila Torres is interspersed with Spanish and
Polish words and phrases.63
When analyzing multilingual picturebooks with their diverse
visual and linguistic codes, their multimodal character
demands the specific capacity of code switching. Research in
multilingualism describes code switching as the ability to con-
nect different languages. When looking at the images and
reading the text in a multilingual picturebook, the readers
must switch between varying codes as well. First, they must
identify the visual codes of the images and the linguistic codes
of the text. In a next step, the readers are asked to diversify
these codes insofar as they are confronted with at least two
different languages (and perhaps even scripts). In addition,
many multilingual picturebooks challenge the reader to
Figure 9. Tae Jun Lee, Wann kommt Mama?, illus. Kim Dong-Seong (Zurich: Baobab Books, 2007), n.p. Baobab Books, 2007.
recognize diverse, culturally transmitted visual codes. A com-
plex multilingual picturebook would then demand that readers
be able to distinguish between and master multiple codes.
Thus, code switching takes place on several levels: between
different languages, between variable visual codes, and
between text and pictures. Considering these multifaceted
characteristics, multilingual picturebooks present a challenge
for multilingual didactics and picturebook research.
Picturebooks for adults
Narrative phenomena such as metafiction, interpictoriality,
parody, and self-reference, which had typically been reserved
for adolescent literature and literature for adults, have been
entering the picturebook world in varying degrees since the
1990s and have contributed to the acceptance of crossover
picturebooks, which have opened the global picturebook mar-
ket to readers of all ages.64 The term crossover picturebook has
a double meaning, because, in addition to the expanded read-
ership, it also refers to the observation that an increasing
number of artists who started their artistic career with artworks
for an adult audience have turned towards picturebooks for
children. Prominent representatives are Keith Haring, Wayne
Thibauld, or Andy Warhol. Moreover, these picturebooks can
be interpreted on multiple levels. The controversial picture-
book Den Sorte Bog (The Black Book, 2007)65 by Danish artist
Dorte Karrebk (see figure 10) may at first glance be inter-
preted as the quest story of a young boy who accidentally finds
the black book, which contains information on seven weird-
looking insects. The boy catches these insects in the nearby
wood and nails them into his newly built wooden box.
However, the subtitle Om de syv ddssynder (About the
Seven Deadly Sins) broadens the scope of this picturebook by
having the insects symbolize the seven deadly sins, as implied in
the insects careless behavior towards their offspring, thus caus-
ing their death. The enigmatic ending of the book encourages
the reader to reflect on the overarching meaning of the story,
which addresses moral, religious, and ecological topics.66
At the same time, there has been a growing tendency in
Scandinavia to publish picturebooks exclusively for adults.67 In
recent years this tendency has spread to other European coun-
tries, such as France and Germany. Often the books subtitles
indicate the target groups, as in Helme Heines Wie der Fuball
in die Welt kam. Ein Bilderbuch fr Erwachsene (How Soccer Came
into the World: A Picturebook for Adults, 2012).68 Whereas
crossover picturebooks address a dual readership, targeting
children and adults simultaneously, picturebooks for adults do
not address children at all, but appeal to young adults and
those people who have grown up with comics and other
visually dominated book genres.
An oft-cited example of such picturebooks for adults is
Norwegian Lene Asks graphic novel Hitler, Jesus og farfar
(Hitler, Jesus and Grandfather, 2006).69 The main character
Lene is a representative of the author-illustrator; like the
author, she is a young artist who receives a scholarship to
study art in Berlin, where she starts searching for her
German grandfather. The story unfolds in flashbacks that
follow the protagonists stream of consciousness. The narra-
tives autobiographical character becomes obvious through the
259
Figure 10. Dorte Karrebk, Den Sorte Bog. Om de syv ddssynder (Copenhagen: Forlaget alma, 2007), 4243. Reprinted with kind permission of Dorte Karrebk.
