„Kóborolok holdtutajon, / holdtutajon magamba, / csillag akad hajamba, / holdtutajon magamba” – olvassuk Kovács András Ferenc Tavaszi szél című versében. Holdtutajon kóborlóként éreztük magunkat mi is szerkesztőtársaimmal, amíg kalandoztunk, s bejártuk ennek a lapszámnak az útját a különböző gyerekirodalmi csillagok (könyvek, szerzők, versek, rajzok, festmények, tanulmányok, konferenciák…) rengetegében, melyek közül hol egyik, hol másik akadt hajunkba, s vittük – visszük – ekképp magunkkal. Szeszélyes járművünk érthetően nem járhatta be az univerzum minden szegletét, ám ajánljuk kötetünket – izgalmas utazást lehetővé tevő holdtutaj gyanánt – az olvasó számára is, bízva abban, hogy az ő haja sem marad érintetlen.

The study attempts to expound the history of reception of Imre Oravecz’s book Máshogy mindenki más (Everyone Is Different in a Different Way). Oravecz published his third book (the first edition) in 1979. From a historical and explicitly YA perspective it was treated as a silent achievement, because this volume has almost disappeared among the other books of the author. However, this is not only important in the context of the author’s oeuvre, but also in the Hungarian children’s literature research. This study tries to examine the central role of this book with regard to possibilities and problems of the current YA studies. In the context of the rhetorical reading crucial questions may arise, such as the role of canon, the correlation between reading and game.

Zsuzsa Takács’s poetry volumes show consecutively building continuity. The Rejtjeles tábori lap (Ciphered Camp Sheet), her 1987 volume of adolescent poems, belongs to that process, although it remained without critical attention for a long time, and even her monographer considers it to be only a side-line. The poet herself elevates it to be among the chapters of volumes in her biography. The opening of the poems start out from an adolescent mind setting that was born among the memory poems of the previous volume, and then it develops an independent voice in dramatic life and thought situations. The basis of the conflict all through Takács’s poetry is coming-of-age in which the “abyss of adolescence” opens on the alienated existence. The teenage girl drama gives voice to the radical realization of “being different” and then through the everyday situations, connections, ideas and thoughts of the lyrical I it leads to the realization of radical desire for love.

The study tries to explore the various medial connections in children’s poetry through Kovács András Ferenc’s poetry volume, Árdeli szép tánc (Beautiful Dance from Ardel). Bundled with the volume was a CD with readings and musicalized poems that call the attention to the acoustic aspects of children’s poetry and thus to the importance of reading out loud or reading together. The second part of the study – by differentiating three basic types of illustrations – examines the possible connections between poem illustrations and the text of the poem.

The study examines the changes in Transylvanian children’s literature from the regime change up until today. In the past nearly thirty years the two separate literary periods were differentiated by the so called “new middle generation”, the literary period that emerged in the end of the first decade of the 21st century and which period saw the “the boom of children’s literature”. Although the continuous presence of the outstanding representatives - who started their work before the regime change - in the Transylvanian children’s literary common knowledge significantly join the two periods, yet those new plot, formal and linguistic characteristics that contributed to the renewal of children’s literature in the past two decades are demonstrable.

The source of tale-knowledge for the illiterate peasant - besides the folkloric tradition – is the heard or read Biblical text (parables, philosophies, acts, stories). The interpretation and the forming of these texts into a tale-narrative depend on both the talent of the storyteller and the needs of the audience. In the study I examine the various modes of this story refiguration through certain tale-narratives.

Stories inseparably belong to the human existence: without them a person becomes rootless, and their identity becomes uncertain. However, stories can be varied in terms of their genre or content, as we have ordinary, family stories, or stories that preserve/reveal the identity of a society or community, and there are those ancient, sacred stories that try to explain the origin and meaning of human existence and for that reason they are preserved by the collective conscious of humanity. One thing is certain: every culture, religion, even the faith of the individual depend on whether the experience and knowledge preserved in the stories are passed on or become forgotten.

Moses is one of the most complex characters of the Old Testament. Many scholars, like Sigmund Freud or Jan Assmann, engaged in his story, his origin or his motivations. Not only scholars, but several authors of children’s books dealed with Moses, and wrote tales about him. Among them, Eszter Szokács shows a really curious picture about Moses and the people who surrounded him. In her book Mózes, she creates characters which are easy to symphatize with – one of them is Caleb, whose faith is exemplary. In my paper, I search answers to the question: how could a modern paraphrase, which is a children’s story, shed new light on the nature of faith?

The essay provides a brief overview of the changing literary critical definitions and cultural evaluation of fairy tales. I argue that the most remarkable feature of this heterogeneous textual corpus resides in the affective narratological potential to stimulate wonder, to activate the imaginative aspect of the mind. The fantastic vision of a fictional alternate universe enchants readers by suspending the natural physical laws and rational logic of ordinary consensus reality. But it also provides pragmatic assistance in understanding the perplexing complexity of human existence and the diverse thought systems attempting to make sense of it. Postmillennial transmediation tendencies expand the fairy-tale web with a dizzying variety of new forms, yet the genre’s traditional merits prevail in the celebration of empathy, solidarity, social justice, and a relentless optimism against all odds.

