Realm Of Children Research Articles

Prognostic Indicators of Morbidity and Mortality in Children with Congestive Hepatopathy Presenting with Ascites.

Objectives: Congestive hepatopathy is a significant complication for children suffering from right-sided heart disease (RHD). We hypothesize that hospitalized pediatric patients with ascites will have congestive hepatopathy leading to advanced liver disease if their cardiac condition is RHD versus non-right-sided heart disease (NRHD). Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of pediatric patients who presented with an ascites diagnosis (ICD-10 R18) and at least one cardiac diagnosis. Patient demographics, past medical history, laboratory values, imaging results, calculated clinical scores (e.g., APRI, FIB-4), treatment, length of stay (LOS), and death at hospital discharge were analyzed. Results: Of the 136 patients with ascites, 21 patients presented with a primary cardiac disease (12 in RHD and 9 in NRHD). Of these patients, eight (38%) were female, and nine (43%) were White, seven (33%) were Black, and five (24%) were unknown. The RHD group had a mean age of 5.1 Y (vs. 9.5 Y in NRHD). The mean APRI score in RHD patients was 2.87, and it was 0.85 in NRDH. Treatments were similar, with most patients requiring diuretics (11 RHD (92%) vs. 8 NRDH (89%)); 5 RHD (42%) vs. 4 NRDH (44%) required inotropic support. RHD patients had a longer LOS, with an average of 92 days vs. 52 days for NRDH patients. Overall, each group had one death at discharge (8% RHD vs. 11% NRDH). Conclusions: In the realm of children with ascites, the subset grappling with congestive heart disease paints a unique picture. In this context, ascites stands as an elusive predictor of liver decompensation, defying conventional diagnostic pathways.

Children's agencies navigating sexism and LGBTI+ phobia in Santiago de Chile's primary school

AbstractThrough their talk, actions and interactions, children actively shape and develop notions of gender and sexuality. This research delves into the realm of children's agency to explore the ways children act and react to instances of sexism and LGBTI+ phobia. Within the context of a Gender Equity Education Program in a Chilean primary school, this study employs participatory‐action research, integrating participatory methods and participant observation, acknowledging the significance of children's agencies in knowledge construction. Analytically, a feminist post‐structuralist lens is applied to examine children's experiences, unveiling distinct categories of agencies, namely ‘reproducers’ and ‘challengers’ of the dominant discourse.

Public Health and Children’s Subjective Well-Being

In recent years, the study of children's subjective well-being has garnered escalating global attention, with its research themes becoming increasingly diverse. However, this field still lacks a systematic review and analysis. Drawing upon the Web of Science database, this study retrieved 32,112 relevant articles published between 2003 and 2022, focusing on the theme of children's subjective well-being. After rigorous screening, 23,711 publications were ultimately retained for analysis. Utilizing bibliometric methods, this study conducted network visualization analysis across multiple dimensions, including countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords, aiming to comprehensively reveal the current research landscape of children's subjective well-being. Furthermore, theme modeling techniques were employed to delve into the patterns of theme evolution, and cluster analysis was conducted to categorize related themes. Through qualitative analysis, this study uncovered the developmental trajectory and future research directions in the field of children's subjective well-being. The findings indicate that, in the realm of children's subjective well-being research, developed countries such as those in Europe, America, and Australia have contributed over 30% of the research efforts, both in terms of publication volume and impact. Among them, the United States holds a leading position. The research themes have gradually evolved from an initial focus on the children themselves to exploring their surrounding environments and further delving into the psychological impacts and well-being of children amidst public health emergencies. Notably, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted scholars to delve deeper into children's well-being, shifting the focus of research from mere exploration of mental health to a more nuanced investigation of psychological impacts. Looking ahead, areas such as public health, psychological impacts, and children's dietary health will emerge as crucial directions for future exploration in the field of children's subjective well-being research, offering significant potential for investigation.