Forlaget alma, 2007.
insertion of photos, diary entries, and newspaper clippings that
refer to the authors and her mothers childhood, thus covering
three time levels. The combination of fictional autobiography,
questions of identity, and existential as well as religious issues
significantly contributes to the appeal of Asks picturebook.
A common feature of picturebooks for adults consists in the
many intra-iconic70 details and intertextual and interpictorial
references. Although crossover picturebooks share these char-
acteristics, the main difference in picturebooks for adults con-
sists in the latters focus on the conditions of adulthood and on
topics that most probably attract an adult audience, such as
uncontrolled consumption in Germano Zullo and Albertines
Grand Couturier Raphael (2009)71 (see figure 11) or fear of becom-
ing old, helpless, and weak in Gro Dahles Ikke gi opp hpet,
Werner (Dont Give Up, Werner, 2008).72
Picturebooks entering the digital age
Nowadays, many children first encounter picturebooks in elec-
tronically mediated and interactive platforms through applica-
tions on mobile devices such as cell phones, androids, and the
iPad. Prominent examples are Eric Carles Counting with the Very
Hungry Caterpillar (2012),73 Pop Out! The Tale of Peter Rabbit (2011)74
based on the picturebook by Beatrix Potter, and Sandra
Boyntons Blue Hat, Green Hat (2011).75 Since these apps are
easy to find and to buy, they have immediate success.
While e-book facsimiles of renowned picturebooks usually
follow the print version and do not add further playful or
informational elements, enhanced e-books have embedded
features like audio and video. Picturebook apps, in turn, can
260 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
be anything that can be programmed, from a movie to a game
and beyond, as in Alice for the I-Pad, released in 2010.76 Even
advanced reality technology is entering the field of picture-
books. When readers hold certain pages of What Lola Wants
Lola Gets! (2011),77 written by David Salariya and illustrated by
Carolyn Scrace, to a webcam, they see the characters come to
life in full 3-D animation, accompanied by music.
Remediations of popular picturebooks, such as Oliver Jefferss
The Heart and the Bottle (print version 2009; digital version 2010)78
and Mo Willems Dont Let the Pigeon Run This App! (slightly
different print version published in 2003; digital version in
2011),79 still dominate the digital picturebook market, but
young artists recognize the aesthetic and narrative opportunities
of computer technologies to create original digital picturebooks
that overcome the constraints of print versions.
Although the inexhaustible possibilities of digitized picture-
books are often praised enthusiastically, there is only scant
research on the understanding of how childrens literacy is
shaped by the quickly evolving changes brought about by
digitization. Since contemporary childrens texts, including
digital picturebooks, are accessed via a range of media and
are likely to embed images, sound, and movement, this has
implications for the reading process, because children need to
navigate quite complex texts and images on screen.
Consequently, digital picturebooks challenge publishers and
readers in different ways. First, they affect the reading process,
which turns from an attentive reading session to a joint, inter-
active activity where children are invited to touch dots on the
screen instead of turning pages. Second, digital picturebooks,
Figure 11. Germano Zullo, Grand Couturier Raphael, illus. Albertine (Geneva: La Joie de lire, 2009), n.p. Editions La Joie de lire SA, Geneva, Switzerland.
with their complex format of image, text, sound, film, and
hypertextual markers, address several senses simultaneously:
seeing, listening, hearing, and touching. Third, picturebook
apps combine diverse media formats, such as film, computer
games, and audio drama, thus demanding the childs acquisition
of a digital literacy,80 as it were. To this concept also belongs the
capacity to navigate between different levels, which adds a
hypertextual structure to the picturebook story. Finally, digital
picturebooks offer the possibility to change the narrative flow by
selecting various sidelines and supplements, which extend and
expand the story in a considerable way. The combination of
reading, playing, and learning (for example, drawing a picture,
learning letters, colors, and numbers, answering simple ques-
tions, and singing songs) encourages children to use different
reading and comprehension strategies simultaneously.