In this paper I examine the most popular folk tale versions and the contemporary Hungarian children literature adaptations of the story known as Little Red Riding Hood, mainly concentrate on the boarder context and explorable intentions of the texts. Besides the narrative analysis, the visual representation is also considered, because it basically determines the reception and the fixed interpretation of the story. With all this, the aim of the paper is to show the various functions of the different versions and to analyze what kind of visual and textual changes made them suitable for children. The brief outlook taken to the paraphrases made for adults makes the operations and validity of the folk tale as metalanguage much clearer.

The illustrated book does not simply attempt to display a particular meaning, but confront the receiver with the temporality and spatiality of reading and visual perception. Starting from the recognition of Derrida, it can be said that we could realise the same spatial structures in the case of written text as in the ones which define the European visual thinking, as the reception and contemplation of a painting is essentially the same as the „economy” of reading: the flat surface always create a fictional one. The good picture and children books are exactly do nothing more, but broadcast the elements of the imaginative thinking of European Civilization and Culture, help to learn and creatively reinterpret this tradition.

Even before the formal literacy education most of the children meet literacy in a spontaneous way. Emergent literacy is the term used to describe young children’s developing literacy skills before formal reading and writing instruction in school. Much research has demonstrated that the home environment serves as an important influence in the development of emergent literacy skills in young children. Family literacy refers to literacyrelated processes, for example when family members engage in shared story reading which positively influences young children’s motivations to read. Since babies and toddlers (children under three) are dependent on their parents and carers for access to books, developmentally appropriate reading materials (board and tactile books, picture books and storytelling books nursery rhymes), are recommended which are of high quality, age appropriate, challenging without frustrating, worthy of attention for parents and carers.

The study focuses on one of the outstanding Hungarian examples of wordless picturebook (silent book), the so called Design book series from Csimota Kiadó publishing house, which has produced 23 volumes since 2006. In the series five different graphical designer recreates a classic tale in a separate volume each, without any text, only with pictures. In the small sized (12x12 cm), hard cover volumes 20 pages were dedicated for retelling a world famous fable. The first series in 2006 introduced the story of Little Red riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs followed in 2007, then Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (2009), Puss in Boots (2012) and the most recent one is Sleeping Beauty (2015-2016) with only three volumes so far. The study examines the expression of the stories by analysing the narrative tools (picture-text relationship, colours, visual metaphors, intermediality etc.).

The study will discuss the definitive, disciplinary and medial aspects of the interactive story book, which is a genre having only a few years of history. The question about the correlation of lingual and image mediums, based on theories that present a formal link between still images and written word by the text-image researches, is described with the category of inter-references. In both cases the text and its illustration – the motion picture and the voice - are detached, the receiver is able to separate these media explicitly while experiencing their coherence at the same time. In interactive story books, to compare with traditional picture-books, the inter-references are multiplied, because in these mobile applications the written and vocal modus of lingual medium are cooperating with the still and moving modus of the image illustration. Through the adaptation of The Little Red Riding Hood and other international and Hungarian applications the study discusses how these relationships are created in three correlating layers, and in a fourth one, in the sub-classic layer and also models the two extreme poles of the semantic relationships of the media.

To each well-known fairy tale belongs a tradition of visual adaptations formed in centuries and still being formed and transformed. The alteration of visual interpretations also effects the story itself. The paper gives examples of this transformation from Hungarian children’s book illustration of today, amongst them the so-called Design book series and a picture book designed especially for blind people, which reinterprets the idea of a picturebook. Parallel to international trends these tendencies also refer to the transmedia storytelling conception of Henry Jenkins, while they strengthen the reception of the story through multisensorial perception.

The study overviews the francophone versions of kid comics and focuses on works that are significant recipients of this genre tradition. The radical reformation of the francophone kid comics’ genre, which became popular since mid-20th century, happened in the 1990s, and can mostly be bound to those humorous album series that break away from the traditional idealized innocent depiction of child-life. Taking into account the experiences of the forming history of the kid comics’ genre the child-life depiction of other genres seem exciting to study. Especially the child-life representation of contemporary European graphic novels that centre on childhood, these account for an important part of the widely researched biographical graphic novels.

Young adult (YA ) is a determinative contemporary pop culture term, mostly known from the movie industry. However, it is originally a literary category that emerged in the 1960s. In the first section of the study I argue for an age-framework for ”teenager”, as a distinctive age group. Then I introduce the antecedents and bestsellers of YA from the very first books (The Outsiders, The Contender) through the first golden age (Are You There God, It’s Me Margarete, Chocolate War) to the current flourishing, while using the best-known novel adaptations from the screen of the cinema and television. Besides the biggest fantasy and science fiction blockbusters (Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games) the study covers realistic YA media texts (The Fault in Our Stars, The Hate U Give, 13 Reasons Why) as well. The most successful Hungarian authors and titles are also introduced. In my study one of the research questions I try to answer is what genres do these texts use and what are the main narrative and thematic characteristics of YA ? Finally, I also try to give an answer for the question whether the future of YA is doomed or not.

