Bookbird

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature is seeking contributions for a special issue on Italian Children’s literature.

Italian Children’s literature is generally associated with three texts: Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), Edmondo De Amicis’ Cuore [The Heart of a Boy](1886), and Gianni Rodari’s Favole al telefono [Telephone Tales](1962). These texts are often considered embodiments of the three classic muses of Italian Children’s Literature: Pedagogy, Aesthetics, and Humanism.

In the past five decades, however, Italian Children’s Literature has undergone significant changes in contents, genres, narrative structure, literary language, visual and poetical composition. Authors such as Bruno Tognolini, Beatrice Masini, Giusi Quarenghi, Mino Milani, Angela Nanetti, Bianca Pitzorno and Roberto Piumini have introduced significant innovation to Italian Children’s literature. Their literary experimentations and new storytelling techniques have inspired a new generation of Italian children’s authors and poets (Chiara Carminati, Davide Calì, Sabrina Giarratana, Silvia Vecchini). Genres start to blend, blurring the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction and presenting multiple perspectives on stories or retelling of the same story.

Several illustrators have expanded the possibilities of visual storytelling, transforming picturebooks into valuable sociocultural and historical documents with high aesthetic value. For instance, Roberto Innocenti’s works raise important questions about the representations of the Holocaust in children's literature. Alessandro Sanna’s wordless graphic novel, The River, connects geography to the  flow of time, providing an ethnographic account of the twentieth century in some of North Italy’s poorest areas. Meanwhile, illustrators like Beatrice Alemagna and Chiara Carrer  have reimagined children’s characters, creating innovative and visionary characters even for very young children. Attilio has  constructed visual microcosms specifically designed for toddlers. Others authors, like Arianna Papini and Pia Valentinis, have  explored the liminal spaces between fiction and nonfiction.

The focus of this special issue of Bookbird is on the lesser-known contemporary production of Italian Children’s literature. We invite submissions that address the following themes:

• History and modern classics of Italian Children’s literature
• Comparative analysis on Italian contemporary children’s texts
• Adaptation and transmediation of Italian children’s classics and contemporary children’s books
• Visual, graphical and typographical trends in contemporary Italian picturebooks
• Migrations, cultural diversity and post-colonial Italian children’s stories 
• Playfulness and materiality in Italian books for children aged 0-3
• Poetry and melody in Italian children’s tradition
• Challenging Italian nonfiction for children

Full papers should be submitted to the guest editor Marnie Campagnaro (marnie.campagnaro@unipd.it) and the editor, Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang (chrysogonus.siddha.malilang@mau.se), by 30 September 2023. We also welcome submissions for “Letters” and “Children and Their Books” with the same topics. Submission details can be found below.

Bookbird Submission Guidelines

Content
Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature publishes reviewed academic articles on children’s literature with an international perspective. Articles that compare literatures from different countries are of interest, as are papers on translation studies and articles that discuss the reception of work from one country in another. Articles concerned with a particular national literature or a particular book or writer may also be suitable, but it is important that the article should be of interest to an international audience and written without assuming excessive background information. 

Bookbird also provides a forum, “Children and Their Books,” in which those working directly with children and their books (e.g. teachers, librarians and parents) or those working in the publishing industry can present their work. These pieces are shorter and are not peer reviewed. They are expected to present good practice and to stimulate other readers who work with children. They should also create a dialogue between the academic articles and day-to-day practice.

Bookbird publishes reviews of both primary and secondary sources. Primary reviews are in the form of brief Postcards on individual works of recently published children’s literature and Letters that discuss the work of a particular author or illustrator. Bookbird also publishes standard academic reviews of recently published critical works on children’s literature. Reviews of non-Anglophone works are particularly welcomed.

Deadlines
Bookbird is published four times a year (in January, April, July and October). There is no particular deadline for Bookbird (except in the case of occasional special issues), and papers tend to be published roughly in the order in which they are received. The details and deadlines of special issues can be found on Bookbird’s homepage http://www.ibby.org/bookbird

However, since Bookbird is a refereed journal, and the refereeing process can take several weeks or months, there may be a lapse of quite some time between an academic article being received and being accepted for publication, and then another lapse of time before it is actually published. As a rule, academic articles that are accepted are published within a year of submission and works for “Children and Their Books” within three issues.

Length and submission guidelines
Academic articles should not exceed 4000 words, and should include an abstract of 150-200 words. Papers for “Children and Their Books” should not exceed 2500 words. Postcards must be under 150 words and Letters should not exceed 1000 words. Reviews of secondary sources should not exceed 500 words. Save your paper as a .DOC or .DOCX file (if you are using Word for Windows) or an .RTF file (if you are a Macintosh user) and send as an email attachment. Send accompanying pictures as .JPGs at 300 dpi. Material submitted to Bookbird must be original and must not be under submission elsewhere.