A Report on C-E Translation of Children’s Literature: A Case Study of Gen Niao (Excerpts)

Gen Niao is a short story crafted by Cao Wenxuan, a distinguished contemporary writer in the realm of children’s literature. This story chronicles the maturation journey of a young protagonist named Gen Niao. Currently, there is no published translated edition of this book. This paper takes Gen Niao as an example to primarily explore the English translation of Chinese children’s literature. As international cultural exchanges deepen, English translation of contemporary Chinese children’s literature assumes paramount significance in facilitating cultural outreach. Due to the cultural and linguistic disparities between Chinese and English, translators often find it challenging to accurately and vividly convey the precise connotations of the source text, especially when the target audience is children. Hence, in order to convey the meaning of the source language as faithfully as possible, the author tackles the translation process from two aspects: lexical choices and syntactic structures. Based on the strategies of domestication and foreignization proposed by Venuti, the author primarily employs a strategy of domestication, supplemented by occasional foreignization to translate the selected passages, aiming to maintain fidelity to the original while ensuring readability for the target audience. By exploring strategies for translating Chinese children’s literature into English, this research encapsulates reflections and analyses concerning the practice of translating children’s literature, aiming to discover methods that can enhance the international impact of translated works and propel Chinese children’s literature towards global recognition.

Legal Protection for Children Against Climate Change in the Southeast Asia Region Apropos of Target 13.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG 2030)

Objective: This article seeks to elucidate children's rights to protection from climate-related hazards in the Southeast Asia region and to highlight the effects of climate change on children's development rights. Further reference is made to Target 13.3 of SDG 2030, which aims to improve education, awareness-raising, and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction, and early warning as methods to combat climate change and its impacts. Theoretical Reference: Paramount considerations in addressing the impacts of climate change on children revolve around two central principles: children's best interests and the intergenerational equity principle. These principles stress the importance of prioritizing children's well-being and rights in climate change policies. Furthermore, they underscore the significance of long-term thinking and decision-making to ensure a sustainable and habitable planet for future generations, in line with broader goals of sustainability and environmental responsibility. Method: The study is based on doctrinal legal research, using reasoning to assess statutory provisions and legal precedents. Data from library research were analyzed through content analysis, primarily focusing on legal concepts, principles, and selected statutes. Results and conclusion: The article reveals that climate change has the potential to negatively impact children's social status, safety, and health, resulting in stunted life potential and infringed development rights. In the Southeast Asia region, legal measures are in place to safeguard children's rights to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, primarily through the promotion of climate change education. These legal protections are aligned with Target 13.3 of the SDG 2030 framework. However, for these protections to be effective, there is a need for international and national implementation. Therefore, it becomes crucial for the global community to prioritize the safeguarding and preparation of children for the climate change crisis. This involves increasing awareness, providing secure options, and encouraging active participation, particularly in the realm of children's education. Research Implications: This study emphasizes the vital link between climate change and the welfare of children in Southeast Asia, highlighting the necessity for comprehensive, international, and child-centric approaches to tackle the consequences of climate change on their rights and progress. It demands immediate action to safeguard the most susceptible individuals and guarantee every child's safe and sustainable future. Originality/Value: This study significantly increases comprehension of the complex correlation between climate change and child rights and provides a foundation for targeted actions and the development of policies.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child’s Imprint on Judgments from the European Court of Human Rights: A Negligible Footprint?

ABSTRACT The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is the sole interpreter of all matters on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and has no obligations toward any other international law and/or jurisprudence. In the realm of children’s rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is renowned as the most prominent source for all development of children’s rights. Officially, there is no connection between the ECHR/ECtHR and the CRC. Nevertheless, the ECtHR has acknowledged a reciprocal, harmonious relationship between the two conventions. By analysing all judgments from the ECtHR referring to the CRC, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative document analyses, this article aims to examine the CRC’s footing in the ECtHR. Leaning on concepts of legal mobilisation, lawfare, and availability heuristics, we argue that there has been a clear development in how the CRC is used in and by the ECtHR, indicating that the CRC has an increasingly stronger footing within the Court, especially in the past decade. Additionally, we argue that this development has strengthened children’s rights and that the CRC, at least indirectly, has had and still has a vital role in developing children’s rights within the ECtHR.