Thirteen Reasons Why tells the story of Hannah Baker, a teenager who commits suicide, but leaves behind a number of audiotapes explaining her decision and the events that lead to it. The novel, and its recent adaptation into a series by Netflix are extremely popular; however, they have also been severely criticised by psychologists and mental health advocates for their portrayal of bullying and suicide. Reflecting on the issues raised by these experts, and placing Thirteen Reasons Why in the wider context of escapist fiction, in my article I analyse how power relations function between the adolescent characters, how their identity is affected by physical and mental abuse; and I attempt to draw conclusions as to whether Thirteen Reasons Why belongs in the category of “harmful fiction”.

The article examines antiquity in the most successful young adult novel series in recent times, Időfutár. The text, which intertwines the genres of fantasy and alternative historical fiction, is built upon parallel time-travelling narrative schemes, the pathos of quest fantasy is replaced by absurd humor, Greek mythology by Roman history and some classical literary models. The plot takes place during Nero’s reign and it interweaves ancient artifacts and Latin literature with state-of-the-art scientific and technical developments, to create the symbiosis of modernity and antique culture. This bears an even more significant message in the era when the ancient languages and cultures, which provide the basis of European intellect, lose importance globally.

This essay sets out to reread the Harry Potter series as a text of initiation and draws attention to its textual self-consciousness by revealing the self-reflexive patterns of the books. It gives an analysis of The Tale of the Three Brothers and shows that the last chapters of the first book can be read as a summary of the whole series. The essay also examines how the structure of the novels mirror the traditions of alchemical initiation ceremonies by creating symbols out of the objects and phenomena of the wizarding world.

Even though Denmark is considered to be one of the happiest countries, one of the unhappiest teenage stories originates from there. In Janne Teller’s first scandalous then successful youth novel a fourteen-year-old boy claims that it is not worth doing anything as nothing matters, so his classmates started a collecting game to prove him the opposite, ending up in tragic sacrifices. This essay examines the novel from the perspective of meaningful activities, based on Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s studies titled The Meaning of Things, Being Adolescent, and Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. The study also compares the novel to the well-known youth story The Boys of Paul Street by Ferenc Molnár, as both works depict the teenagers’ struggles to adapt to the adults’ controversial expectations.

The purpose of my paper is to explore the circumstances of the 1969 Vojvodina Hungarian novel writing competition, which served as a stage in the paradigm shift in (children’s) literature. I explore those intellectual movements, insights, forming poetical and thematic ways through which the (young adult) novel corpus in Vojvodina came into existence, and which corpus is defined by the novels of Nándor Gion, Ottó Tolnai and István Domonkos, among others.

It is pivotal for contemporary youth literature to be made part of the curriculum, however, it is unnecessary for the education politics to canonise any of them. Contemporary novels give opportunity to discuss important psychological, social, ideological and artistic issues. Within the framework of problem-centred education they prioritise the processed issue besides the aesthetic quality and linguistic accessibility. Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time provides excellent opportunity to discuss the problems of people with autism and it is also suitable to improve empathy towards them, their families and parents. The study includes a detailed plan for discussion, the questions and exercises are ordered to follow the process of constructive pedagogy: tuning up – creation of meaning – reflection.

In the first part of my study I would like to prove that our way of teaching literature has moved in the wrong direction in the last few decades. As a result, our adolescents have a rather distorted picture about literature, and they lack reading experience, and the lighthearted debates, talks that would come from them. In my writing I attempted to draw attention to contemporary texts that I have already (successfully) used during my teaching practice, but are mainly absent from literature lessons. I intentionally avoid the genre of novel – evading the discussion about compulsory readings –, and I mainly focus on contemporary poems, short stories and lyrics. Although I offer several methodological ideas, I intended to share thought-provoking questions, tasks and games rather than lesson plans.

This paper examines the possibility of using kamishibai as a supportive tool for pedagogical aims. The first part deals with the origins of this story-telling theatre emerging in the Japanese culture and reviewing the extensive and diverse methodological procedures that have led kamishibai to build into the education of many countries.

Mesebeszéd: A gyerek- és ifjúsági irodalom kézikönyve, szerk. Hansági Ágnes, Hermann Zoltán, Mészáros Márton, Szekeres Nikoletta, Bp., Fiatal Írók Szövetsége, 2017; „…kézifékes fordulást is tud”: Tanulmányok a legújabb magyar gyerekirodalomról, szerk. Hansági Ágnes, Hermann Zoltán, Mészáros Márton, Szekeres Nikoletta, Balatonfüred, Balatonfüred Városért Közalapítvány, 2018.

A gyermeknek mese kell: A mese szerepe az óvodai és az iskolai nevelésben, szerk. Bujdosóné Papp Andrea, Bp., Hagyományok Háza, 2017.