In any case, children today may read a printed and an app
version of the same title in different situations and locations, thus
experiencing different media formats at the same time. Although
critics and publishers express concerns about the cannibalization
of print sales by digital picturebook versions, most of the profes-
sionals involved in the production process of literature for children
do not worry that digital products will eventually supplant tradi-
tional books. In fact, one might expect that publishers will launch
a media consortium of print versions and picturebook apps that
complement each other, following the model of Disneys Kingdom
Keepers (2005ff.),81 written by Ridley Pearson, and Scholastics 39
Clues series (2008ff., written by a collaboration of authors).82
Consequently, such developments will certainly change the
modes of story-telling in picturebooks and other childrens
media in the long run, introducing children to transmedial narra-
tion, which plays an increasing role in contemporary media.83
NOTES
1 In picturebook research picturebook is written as one word in order
to emphasize that the term does not indicate a book with pictures, but a
specific book type that is distinguished by a relationship between text and
images. See, for instance, Maria Nikolajeva, and Carole Scott, How
Picturebooks Work (New York: Garland, 2001), as well as Teresa Colomer,
Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer and Cecilia Silva-Daz, eds., New Directions
in Picturebook Research (New York: Routledge, 2010).
2 The term wimmelbook can be traced back to the German
Wimmelbuch, which indicates that the illustrations are teeming with
figures, objects, and actions. The first wimmelbook was created by the
261
German artist Ali Mitgutsch in the 1960s. One of the most prominent
contemporary artists is Rotraut Susanne Berner, whose books about the
fictional village Wimmlingen, for instance, Winter-Wimmelbuch (Winter
Wimmelbook), have been translated into several languages: Rotraut
Susanne Berner, Winter-Wimmelbuch (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 2006). On
the challenges of the wimmelbook, see Cornelia Rmi, Reading as
Playing: The Cognitive Challenge of the Wimmelbook, in Emergent
Literacy: Childrens Books from 0 to 3, ed. Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer
(Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2011), 11539.
3 See Carole Scott, Artists Books, Altered Books and Picturebooks, in
Picturebooks: Representation and Narration, ed. Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer
(New York: Routledge, 2014), 3752.
4 Perry Nodelman, Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Childrens Picture
Books (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1988).
5 Jens Thiele, Das Bilderbuch. sthetik, Theorie, Analyse, Didaktik, Rezeption
(Oldenburg: Isensee, 2000).
6 Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott, How Picturebooks Work (New York:
Garland, 2001).
7 David Lewis, Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text (London:
RoutledgeFalmer, 2001).
8 Sophie Van der Linden, Lire lalbum (Le Puy-en-Velay: LAtelier du
poisson soluble, 2007).
9 See Gunter Kress and Theo Van Leeuwen, Reading Images: The Grammar of
Visual Design (London: Routledge, 1996); Jens Thiele, ed., Neue Impulse der
Bilderbuchforschung (Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren, 2007);
Evelyn Arizpe, Maureen Farrell, and Julie McAdams, eds., Picturebooks: Beyond
the Borders of Art, Narrative, and Culture (New York: Routledge, 2013); Clare
Painter, J.R. Martin, and Len Unsworth, Reading Visual Narratives: Image
Analysis of Childrens Picture Books (London: Equinox, 2012); Bettina
Kmmerling-Meibauer, ed., Picturebooks: Representation and Narration (New
York: Routledge, 2014).
10 See Janet Evans, ed., Talking Beyond the Page: Reading and Responding to
Picturebooks (London: Routledge, 2009); Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer, ed.,
Emergent Literacy: Childrens Books from 0 to 3; Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer,
Jrg Meibauer, Kerstin Nachtigller, and Katharina Rohlfing, eds., Learning
from Picturebooks: Perspectives from Child Development and Literacy Studies (New
York: Routledge, 2015). For a cognitive theory of picturebooks, see Bettina
Kmmerling-Meibauer and Jrg Meibauer, Towards a Cognitive Theory
of Picturebooks, International Research in Childrens Literature 6, no. 2 (2013):
14360.