Mechanisms adopted in curbing unsafe infant abandonment: A comparison between Namibia and South Africa

This article looks at the development of 'baby safe haven' laws in Namibia as a response to unsafe infant abandonment and examines the lack of similar laws in South Africa to curb this practice. The central question addressed in the article is whether an obligation rests with the South African legislature to prevent unsafe infant abandonment by providing a safe alternative. This question is expounded upon by looking at the approach or the mechanisms adopted in countries around the world with a specific focus on South Africa's neighbouring country, Namibia. The impact of the non-legalisation of any of these mechanisms in South Africa is dealt with through analysing the various human rights that are infringed in terms of the South African Constitution. The previous laws governing the abandonment of infants in Namibia are compared with the more recent introduction of 'baby safe haven' laws, which is indicative of how far Namibia has come in moving from emulating South African laws in the realm of children to taking the lead in introducing a safe alternative to unsafe abandonment. Lastly, the current South African law, which is reactive in its approach to infant abandonment, is dealt with. The conclusion is reached that in view of what Namibia has done an obligation indeed rests on the South African legislature urgently to implement similar laws to save the lives and protect the various other rights of unsafely abandoned infants. It is proposed that 'baby savers' and 'baby safe haven laws' urgently should be introduced in South Africa to prevent further deaths through the unsafe abandonment of infants in places such as toilets, pit latrines and open fields.

Keeping company: Educating for online friendship

The possibility of online Aristotelian virtue friendships via social network sites continues to be raised by philosophers, but as yet this has not been positioned within the realm of children or adolescents, who are known to be amongst the largest users of social media. Governmental agencies across the globe still struggle to define the boundaries of online usage for children, often depending on school‐based curricula highlighting ‘safe‐guarding’ online or some form of character education. This, however, often leaves the philosophical thinking behind virtual relationships as incompletely addressed in educational theory, policy and practice, despite there being some very real difficulties for children. Utilising the insights of Aristotle on friendship, I offer a view that may hold potential for a philosophically based policy. I outline three different ways this philosophical literature could have implications for education and indicate the types of policy that each might entail. I will contend that there are three distinct stakeholders here that can be identified as having a significant role to play in what we should do: the schools themselves, educational researchers and policy writers. Finally, I suggest ways in which research, policy and practice might link together.

Regulating without controlling: Children's food and self‐management in the U.S. middle class

AbstractThis ethnography examines how adults in an Atlanta community approached the challenges involved in children's food socialisation and emotional socialisation at large. In both realms, self‐management was the ultimate goal. For parents, striking a balance between conscientious attentiveness and offensively controlling behaviours was key. Ultimately, the realm of children's food revealed emotional tensions inherent in middle‐class models of selfhood, where both children and adults come under scrutiny for their comportment and tastes, and where careful regulation is deemed both necessary and problematic in ways that work to deflect attention from the compensatory labour of parents in a neoliberal economy.

Professional Training of Future Preschool Teachers in the Field of Artistic and Aesthetic Education by Means of Contextual Learning Technologies.

The article deals with the development peculiarities of the subject artistic competence of future preschool teachers in the field of artistic and aesthetic education of children by means of contextual educational technologies. The students in question were being observed during the classes of Fundamentals of the Fine Arts with Methodology, the lessons of Decorative Arts with Methodology, as well as the Artistic Production and Design Fundamentals sessions. The purpose of the article is to reveal the methodology of contextual learning technologies’ implementation into the process of future preschool educators training and check their effectiveness in the realm of children’s artistic and aesthetic education experimentally. In the course of the research, we used such methods as analysis and synthesis of psychological, pedagogical, and art sources, as well as studying and generalization of the current state of future preschool teachers professional training in the field of artistic and aesthetic education. We also employed analysis, comparison, and classification with the aim of determining the essential characteristics, criteria, and levels of future preschool teachers’ subject competence in artistic and aesthetic education. Another approach that we turned to was that of pedagogical experiment with the further qualitative and quantitative analysis of its results using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistical criterion. The outcomes of the experiment brought about a need for the implementation of contextual learning technologies into the development of future preschool educators’ subject competence.

