Children as Implied Readers in Poetry Picturebooks: The Adaptation of Adult Poetry for Young Readers

What is it about?

This paper focuses on the adaptation of poetry for young readers. More specifically, it analyses Spanish poetry picturebooks for children and young adult readers based on adult poetry. It argues that the main changes that occur in the adaptation process involve the paratexts and literary communication, while the pictures play a prominent role, as they illustrations transform the original poems in many ways: they describe, represent the poetic voice, add a story, guide interpretatio, etc. Finally, the article examines the pedagogical implications of these picturebooks and argues that they are a good resource for literary education, as they make great literature more attractive and accessible for children and young adults.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This paper focuses on a particular kind of picturebok that has been payed little attention in children's literary studies: the poetry picturebook, based on the combination of poems and illustrations. Poetry picturebooks can be considered an interesting resource for poetry education as they provide a new and attractive way to discover poetry for young readers.