Postmodern picturebooks: Play, parody, and self-referentiality (review)

Sipe and Pantaleo explore the contemporary world of picturebooks by bringing together a group of scholars who explore, question, and analyze the world of postmodernism in children’s literature. They consider the fact that within the larger context of literature and the arts, the term “postmodernism” has met with a lack of consensus and with vagueness, which they attempt to clarify for the picturebook world through various means. The introductory chapter begins with Barbara Kiefer’s reflection on classic definitions of a picturebook, followed by an exploration of what is meant by the term “postmodern picturebooks,” both comparing/contrasting it to “modernism” as well as defining it on its own. Particularly informative in Panteleo and Sipe’s introduction is their use of Sipe and McGuire’s synthesis of the characteristics of postmodern picturebooks to offer a “continuum of postmodernism” on which individual works can be characterized rather than a binary postmodern/not-postmodern classification.

Subsequent chapters in the volume present multiple perspectives on postmodern picturebooks, including that of an illustrator as creator of picturebooks (e.g., Martin Salisbury), literary theorists (e.g., Maria Nikolajeva and Eliza Dresang), scholars conducting critical analyses (e.g., Susan Lehr’s study of how Lauren Child manipulates the elements of postmodernism in illustration), and researchers who have studied the responses of children to postmodern literature (e.g., Lawrence Sipe, Sylvia Pantaleo, Evelyn Arizpe, and Morag Styles).

This important book is a welcome addition to the body of scholarly writings that help us come to newer, deeper, and ultimately better understandings of children’s literature.