Movable books are an innovative area of children’s publishing. Commonly equated with spectacular pop-ups, movable books have a little-known history as interactive, narrative media. Since they are hybrid artifacts consisting of words, images and movable components, they cross the borders between story, toy, and game. Interactive Books is a historical and comparative study of early movable books in relation to the children who engage with them.
Jacqueline Reid-Walsh focuses on the period movable books became connected with children from the mid-17th to the early-19th centuries. In particular, she examines turn-up books, paper doll books, and related hybrid experiments like toy theaters and paignion (or domestic play set) produced between 1650 and 1830. Despite being popular in their own time, these artifacts are little known today. This study draws attention to a gap in our knowledge of children’s print culture by showing how these artifacts are important in their own right.
Reid-Walsh combines archival research with children’s literature studies, book history, and juvenilia studies. By examining commercially produced and homemade examples, she explores the interrelations among children, interactive media, and historical participatory culture. By drawing on both Enlightenment thinkers and contemporary digital media theorists Interactive Books enables us to think critically about children’s media texts paper and digital, past and present.
By:
Jacqueline Reid-Walsh
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 508g
ISBN: 9780367346478
ISBN 10: 0367346478
Series: Children's Literature and Culture
Pages: 254
Publication Date: 21 May 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
,
A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Acknowledgements List of Figures Preface Part I: Historical and Cultural Contexts and Theoretical Issues Chapter 1. Texts and Contexts for Movable Books Chapter 2. 17th- to 19th-century Children’s Domestic Practices: ""Activities"" and ""Rational Recreations"" as Historical ""DIY Culture"" Part II: 17th- to 19th-century Turn-up Books: Religion, Morality, and Entertainment on Interactive Paper Platforms Chapter 3. Movable Religious Lessons and Subversion by Design Chapter 4. Allegorical Metamorphoses and Antic Transformations Chapter 5. Child-made Religious Turn-up Books: Child Interactors as DIY Producers Part III: Enacting Domesticated and Fantastical Adventures: 19th-century Movables before the ""Stand-up"" Book Chapter 6. Fuller Paper-doll Books: Playing across Gender and Genre Chapter 7. English Toy Theaters: Staging Miniature Melodramatic Spectacles Chapter 8. Elaborate Movable Books in Two and Three Dimensions: Activity and Agency Enhanced and Restricted. Chapter 9. Conclusion: Contemporary ""Pop-up"" Books: Activity and Agency Reformulated Bibliography Index"
Jacqueline Reid-Walsh is Associate Professor of Education, Language & Literacy Education, and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University, US.