11 Quentin Blake, A Sailing Boat in the Sky (London: Red Fox, 2003). For a
close analysis of Blakes picturebook see Yasmine Motawy, Crumpling
Dots and Flying Boats without Borders: Empowerment in Quentin Blakes
A Flying Boat in the Sky and Walid Tahers Al-noqta Al-sawdaa, International
Research in Childrens Literature 6, no. 1 (2013): 1527.
12 For a general overview of the history and development of picture-
books, see Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer, Bilderbuch, in Historisches
Wrterbuch der Rhetorik, ed. Gerd Ueding. Supplementary volume, 11 vols
(New York and Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012), 14661.
13 In this regard it should be mentioned that the picturebook market is
exhibiting an increasing interest in adaptations of world literature written for
adults. See Marlene Zhrer, Weltliteratur im Bilderbuch (Wien: Praesens, 2010).
14 The significance of visual storytelling in picturebooks is discussed in
Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles, Childrens Picturebooks: The Art of Visual
Storytelling (London: Laurence King, 2012).
15 According to intermedial studies, media are continually interacting
with other media by commenting on or replacing each other. David J.
Bolter and Richard A. Grusin argue in their book Remediation: Understanding
New Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000) that especially new media
justify themselves by remediating old media. For instance, digital media are
constantly remediating their predecessors, such as television, movie, radio,
newspaper, and other old media.
262 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
16 For a general discussion of this topic, see Johanna Tydecks, Verfilmte
Bilder, verfilmter Text. Zur typologischen Einordnung von
Bilderbuchverfilmungen am Beispiel der filmischen Rezeption von
MADELINE, in Von wilden Kerlen und wilden Hhnern. Perspektiven des modernen
Kinderfilms, ed. Christian Exner and Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer
(Marburg: Schren, 2012), 12146.
17 Raymond Briggs, Fungus the Bogeyman (London: Hamish Hamilton,
1977). Film version: Fungus the Bogeyman, United Kingdom, 2004, dir.
Stuart Orme, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
18 Tomi Ungerer, Die drei Ruber (Zrich: Diogenes, 1963). Film version:
Die drei Ruber, Germany, 2007, dir. Hayo Freitag, Warner Home Video.
19 Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (New York: Harper & Row,
1963). Film version: Where the Wild Things Are, USA, 2009, dir. Spike Jonze,
Warner Home Video.
20 Julia Donaldson, The Gruffalo, illus. Axel Scheffler (London:
Macmillan, 1999). Film version: The Gruffalo, United Kingdom and
Germany, 2009, dir. Max Lang and Jakob Schuh, Concorde Video.
21 Shaun Tan, The Lost Thing (London: Hodder Childrens Books, 2010).
22 The Lost Thing, Australia 2010, dir. Shaun Tan and Andrew
Ruhemann. http://vimeo.com/63003515, accessed December 30, 2013. A
detailed analysis of this film is given in Johanna Tydecks, The Lost Thing:
Moving Media Language from Picturebook to Short Film, Journal of
Educational Media, Memory, and Society (JEMMS) 5, no. 2 (2013): 4560.
23 Claude Dubois, Akim court (Paris: Lcole des loisirs, 2012).
24 Kitty Crowther, La Visite de petite Mort (Paris: Lcole des loisirs, 2004).
25 Oskar K, Idiot, illus. Dorte Karrebk (Copenhagen: Hst & Son, 2009).
26 Aaron Frisch, The Girl in Red, illus. Roberto Innocenti (Mancato:
Creative Publishers, 2012).
