Abstract
The environmental picture book Barbapapa’s Ark was published in 1974. I was keeping a parent-observer record of my two children at the time. The book had a strong influence on them from ages three to six, moving them to query pollution and hunting, in book and environment, and as adults, becoming committed activists for the environment. Young children are routinely underestimated. Learning about the environment and conservation can begin well before formal education.
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Virginia Lowe is an Adjunct Professor at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) where she was awarded her doctorate, and the thesis was later published by Routledge. She kept a record of her two children’s book responses from birth, and has published extensively on this material, including about fifty journal articles and three chapters in academic collections. She has lectured at university, been a children’s librarian and has run a manuscript assessment agency, Create a Kids’ Book, for the past fifteen years.
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Lowe, V. “It’s All Shiny and There’s No Pollution”: Barbapapa’s Ark, Environmental Influences. Child Lit Educ 45, 225–238 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-013-9211-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-013-9211-x