In this new collection, children's literature scholars from twelve different countries contribute to the ongoing debate on the importance of picturebook research, focusing on aesthetic and cognitive aspects of picture books. Contributors take interdisciplinary approaches that integrate different disciplines such as literary studies, art history, linguistics, narratology, cognitive psychology, sociology, memory studies, and picture theory. Topics discussed include intervisuality, twist endings, autobiographical narration, and metaliterary awareness in picturebooks. The essays also examine the narrative challenges of first-person narratives, ellipsis, and frame-breaking in order to consider the importance of mindscape as a new paradigm in picturebook research. Tying picturebook studies to studies in childhood, multimodality, and literacy, this anthology is a representative of the different opportunities for research in this emerging field.

List of Figures Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction: Current Trends in Picturebook Research, Teresa Colomer, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, Cecilia Silva-Díaz Part I: Picturebooks, Literacy, and Cultural Context 1: Words Claimed: Picturebook Narratives and the Project of Children's Literature, Perry Nodelman 2: Interpretative Codes and Implied Readers of Children's Picturebooks, Maria Nikolajeva 3: Picturebooks and Changing Values at the Turn of the Century, Teresa Colomer 4: How to Make Sense: Reflections on the Influence of Eighteenth Century Picturebooks on Picturebooks of Today, Nina Christensen 5: "All this book is about books": Picturebooks, Culture and Metaliterary Awareness, Evelyn Arizpe 6: Artistic Allusions in Picturebooks, Sandra Beckett Part II: Picturebooks and Storytelling 7: Frame-making and Frame-breaking in Picturebooks, Carole Scott 8: Surprised Readers: Twist Endings in Narrative Picturebooks, Brenda Bellorín and Cecilia Silva-Díaz 9: The Narrative Power of Pictures: L'Orage (The Thunderstorm) by Anne Brouillard, Isabelle Nières-Chevrel 10: Picturebooks and Trojan Horses: The Nordic Picturebook as a Site for Artistic Experiment during the 1950s, Elina Druker 11: A Strawberry? Or the Planet?: Children's Aesthetic Response to the Picturebook Strawberries by Susumi Shingu, Moving Art Sculptor, Tomoko Masaki 12: Off-Screen: The Importance of Blank Space, Fernando Zaparaín-Hernández Part III: Making Sense Out of Picturebooks 13: Being a Guide into Picturebook Literacy: Challenges of Cognition and Connotation, Ingeborg Mjør 14: First-Person Narratives in Picturebooks: An Inquiry into the Acquisition of Picturebook Competence, Eva Gressnich and Jörg Meibauer 15: Remembering the Past in Words and Pictures: How Autobiographical Stories Become Picturebooks, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer 16: Do Sons Inherit the Sins of Their Fathers? An Analysis of the Picturebook Angry Man, Agnes-Margrethe Bjorvand 17: Imagination or Reality? Mindscapes and Characterization in a Finnish and a Swedish