ANALISIS DAN DESAIN APLIKASI PEMBELAJARAN METAMORFOSIS KUPU-KUPU BERBASIS AUGMENTED REALITY

Augmented Reality is one of technology that combines virtual world objects with the real world that allows it to be applied to Android-based smartphones because its users have penetrated into the realm of children. The need for analysis and design before building applications that later can help facilitate teachers in learning by displaying 3D objects and animations that make Students more interested in paying attention to the material provided and becoming more active in participating in the learning process. The purpose of this study is to analyze and design learning applications for Butterfly metamorphosis using Augmented Reality as an alternative learning media. Methods of collecting data are literature, observation, and interviews. The results of this study are in the form of application design regarding the metamorphosis phase of Butterflies ranging from caterpillars, larvae, pupae, to cocoons.

1960s in Scandinavia

This article, based on extensive source material from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, is about the changing norms for children’s media, childhood and art in Scandinavia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The analysis demonstrates how changes within welfare state institutions converged with the youth rebellion’s wider criticism of children’s low status in traditional power hierarchies, and contributed to new definitions of the role of media in children’s lives. After establishing a wider historical contextualisation, the article moves on to show how the criticism of existing norms in the realm of children’s literature in the mid-1960s grew into a critique of the prevailing ideologies and existing narratives in all children’s media (including film, theatre and television) at the end of the decade. A key figure in the redefinition of norms for children’s media was the Swede, Gunilla Ambjörnsson. Her 1968 book, Trash Culture for Children, led to discussions about the role of media in children’s lives all over Scandinavia. Her core belief in the innate social and political interests of children had a great impact on the ways in which the possibilities for an explicit political agenda in children’s media were conceptualised in Scandinavia at large.

Et risikabelt foretagende. At tale om børn i børnelitteraturforskningen

“Risky Business. Talking about Children in Children’s Literature Criticism”Embracing a critical paradigm which holds that children do not participate in the realm of children’s literature and culture has itself caused scholars to ignore what young people have said, written, and done in the realm of children’s literature and culture. This essay contends that the time has come to articulate not only new theories about what it means to be a child, but also a new paradigm for how to do children’s literature criticism; one that builds on but also decisively departs from Jacqueline Rose’s vision of children’s literature as an adult practice.

Syarah Hadis Sahih Bukhari dan Muslm Dalam Komik: Studi atas Deskripsi 99 Pesan Nabi: Komik Hadis Bukhari Muslim (Edisi Lengkap)

Syarah traditions become a necessity for Muslims ummah. This is because Islamic teachings contained in its tradition. The innovation over tradition are constantly evolving. One of them is the understanding of the hadith in Sahih Bukhari and Muslim in comic form. The new media is different from other that developed before, namely the audio media as can be seen in TVRI and youtube and other media such as teaching in Islamic boarding schools and PTKIN in Indonesia. This study is interesting because the religious comics becomes new trends in Indonesia which is sourced from the two most authentic books of hadith as such. At least, the expanding range of the reader not only of those people who has expert in the science of hadith or tradition in Islamic boarding schools and in PTKIN, but rather to the realm of children and adolescents. in addition, to the realm of the comic this tradition can also be read anyone at any time. In theory of knowledge, comic tradition that developed was an attempt to apply the message contained in the redaction of hadits (matan hadis). Therefore it’s the idea of chosen the traditions that can be applied into the daily life. Supported by appropriate illustrations and narrative of present context, the comics tradition is one of the effort of understanding the tradition in the Indonesian context.[Syarah hadis menjadi suatu kebutuhan ummat Islam. Hal ini dikarenakan ajaran Islam terdapat di dalam hadis. Terobosan dan inovasi atas hadis senantiasa berkembang. Salah satunya adalah pemahaman hadis dalam kitab Sahih Bukhari dan Muslim dalam bentuk komik. Media baru ini berbeda dengan media lain yang berkembang sebelumnya yakni media audio sebagaimana dapat dilihat di TVRI dan youtube serta media lain pengajaran di pesantren dan PTKIN di Indonesia. Kajian ini menarik karena komik religi merupakan trends di Indonesia terutama yang bersumber dari kedua kitab hadis paling sahih tersebut. Setidaknya, jangkauan pembaca semakin meluas tidak hanya akademisi yang cinta pada ilmu hadis atau hadis di pesantren dan di PTKIN melainkan ke ranah anak-anak dan remaja. Selain kedua ranah tersebut, komik hadis ini juga bisa dibaca siapapun dan kapanpun. Secara teori keilmuan, komik hadis yang dikembangkan merupakan upaya untuk mengaplikasikan pesan yang terdapat dalam matan hadis. Oleh karenanya dipilihlah hadis-hadis yang dapat diaplikasikan dalam kehidupan keseharian. Dengan didukung oleh ilustrasi dan narasi yang sesuai nkonteks kekinian, komik hadis ini merupakan salah satu ikhtiar pemahaman hadis dalam konteks Indonesia.]