Please submit papers via email to Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang (chrysogonus.siddha.malilang@mau.se). Use the following formula in the email subject line: ‘Bookbird submission XX’, where XX stands for your initials.

Include some information about yourself (e.g., XX lectures in children’s literature at ABC University, Anycity, and has recently published a book on ...) in the body of the email (or in a separate document), not in the paper itself.

Authors are responsible for gaining permission to reproduce illustrations or lengthy quotations from the copyright-holder. Forms will be provided to assist you in this process.

Language
Bookbird is published in English only. If you are unable to write in English, please have your work translated by a reputable translator before submitting it. Bear in mind that all requests for alterations will come in English and will refer to the English version. If you are able to write in English but you have doubts about the quality of your language, please have it checked before you submit it. If the editors find your topic and argument compelling, they may help you revise the language of your paper before it is submitted for peer review.

Even though you are writing in English, please give the names of organizations, institutes and published material in the original language, with an English translation in square brackets, for example: Jens Peder Larsen was awarded the 1992 Children’s Book Prize for his book Bronden [The Well]. 

Include diacritical marks (accents, umlauts etc.) in all titles and names. If you are unable do this, then please indicate in a note how the words should correctly be written. In the case of non-Roman alphabets, please supply a transliteration.

Writing style
Bookbird is a serious academic journal, and as such it publishes, in the main, serious academic articles. This does not mean that we encourage contributors to be somber or earnest or ‘heavy’ in their style. Although most contributors to Bookbird will be academics or children’s literature professionals, many of the readers may have a more general interest, and we want Bookbird to appeal to them as well as to the professionals. For this reason, we prefer a style that engages the reader’s interest and takes the reader’s requirements into account. So when writing for Bookbird, by all means approach your subject seriously and present your research or your argument as you would for your colleagues, but do keep the more general reader in mind as well.

Keep in mind that many Bookbird readers do not have English as their first language, so clarity both in your arguments and in your language is of great value. A simple strategy like breaking up the text with a few headings can be very helpful to a reader who finds it difficult to read a dense text. Irony is best avoided as it often leads to confusion.

Spelling and punctuation
Bookbird follows the conventions of American English. The editors may change your spellings and punctuation to ensure consistency in style across the journal.
Quotation marks: Please use double quotation marks (“like this”) for direct quotations. Commas and periods are placed within quotation marks; semicolons, colons, exclamation points, and question marks are placed outside quotation marks, unless they are part of the original quotation.
Single quotation marks (‘like this’) are used to indicate quotations within a quotation.

For emphasis, italics are preferred. For words used as words or for terms, italics are also preferred, though double quotation marks can also be used.

Notes and references

Endnotes
Use endnotes rather than footnotes, keyed by superior (superscript) number, only when absolutely necessary, for extra information that does not fit into the flow of the text.
Bear in mind that information in endnote form is quite difficult to read, and may be off-putting to readers. So, try to reduce the number of endnotes by using a combination of in-text references and reference lists for bibliographical information. This is a neater and more reader-friendly system and is preferred by Bookbird.

In-text citations: Children’s books
The first time you mention a children’s book title in the text, provide the year of publication in parentheses after it. After that, please refer to a previously mentioned children’s book by the title, not by the author—date. After the first reference, you may abbreviate the title if it is a long one and the abbreviation is clear. 

In-text citations Critical works
The first time you refer to a secondary source or a critical work in the text, please give the author’s full name. Thereafter please use the author’s last name and page number, using the conventions outlined in the MLA 8th edition style guide.

In-text citations: Examples
All sources follow essentially the same conventions: provide the author(s) and page number or other locating details, and the title of work if necessary to distinguish multiple works by the same author(s).
Please see the MLA Handbook 8th edition for variations and different types of sources.
(Dorris and Erdrich 23)—one or two authors
(Burdick et al. 42, 44)—three or more authors
(Chan, par. 41) / (Hemans, lines 131-32)—location other than page number
(Chartier, Order 173)—an author with more than one source listed in the works cited
(Baron 194; Jacobs 55)—two distinct sources
(Glück, “Ersatz Thought” and “For”)—two sources by the same author

Works cited: Listing children’s books
It is usually more helpful to readers if you list children’s books separately from the list of secondary sources. A list of children’s books by a particular author is usually best organized in chronological (or reverse chronological) order, but a list of children’s books by various authors is probably easier to consult if it is laid out in alphabetical order.

Works cited: Listing secondary sources
Please follow the MLA Handbook 8th edition for all citations and sources. The examples below are intended as a brief guide; consult MLA for specific details and variations.

Works cited: Examples

Books
One author:
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Oxford UP, 2002.

Two authors:
Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich. The Crown of Columbus. HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.

Three or more authors:
Burdick, Anne, et al. Digital_Humanities. MIT P, 2012.

