Me and My Ladybirds: or "Mummy, They're All the Same!"

  • Lissa Paul University of New Brunswick

Abstract

The use of standardised reading schemes to introduce early readers to literature may be convenient for curricula and publishers, but it also can stifle interest, enthusiasm and exploration by those readers. In particular, Paul draws on Bakhtin's concept of monologic texts to examine the limited language of the Ladybirds (and similar) series, and Margaret Meek's demand for texts that challenge language in order to develop playful, polyphonic texts and laughing, independent readers.

Author Biography

Lissa Paul, University of New Brunswick
Lissa Paul (Professor, University of New Brunswick) teaches children's literature. She has a new piece on "dirt" in the September 1997 issue of Horn Book. And Reading Otherways, a little book on interpreting children's books, is forthcoming from The Thimble Press.
Published
2018-11-27
Issue
Vol. 1 No. 4 (1997)
Section
Alice's Academy
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