How Should We Remember the Alamo? Critical Analyses of Four Graphic Histories

This article examines, elementary leveled graphic history, a genre of literature relatively untouched by research. Due to graphic nonfiction’s growing popularity in the realm of children’s literature and its potential benefits for young readers, teachers may want to incorporate this genre of literature into their social studies curriculum. Despite the genre’s appeal, educators should be careful when introducing graphic histories to their students, as nonfiction texts of any kind can possibly contain inaccuracies and biases that might foster misconceptions. In this study, we used a critical content analysis approach to investigate both images and text in four graphic histories on the Battle of the Alamo. We found these books contain several instances of factual errors and biased perspectives. After our analyses, we discussed implications for using these types of books in the classroom to help students enhance critical literacy skills. We connected recommended critical literacy activities to Common Core State Standards for informational texts and writing.

The Prevalence of Sleep disorders and Their Relationship with Anxiety and Behavioral Problems in Second Primary School Female Students in Yazd

Introduction: Sleep disorders can influence either directly or indirectly, on the family, colleagues and finally the community. In the realm of children, the most serious complications of sleep is anxiety and behavioral problems that make them prone to academic failure, family tensions and psychosocial – social trauma. Concerning the significance, outbreak of sleep disorders and its complications, the present study aimed to determine the prevalence of species of sleep disorders and its relation to anxiety and behavioral problems of female students in the second course of primary, academic year of 1394-1393 in Yazd.Materials and Methods: The method was based on the data collecting by descriptive – correlation kind. The study population consisted of all female students of second course of primary schools in Yazd in academic year of 1393-94 that according to statistics from the Office of Education of Yazd province, their number was 14,541 people. By using Cochran formula with confidence level of 95% and probable accuracy of 5%, a sample size of 259 people was identified. Sampling group was chosen by multistage clustering method and questionnaire: assessment of children s’ sleep habits (Evans, 2000), multidimensional scale of children anxiety (March, Parker, Sullivan, Staling and Conrez, 1997) and questionnaire of children s’ behavioral problems (Rutter, 1970) were used. In order to analyze data, in descriptive statistic, frequency distribution tables and central indexes and dispersion and in inferential statistic, analysis of variance and regression in analysis of hypotheses was used.

La littérature de jeunesse migrante: récits d’immigration de l’Algérie à la France by Anne Schneider (review)