Chapter
Bazin, Patrick. “Toward Metareading.” The Future of the Book, edited by Geoffrey Nunberg, U of California P, 1996, pp. 153-68.

Translator/editor
Chartier, Roger. The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane, Stanford UP, 1994.

Translated title
Šklovskij, Viktor. “искусство как устройство” [“Art as Device”]. по теории прозы [On the Theory of Prose], 2nd reprint, 1929, Ardis Publishers, 1985, pp. 7-23.

Periodicals
Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200.

Chan, Evans. “Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.” Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000. Project Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.

Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497.

Mackin, Joseph. Review of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, by Alan Jacobs. New York Journal of Books, 2 June 2011, www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/pleasures-reading-age-distraction.

Would you like to write for Bookbird?

Feature Articles
Bookbird publishes articles on children’s literature with an international perspective four times a year. Some of our issues are devoted to special topics. Details and deadlines of these issues are available in this page. The articles should be approximately 4000 words in length. Full paper should be submitted to the editor, Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang (chrysogonus.siddha.malilang@mau.se).

Books on Books
Bookbird also publishes reviews of critical and scholarly work on children’s literature. Reviews should be no more than 1000 words in length. The “Books on Books” section is handled by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. If you wish to review a scholarly study of children’s literature, or if you would like to submit a review copy, contact the IYL (JuttaReusch@ijb.de).

Children and Their Books
Bookbird provides a forum where those working with children and their literature can write about their experiences – teachers, librarians, publishers, authors, and parents. Short articles of ca. 2500 words discussing the ways in which you have worked with children and their literature or have watched children respond to literature are welcomed. Articles should be submitted to the editor, Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang (chrysogonus.siddha.malilang@mau.se).

Letters
Bookbird publishes “Letters” of 700 words on individual works of children’s literature, or focusing on a particular author or illustrator.

Postcards
Bookbird receives “postcards” from every corner of the globe. These are brief presentation of ca. 150 words on individual books. Postcard suggestions should be sent to the postcard editor, Anamaria Anderson (Anamaria.anderson@gmail.com).

For further information, please contact:

Editor Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang: chrysogonus.siddha.malilang@mau.se
Read more about Bookbird: www.ibby.org/bookbird
Subscribe to Bookbird: www-press.jhu.edu/journals/bookbird

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement

Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature follows best practices to ensure ethics in publication and the high quality of published papers. In the process of selecting, evaluating, reviewing, editing, preparing for publication and publishing manuscripts, the journal is guided by ethical principles and best practice to achieve and maintain a high standard of scholarly literature, as expressed in the Guidelines and Codes of Conduct issued by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) www.publicationethics.org Full conformity with the standards of ethical behaviour is expected from all parties involved: editors, reviewers, authors and the publisher.

DUTIES OF EDITORS
Publication decisions
All submitted manuscripts are considered for publication. The editor evaluates the manuscript for originality and appropriateness of content and form as required in the Guidelines for Contributors. Manuscripts deemed satisfactory are subjected to double-blind peer review. The editor-in-chief asks two or more individuals who possess relevant expertise to act as referees, provides them with clear guidelines regarding the reviewing process and is also responsible for the peer review process being objective and completed in a timely fashion. Reviewers are given special forms on which to write their own evaluation and suggest classification of the manuscript. The decision concerning which of the articles submitted for publication should be published is made by the editor-in-chief, based on the reviewers’ evaluations and potentially guided by the opinions of the members of the editorial board and reviewers. The final responsibility for all editorial decisions, as well as for everything published in Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature, rests with the editor-in-chief.
The editor-in-chief informs the authors of the submitted manuscripts about the results of the peer review process within six months of their submission. If the manuscript is rejected, the editor-in-chief provides a clear explanation to the author.

Impartiality
Each manuscript is evaluated impartially for its intellectual content, without regard to the gender, race, citizenship, ethnicity, religious, ideological or political beliefs, academic title, institutional affiliation, academic reputation, etc., of the author(s).

Confidentiality and disclosure
The editor-in-chief is responsible for ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of each manuscript submitted to the editorial board of Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature during the reviewing process. All manuscripts received are treated as confidential documents by all the members of the editorial board. Since each manuscript is subject to a double-blind peer review, the identities of both authors and reviewers are protected.
The editor-in-chief and the members of the editorial board do not disclose any content presented in submitted and unpublished manuscripts, or use it in their own research or in any other way, without the explicit written consent of the author(s).

Conflicts of interest
The editor-in-chief requires all members of the editorial board, authors and reviewers to disclose all potential conflicts of interest regarding submitted manuscripts, such as competitive, collaborative or other relationships with any of the parties. Should a conflict of interest appear that involves the editor-in-chief or any of the members of the editorial board, this person should excuse him/herself from the reviewing and decision-making process and delegate it to the deputy editor or another member of the editorial board.

