Advertisement

Children's Literature in Education

, Volume 45, Issue 3, pp 225–238 | Cite as

“It’s All Shiny and There’s No Pollution”: Barbapapa’s Ark, Environmental Influences

  • Virginia Lowe
Original Paper
First Online:

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.

Keywords

Barbapapa’s Ark Environmental picture books Environmental influences Children’s literature influences Parent observer diaries 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Boyd, Brian. (2009). On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition and Fiction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  2. Bradford, Clare. (2003). The Sky is Falling: Children as Environmental Subjects in Contemporary Picture Books. In Roderick McGillis (Ed.), Children’s Literature and the Fin de Siècle (pp. 111–120). Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
  3. Buell, Lawrence. (2005). The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
  4. Butler, Dorothy. (1979). Cushla and her Books. Auckland: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
  5. Carson, Rachel. (1962). Silent Spring. London: Hamilton.Google Scholar
  6. Chambers, Aidan. (1993). The Difference of Literature: Writing Now for the Future of Young Readers. Children’s Literature in Education, 24(1), 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Crago, Hugh. (1993). Why Readers Read What Writers Write Children’s Literature in Education, 24(4), 277–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Crago, Maureen, and Crago, Hugh. (1983). Prelude to Literacy: a Preschool Child’s Encounters with Picture and Story. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
  9. Kümmerling-Meibauer, Bettina. (2011). Emergent Literacy and Children’s Literature. In Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer (Ed.), Emergent Literacy: Children’s Books from 0 to 3 (pp. 1–14). Amsterdam:John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Lowe, Virginia. (1991). Snufkin, Sniff and Little My: The “Reality” of Fictional Characters for the Young Child. Papers: Explorations into children’s literature, 2, 87–96.Google Scholar
  11. Lowe, Virginia. (2007). Stories, Pictures and Reality: Two Children Tell. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  12. Lowe, Virginia. (2011). “Unless Someone Like You Cares a Whole Awful Lot”: Environmental Picture Books. Viewpoint: on Books for Young Adults, 19(1), 14–15.Google Scholar
  13. Lowe, Virginia. (2013). “The Books we’ve had Forever”: The Parent-Observer Diary. Bookbird, 51(2), 58–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Prendiville, Brendan. (1994). Environmental Politics in France. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
  15. Rigby, Kate. (2004). Earth, World, Text: On the (Im)possibility of Ecopoiesis. New Literary History, 35(3), 427–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Stephens, John. (2008). Anthropocentrism and the Haecceitas of Nature in Multimodal Ecological Discourses for Children. In Len Unsworth (Ed.), New Literacies and the English Curriculum, Multimodal Perspectives (pp. 69–88). London: Continuum.Google Scholar
  17. Stephens, John. and McCallum, Robyn. (1998). Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children’s Literature. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
  18. White, Dorothy. (1954). Books Before Five. Wellington: NZ Council for Educational Research.Google Scholar
  19. Wolf, Shelby Anne, and Heath, Shirley Brice. (1992). The Braid of Literature: Children’s Worlds of Reading. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
  20. Yannicopoulou, Angela. (2010). Focalization in Children’s Picture Books: Who Sees in Words and Pictures? In Mike Cadden (Ed.), Telling Children’s Stories: Narrative Theory and Children’s Literature (pp. 65–85). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar

Children’s Literature Cited

  1. Foreman, Michael. (1972). Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish. London: Hamish Hamilton.Google Scholar
  2. Jansson, Tove. (1946–1970). The Moomintroll Series. Harmondsworth, England: Puffin Books.Google Scholar
  3. Peet, Bill. (1970). The Wump World. Boston: Haughton Mifflin.Google Scholar
  4. Seuss, Dr. (1971). The Lorax. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
  5. Tison, Annette, and Taylor, Talus. (1970). Barbapapa. Great Britain: Benn.Google Scholar
  6. Tison, Annette, and Taylor, Talus. (1971). Barbapapa’s Voyage. London: Warne.Google Scholar
  7. Tison, Annette, and Taylor, Talus. (1972). Barbapapa’s New House. London: Warne.Google Scholar
  8. Tison, Annette, and Taylor, Talus. (1974). Barbapapa’s Ark. London: Warne.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Monash UniversityVICAustralia

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options