Reviewed by: La littérature de jeunesse migrante: récits d’immigration de l’Algérie à la France by Anne Schneider Sibylle Weingart La littérature de jeunesse migrante: récits d’immigration de l’Algérie à la France [Migrant children’s literature: Immigration narratives from Algeria to France]. By Anne Schneider. Series: Espaces littéraires. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2013. 419pages. ISBN 978-2-336-29200-7. With this monograph, the French scholar and vice director of the Charles Perrault Institute, Anne Schneider, presents a seminal work on a neglected theme. The ambivalence of the title is fully intended: “Migrant” can qualify either “children’s literature” or only “children.” Who or what is actually migrating? Are only the (predominantly young) protagonists “migrating” in these stories? Does Schneider focus exclusively on the literary treatment of the experiences and consequences of flight, exile, immigration and emigration between Algeria (and other Maghreb states) and France? Or does she also explore other types of transgressions, imaginary or literary ones? Do the analyzed narratives cross over the blurred boundaries of childhood, youth, and adulthood? Do the literary texts entice readers to rethink the at times arbitrary delimitations between genres, between the so called “national literatures” and “intercultural literature,” or between literature for children, adolescents or adults? Does the potential “literary migration” of texts lead to a new evaluation or new use of these texts and, if so, what are the consequences in society, the publishing landscape or in school? These are some of the questions guiding the study, which is based on a corpus of 175 Francophone works. 116 of these cover a wide spectrum of genres from the realm of children’s and young adult literature, 59 are all-age or adult books. Schneider includes works by Leila Sebbar, Azouz Begag, Farid Boudjellal, Brigitte Smadja, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Mouloud Mammeri as well as “classics” of adult literature whose texts “migrated” to the young adult sector, such as novels by Mouloud Feraoun and Mohammed Dib. Alongside the literature of Maghreb authors, the voices of authors with a “Pied-noir” (people of French and other European ancestry who lived as privileged settlers in French North Africa) [End Page 94] or “Harki” (descendants of Muslim French loyalists and of soldiers fighting in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence) background are also included. Schneider distinguishes four large thematic categories: travel literature, literature on topical themes, the Algerian War of Independence and Emigration/Immigration. Well aware of the fact that there is overlap due to the complex and multifaceted nature of the books, she analyses and compares their themes, discourses, and narrative strategies as well as their ideological, sociological, and historical implications. One of the recurring questions is how these books stage childhood and adulthood with their idiosyncratic twists, turns, and ambivalences. The first and third sections are particularly noteworthy. In the first one, Schneider gives a succinct and highly perceptive overview of literary representations of flight, exile, war, and the loss of a home(land), and—drawing on psychological research on resilience—pays particular attention to the transformations and positive appropriation of these experiences. Regretfully, the predominance of Harki and Pied-noir authors in the chapter on the Algerian War somewhat skews the picture. While it may be important to give voice to marginalized groups, a complex and differentiated approach to this topic, which remains a taboo in France and Algeria to this day, has to include the perspective of Algerian or Maghreb authors on this traumatic event, which continues to cast a large shadow. It is also not clear why Schneider analyses texts for children by former French development workers and soldiers in this section. The third section focuses on educational activities based on texts of “Migrant youth literature” in primary and high schools. It offers concrete, well-structured suggestions for class activities, including lesson plans and model activity sheets. This material is sure to encourage teachers to use these literary texts in class despite curricular or temporal constraints. With her study, Schneider has laid the ground for a critical discussion of the topic “Intercultural literatures of France” and has provided thought-provoking answers to the question of how the political, cultural, and social...