27 Gro Dahle, Sinna Mann, illus. Svein Nyhus (Oslo: Cappelen Damm,
2008). See also Agnes-Margrethe Bjorvand, Do Sons Inherit the Sins of
Their Fathers? An Analysis of the Picturebook Angry Man, in Colomer,
Kmmerling-Meibauer, and Silva-Daz, eds., New Directions in Picturebook
Research, 21731.
28 Levi Pinfold, Black Dog (Dorking, Surrey: Templar Publishing, 2013).
29 The trilogy encompasses Garmanns sommer (Oslo: Cappelen Damm,
2006; English trans. Garmanns Summer, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
2008); Garmanns gate (Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2006; English trans.
Garmanns Street, trans. Don Bartlett, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010);
Garmanns hemelighet (Oslo: Cappelen Damm, 2010; English trans. Garmanns
Secret, trans. Don Bartlett, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2011). For a
detailed analysis of Holes picturebook trilogy, see Nina Christensen,
Thought and Dream are Heavenly Vehicles: Character, Bildung, and
Aesthetics in Stian Holes Garmann Trilogy (20062010), in
Kmmerling-Meibauer, ed., Picturebooks: Representation and Narration, 10920.
30 Maurice Pledger, Sounds of the Wild: Jungle (Charlotte, NC: Silver
Dolphin Books, 2008).
31 David A. Carter, 600 Black Spots (London: Little Simon, 2007).
32 Isabel Minhs Martins, As duas estradas, illus. Bernardo Carvalho
(Lisbon: Planeta Tangerina, 2009).
33 Tom Schamp, Otto in de Stad (Tielt: Lannoo, 2007; English trans. Otto in
the City. Mustang, OK: Tate Publishing, 2013).
34 See Sara Van Meerbergen, Play, Parody, Intertextuality and
Interaction: Postmodern Flemish Picture Books as Semiotic Playgrounds,
Nordic Journal of ChildLit Aesthetics 3 (2012): n.p. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/
blft.v3i0.20075 (accessed December 25, 2013).
35 Herv Tullet, Un livre (Paris: Bayard Jeunesse, 2010; English trans. Press
Here, trans. Christopher Francheschelli. San Francisco: Chronicle Books,
2011). See Philip Nel, Surrealism for Children: Paradoxes and
Possibilities, in Childrens Literature and the Avant-Garde, ed. Elina Druker
and Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2015),
26783.
36 Oliver Jeffers, The Incredible Book-Eating Boy (London: Philomel, 2006).
37 See Evelyn Arizpe, All this book is about books: Picturebooks,
Culture, and Metaliterary Awareness, in Colomer, Kmmerling-
Meibauer, and Silva-Daz, eds., New Directions in Picturebook Research, 6982.
38 See also Lawrence Sipe and Sylvia Pantaleo, eds., Postmodern
Picturebooks: Play, Parody, and Self-Referentiality (New York and London:
Routledge, 2008); Cherie Allan, Playing with Picturebooks. Postmodernism and
the Postmodernesque (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
39 Emily Gravett, Wolves (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006).
40 Emily Gravett, Little Mouses Big Book of Fears (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2008).
41 Kathrin Schr, Johanna im Zug (Zrich: Atlantis, 2009).
42 See Mara Jos Lobato and Beatriz Hoster Cabo, An
Approximation to Intertextuality in Picturebooks: Anthony Browne
and His Hypotexts, in Kmmerling-Meibauer, ed., Picturebooks:
Representation and Narration, 16584.
43 Anthony Browne, Willys Pictures (London: Walker Books, 2000).
44 Anthony Browne, Me and You (London: Walker Books, 2009).
45 Anthony Browne, Little Beauty (London: Doubleday, 2008).
46 Ed Franck, Op zoek naar mij, illus. Kris Nauwelaerts (Wielsbeke: De
Eenhoorn, 2013).
47 See Evelyn Arizpe and Morag Styles, Children Reading Pictures: Interpreting
Visual Texts (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003).