Ethical misconduct and errors
The editor-in-chief will respond to all allegations of ethical misconduct and take appropriate steps to rectify possible errors and omissions. The said steps primarily include contacting the author(s) of the paper in question, but may extend to referring the case to appropriate academic or research institutions. If allegations refer to an unpublished manuscript, its publication will be postponed until the case has been satisfactorily resolved.
Should substantial errors or inaccuracies be determined in a submitted manuscript or published paper, the editor-in-chief will cooperate with the author(s) in amending the manuscript in question or, in the case of published papers, prepare and publish a correction. In the most severe cases, the editor-in-chief can, upon conferring with the author(s) and publisher, decide to retract the paper from the journal.

DUTIES OF REVIEWERS
The role of reviewer
Peer review assists the editor-in-chief in making editorial decisions. The reviewer may also – through editorial communication with the author(s) – help improve the quality of submitted manuscripts. The reviewer should evaluate submitted manuscripts in a critical but constructive way and make a list of detailed comments and suggestions regarding the research itself and the way it is presented in the manuscript. Reviewers should also identify relevant published work that has not been cited by the author(s) and warn the editor-in-chief of possible cases of plagiarism, copyright infringement, etc. Finally, the reviewer should advise the editor-in-chief on whether or not a given manuscript is suitable for publication in Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature.

The peer review process
Reviews should be conducted objectively and strictly on scholarly grounds. Reviewers are expected to express their views in a clear and constructive way, and support them with arguments. Inappropriate comments and personal criticism are deemed unacceptable.

Promptness and conflict of interest
Invited referees who feel unqualified to review a given manuscript or are aware that its timely review will not be possible should immediately notify the editor-in-chief.
Reviewers should excuse themselves from reviewing manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interests and should notify the editor-in-chief if such a case occurs.

Confidentiality and disclosure
Manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. The reviewer must not show or discuss the manuscripts with others, except with special permission from the editor- in-chief. Content presented in the submitted manuscripts must not be publicly disclosed, used for one's own research, or used in any other way.

DUTIES OF AUTHORS
Reporting standards
Authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed in the context of previous research, as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Authors should describe their methods and present their findings clearly and unambiguously. They should represent the work of others accurately in citations and quotations from the original publications they have consulted. Authors submitting their manuscripts to the editorial board of Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature are held accountable for the originality of their work, as well as for the accuracy of the information and references contained therein. Submitted manuscripts should follow the Guidelines for Contributors available on the website of the journal (Bookbird.org). Papers should be submitted in English. The accuracy and appropriateness of the language used are also the responsibility of the author(s).

Originality and plagiarism
Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature publishes previously unpublished academic papers related to children’s and young adult literature and culture. Papers that have previously been presented at a conference, but are not to be published in the conference proceedings, may also be considered (the author should notify the editorial board about this in advance). Manuscripts submitted to Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature should not have been submitted to other publications at the same time. An authorial statement claiming the status of the manuscript in these respects should be sent to the official email address of the journal (Bookbird.org) upon the submission of a manuscript. Authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works and that any data, quotations, etc., taken from the works of others is appropriately recognised and cited. Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright clearance for illustrations, photographs, tables and other material protected by copyright laws. Copyright materials should only be reproduced with appropriate permission and acknowledgement.

Authorship of a manuscript
Only those individuals who have made a significant contribution to the manuscript and taken part in its production can be regarded as its authors. The author submitting the manuscript for publication in Bookbird: Journal of International Children’s Literature should ensure that everyone who has taken part in the production of the manuscript is included in the list of authors. The submitting author should also make sure that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript and have agreed to its submission to the journal.

Communicating with editors and reviewers
Authors should respond to editorial and reviewers' comments in a professional and timely manner. If authors decide to withdraw a manuscript that has already been submitted for review or if they are not willing to accept reviewers' suggestions, they should immediately notify the editor-in-chief.

Disclosure and conflicts of interest
In their manuscripts, authors should disclose any financial or other substantial conflict of interest that might be construed to influence their research or the interpretation of its results. All organisations that have supported the research and all sources of financial support, as well as their role in conducting the research and processing and publishing its results, should be clearly indicated in the manuscript. If the source of funding has not been explicitly stated, this will be taken as a sign that the author him/herself bears the financial burden for conducting the research and producing the manuscript.

Errors in manuscripts and published works
If at any time the author(s) discover(s) a significant error or inaccuracy in the submitted manuscript, that error or inaccuracy must immediately be reported to the editor-in-chief. In the case of errors or inaccuracies detected in already published papers, the author(s) must promptly notify the editor-in-chief and cooperate with him/her on publishing an appropriate correction or erratum, or, in the case of extremely severe errors, retract the paper from the journal.