Bookbird 2 / 2025

Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, Vol. 63, No. 2, 2025

Embracing the Nonhuman Agents in Children’s Literature

Bookbird 63.2 opens with a wide ranging and fascinating discussion between six children’s literature scholars from different countries, all bringing varying perspectives to ‘The Field of Children’s Literature and Culture in Times of the Anthropocene’, while agreeing on the urgency of addressing this global phenomenon through children’s books and the critical discourse about them. 

Among the thought provoking themes of the discussion that of the focus of the analytical lenses through which ecopedagogy and ecocriticism may be considered. Arguing for more interdisciplinary collaboration in research and teaching, the participants suggest that the burden of responsibility for global concerns may be simplistically placed on young readers, in particular through publications featuring young eco-warriors as the saviours of the world. 

Issues around environmental sustainability are addressed in an article closely focusing on two publications, one from Ireland and one from Slovenia, linking back to the previous feature in their concerns and fact and solution based approach to environmentalism. 

‘Cats in Space’ considers the difficulties of dealing with harsh realities, i.e. the astronaut felines, while communicating scientific information to young readers via four nonfiction picturebooks. The restructuring of children’s problem-solving capacities by means of lateral thinking is examined through the lens of some Saudi children’s titles and may indeed help young people as they struggle with the eco-problems outlined in earlier articles.

Wordless picturebooks from USBBY’s Outstanding International Books List also feature in this Bookbird issue, drawing attention to the panoply of excellent visual narratives promoting global awareness available. Maintaining a cross-border focus, books as mirrors, windows and sliding doors are conceptualized in an article about a co-authored children’s story where Black children from the USA and Brazil each tell each other about their lives. Connections are also made by a Brazilian illustrator who migrated to Canada. Struggling with winter-cold, a new language and other adjustments faced by many immigrants, she explains how offering other newcomers to Canada find common ground through her illustration-based workshops with a focus on environmental themes. 

In the Letters section of the issue shorter articles include an interview with an Indonesian publisher who publishes books translated from Spanish, who comments that Latin American books have relevance for young Indonesian readers as they reflect social realities also faced in Indonesia. 
An environmental note continues with a tale focused on an okapi, an native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who feels different from the other animals around him. Eventually he realises he is unique and this is to be valued. The final article of the issue bring us back to a Brazilian nonfiction picturebook about women who contributed to art and science. 

Nine short reviews, featured as postcards, drawing attention to children’s’ books from around the globe are interspersed throughout the issue, which concludes with ‘Focus IBBY’ which is available to read on the Bookbird webpage. 

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