48 For the investigation of the narrative structure of comics, see the
seminal studies by Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
(New York: Tundra, 1993); David Carrier, The Aesthetics of Comics
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000); Stephan
Packard, Anatomie des Comics (Gttingen: Wallstein, 2006).
49 The relationship between picturebooks and comics has been discussed
by scholars working in the field of picturebook research and comic studies
in Charles Hatfield and Craig Svonkin, eds., Why Comics Are and Are Not
Picture Books. Special issue of Childrens Literature Association Quarterly 27, no. 4
(2012): 42997.
50 Given the common features among these multimedial art forms, it is
all the more astonishing that neither picturebook research nor comics and
manga research pay attention to each other, even though their academic
interests overlap in addressing the same issue, namely the thorough inves-
tigation of the narrative and visual constraints of a medium that is distin-
guished by a close juxtaposition of verbal and visual elements
complementing each other. Indeed, the consolidation of their respective
theoretical frameworks and research results would entail meaningful cross-
fertilization since the multimodal character of these genres calls for an
interdisciplinary approach.
51 Heinrich Hoffmann, Der Struwwelpeter (Stuttgart: Thienemann-
Esslinger, 2002; first German ed. 1845).
52 David Fleki, Struwwelpeter. Das groe Buch der Strenfriede (Hamburg:
Tokyopop, 2009). See also Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer, Manga/
Comic Hybrids in Picturebooks, in Mangas Cultural Crossroads, ed.
Jaqueline Berndt and Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer (New York:
Routledge, 2013), 98118.
53 Chen Jianghong spent his childhood in China, but left his home
country as a young student, living since then in France, where most of
his picturebooks have been published.
54 Chen Jianghong, Mao et moi (Paris: Lcole des loisirs, 2008;
English trans. Mao and Me, trans. Boris Moissard and Jacqueline
Miller. Brooklyn, NY: Enchanted Lions Books, 2008).
55 Picturebooks that combine autobiographical facts and fictional pas-
sages emerged in the 1980s; see Bettina Kmmerling-Meibauer,
Remembering the Past in Words and Pictures: How Autobiographical
Stories Become Picturebooks, in Colomer, Kmmerling-Meibauer, and
Silva-Daz, eds., New Directions in Picturebook Research, 20515.
56 Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New
York: New York University Press, 2006), 114.
57 Manhua are Chinese comics drawn in the manga style. They differ
slightly from Japanese manga.
58 Tae Jun Lee, Wann kommt Mama?, illus. Kim Dong-Seong (Zurich:
Baobab, 2007; first Korean ed. 2004; English trans. Waiting for Mama, trans.
Eun Hee Chun. Zurich: NorthSouth Books, 2007).
59 The intricate relationship between the different linguistic and visual
codes of multilingual picturebooks has been discussed in Bettina
Kmmerling-Meibauer, Code-Switching in Multilingual Picturebooks,
Bookbird 51, no. 3 (2013): 1221.
60 Walid Taher, Mein neuer Freund, der Mond, trans. from Arabic by Petra
Dnges (Berlin: Edition Orient, 2004; original Egyptian edition: Shby Al-
Gadd, 2001).
61 Betl Sayn, Mert Ve Acayib Fes. stanbul Tarihine Bir Yolculuk Mert und der
wundersame Fes. Eine Reise durch die Zeit in Istanbul (Berlin: Edition Orient, 2008).
62 Leila Torres, Subway Sparrow (New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux,
1993).
63 In Australia and New Zealand a number of interlingual picturebooks
have appeared that focus on indigenous languages spoken by Aboriginal
and Maori people; see Nancy Hadaway and Terrell A. Young,
Celebrating and Revitalizing Language: Indigenous Bilingual Childrens
Books, Bookbird 5, no. 3 (2013): 5668.