The Incomprehensible Gianni Rodari

La poetica di Rodari: Utopia del folklore e nonsense. By Giulia Massini. Rome: Carocci, 2011. 159 pp.Lorecchio verde di Gianni Rodari. Edited by Stefano Panzarasa. Rome: Viterbo Stampa Alernativa/Nuovi Equilibri, 2011. 226 pp.Non solo filastrocche: Rodari e la letteratura del novecentro. By Mariarosa Rossitto. Rome: Bulzoni, 2011. 280 pp.Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto. By Gianni Rodari, Trans. Antony Shugar. Illustr. Federico Maggioni. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2011. 208 pp.Standard American and British bookstores, if one can speak of standard bookstores anymore, always tend to have a large stock of the best works by national and international writers of children's literature on hand, especially their fantasy novels and fairy tales. However, none carry the numerous books written by the great Italian writer Gianni Rodari. This is rather bizarre because one cannot enter an Italian bookstore without being flooded by Rodari's diverse books. Moreover, in some European countries, such as France, Germany, Spain, and Russia, Rodari is well-known, and he even won the esteemed Hans Christian Andersen Prize before he died in 1980. This neglect in Anglo-Saxon countries is almost as incomprehensible as the incomprehensible prestige that he enjoys in Italy. How can this development be explained? And why did it come about?Admittedly, Rodari is difficult to translate, and only a few of his books have been translated.1 But I do not believe that the reluctance of American and British publishers to translate Rodari is entirely connected to the complexity of his works. It has more to do with his socialist ideology, his unique Italian humor, and his overt sentimentalism, which can be difficult to adapt and communicate, especially in the realm of children's literature. Here, too, there is a problem because Rodari never wrote entirely for children; rather, he wrote on their behalf and constantly undermined the position and perspective of adults through silly nonsense and fervent political beliefs. Rodari was a defiant moralist who challenged readers with humor and startling views to question the norms of their world, or as Stefano Panzarasa puts it in his unusual book Lorecchio verde di Gianni Rodari:Critics have shed light on his capacity to present a modem moral world not through moralizing but through the activity of the imagination, either in his poetry that takes into account the experiences of futurism and surrealism, or in his fairy tales, fables and fairy-tale novels, which always reflect ideas, elements, and situations of reality. Note that he preferred more than anything a humoristic tone, or frankly comical, because it is most appropriate for communicating with today's children and also enables one to confront great problems (solidarity of people, justice, peace) without becoming too heavy. (34; translation mine)Panzarasa's book is unusual because he came to appreciate Rodari not as a scholar but as a musician and teacher who desired to set some of Rodari's nursery rhymes and poetry to music, which he performed and continues to perform with a band in Parco Monti Lucretili outside Rome, where he works as an educator. His research led him to gather numerous documents, photos, and essays by critics and scholars that serve as a frame for the CD that accompanies his book, Lorecchio verde di Gianni Rodari (Gianni Rodari's Green Ear). Although the focus of the book is on Rodari's ecopacifiste ideologies, that is, Rodari's concerns for ecology and peace, it also serves as an informative introduction to Rodari's life and work. Panzarasa's book is divided into six sections: (1) Who Was Gianni? (twelve essays about Rodari's life); (2) An Ear That Listens, which provides background about the origins of Panzarasa's research; (3) Among the Benches with Gianni, which includes nine essays about Rodari's work with children in schools and other places; (4) From Park to Park, in which Panzarasa discusses how he has used Rodari's works in parks; (5) The Songs of the Green Ear, which includes eight essays about Rodari's nursery rhymes and poems set to music; and (6) a small anthology of Rodari's works that have a clear connection to environmental and peace movements. …

Risky Business: Talking about Children in Children’s Literature Criticism

Embracing a critical paradigm that holds that children do not participate in the realm of children’s literature and culture has itself caused scholars to ignore what young people have said, written, and done in the realm of children’s literature and culture. This essay contends that the time has come to articulate not only new theories about what it means to be a child, but also a new paradigm for how to do children’s literature criticism, one that builds on but also decisively departs from Jacqueline Rose’s vision of children’s literature as an adult practice.

The Social Construction of Reality in the Realm of Children's Mental Health Services

ABSTRACT Across the United States, systems of care have emerged to provide mental health care to children and their families; fragmentation inhibiting the success of collaboration by stakeholders is common and compromises these systems of care. Survey data were collected from 1,428 respondents in a Midwestern state to examine problems that exist within systems of care from the perspective of the different stakeholder groups. Stakeholder group membership was based upon the respondent's employment or involvement within various child-serving systems and included those in child welfare, juvenile justice, and education, mental health providers, and consumers (i.e., caregivers/parents). Group differences revealed patterns of “finger pointing” by the stakeholder groups on where specific problems exist within systems of care. The findings provide insight into how the social construction of service delivery and practice emerges as stakeholder groups describe, understand, and evaluate problems within the system of care as a function of their own practice location within the system of care. Future research should consider exploring methods that might minimize the competitive nature of disparate child-serving systems and its potentially negative impact upon system performance and treatment outcomes.