This article describes research on the Harbor Us Book Club. Critical analysis of the reading responses from preteen Black youth remains surprisingly rare in literacy studies. Our inquiry asks: How do readers develop literary and lived understandings of selfhood in response to the books? In what follows, we describe the theoretical frameworks and…

Background: Digital texts are progressively becoming the medium of learning for students, but research has indicated that students tend to process information more superficially while reading on screen. It is therefore relevant to examine what strategies can support digital text comprehension. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the…

This study investigated differences in adult-child language interactions when parents and their three-to-four-year old children engage in wordless book reading, text-and-picture book reading and a small-world toy play activity. Twenty-two parents recorded themselves completing each activity at home with their child. Parent input was compared…

The state of reading to meet a person's needs develops over time, and this habit becomes a part of the person's life. In this study, a focus group interview was the preferred method of qualitative research. High-level readers who read more than 30 books a year were included in the study. Even though they read about 30 to 100 books a year, they…

Background: Pedagogical approaches that support young people's well-being and maximize their potential are among the "Journal of School Health" research priorities. A unique form of observational learning called biblioguidance could be a pedagogical approach. Methods: We, a team of researchers and teachers, implemented biblioguidance…

Using data collected during a qualitative study of a book group in an after-school programme at a public, urban elementary school, in this article, I analyse how immigrant- and refugee-background students discursively distanced themselves from the portrayal of refugees in the text "Outcasts United." The teacher chose this book because…

One teacher encourages her students to write in the margins of the novels they are reading. These notes then turned to conversations about social justice issues and history when the books were passed to family members. The conversations in the margins were jumping-off points for conversations in class, and then students invited members of the…

Lack of representation of children from nondominant cultural and linguistic backgrounds continues to be problematic in children's literature, and especially within early literacy texts for beginning readers. One remedy is for children to tell their own stories through the language experience approach, which can then be printed into culturally…

Comics and graphic novels are a diverse medium, growing steadily in popularity over recent years, and research highlights the potential for comics to improve comprehension and understanding in learners. This report draws on data collected in early 2023 from 64,066 children and young people aged 8 to 18 from across the United Kingdom to explore the…

Liminality, both etymologically and practically, is generally meant to be navigated through, not permanently occupied. The Disney "Descendants" series, marketed for ages seven to twelve, is an example of children's literature that engages with liminality as not only a lasting choice but also one of joy and reconciliation. The books…

This article uses a critical discourse analysis approach to observe themes and patterns in eight non-fiction books about Polish patriotism for children. The books are commercially available in mainstream bookshops, and may be used in a range of home or educational settings. In a social and political context where the concept of patriotism has a…

Working through four key tenets of Deleuze-Guattarian theory, the authors describe how contemporary affect theory offers a radically different perspective on reading. Asking how we can conceptualize reading differently if we conceptualize affect differently, we argue that possible meanings of reading or experiences of reading must be considered…

Semiotics as a broad field of study encompasses Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). SFL has paved the way for Multimodality which is the study of different sources of meaning. This study was conducted to analyze the visual sources of meaning in children's storybooks on the basis of what Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) developed and called visual…

This article explores booktalk situations in which student teachers discuss a narrative text and construct in situ accounts of learning when recalling their reading. This study contributes to knowledge about the role of narrative fiction in general educational practice, as well as to the understanding of situated constructions of learning. Video…

The 2018 "English Journal" young adult honor list selections are an amazing mix of truth and fiction, fact and fantasy. The protagonists, five females and one male, all demonstrate what it means to follow your heart and speak your truth. Consideration of young adult books for inclusion in the 2018 Honor List begins in January and…