64 The crossover appeal of picturebooks is analyzed in Carole Scott,
Dual Audience in Picture Books, in Transcending Boundaries: Writing for a
Dual Audience of Children and Adults, ed. Sandra Beckett (New York: Garland,
1999), 99110, and Sandra Beckett, Crossover Picturebooks: A Genre for All Ages
(New York: Routledge, 2012).
65 Dorte Karrebk, Den Sorte Bog. Om de syv ddssynder (Copenhagen:
Forlaget alma, 2007).
66 See also Nina Christensen, How to Make Sense: Reflections on the
Influence of Eighteenth Century Picturebooks on Picturebooks of Today,
in Colomer, Kmmerling-Meibauer, and Silva-Daz, eds., New Directions in
Picturebook Research, 5568.
67 See se Marie Ommundsen, Picturebooks for Adults, in
Kmmerling-Meibauer, ed., Picturebooks: Representation and Narration, 1736.
68 Helme Heine, Wie der Fuball in die Welt kam. Ein Bilderbuch fr
Erwachsene (Zurich: Kein & Aber, 2012).
69 Lene Ask, Hitler, Jesus og Farfar (Oslo: jippi, 2006). An English transla-
tion of the first pages can be found at http://leneask.blogspot.no/2012/03/
english-version-of-hitler-jesus-and.html, trans. Lene Ask (accessed
December 30, 2013).
70 The term intra-iconic refers to words and texts inserted into images,
such as labels on boxes and containers or speech bubbles. See Nikolajeva
and Scott, How Picturebooks Work, 73.
71 Germano Zullo, Grand Couturier Raphael, illus. Albertine (Lausanne: La
Joie de Lire, 2009).
72 Gro Dahle, Ikke gi opp hpet, Werner (Oslo: Cappelen, 2008).
73 Eric Carle, Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar, picturebook app
(Portland: Night & Day Studios, 2012).
74 Pop Out! The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Based on the picturebook by Beatrix
Potter, picturebook app (Vancouver: Loud Crow Interactive, 2011).
75 Sandra Boynton, Blue Hat, Green Hat, picturebook app (Vancouver:
Loud Crow Interactive, 2011).
76 Alice for the I-Pad, picturebook app (London: Atomic Antelope, 2010).
77 David Salariya, What Lola Wants Lola Gets, illus. Carolyn Scrace
(Brighton: Scribblers Books, 2011).
78 Oliver Jeffers, The Heart and the Bottle (London: HarperCollins, 2009);
Oliver Jeffers, The Heart and the Bottle, picturebook app (London:
HarperCollins, 2010).
79 Mo Willems, Dont Let the Pigeon Run This App!, picturebook app
(Burbank, CA: Disney, 2011).
80 Digital literacy or digital competence refers to the ability effectively to
navigate and create information when using digital technologies. This
263
requires the skill to analyze messages in different forms (sound, image,
language, etc.), including complex narrative strategies. See Rachel Levy,
Dylan Yamoda-Rice and Jackie Marsh, Digital Literacy in Primary
Classrooms, in International Handbook of Research on Childrens Literacy,
Learning, and Culture, ed. Kathy Hall, Teresa Cremin, Barbara Comber,
and Luis Molle (London: Sage, 2012), 33343; Jackie Marsh, Young
Childrens Play in Online Virtual Worlds, Journal of Early Childhood
Research 8, no. 1 (2010): 2329.
264 BETTINA KMMERLING-MEIBAUER
81 Ridley Pearson, Kingdom Keepers, illus. Tristan Elwell, 7 vols (New York:
Disney-Hyperion, 20092015).
82 The 39 Clues, written by different authors, 10 vols (New York:
Scholastic, 20082014).
83 The International Youth Library launched a transmedia story-telling
project in 2012 in order to involve young people in social networking and the
evaluation of contemporary childrens and young adult literature. URL: http://
www.ijb.de/files/HM_1/Seite07WRonline.htm (accessed April 1, 2014).