Una historia del libro ilustrado para niños en Colombia ed. by María Fernanda Paz Castillo (review)

For five years now, the National Library of Colombia (Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia) has been publishing essay collections on Colombian children’s literature. Even though the series comprises only five titles presently, it is highly remarkable, especially since Colombia has not yet produced much research in the field of children’s and young adult literature.

The first titles of the series present two authors, one illustrator, and the theme of “music and children’s literature.” Una historia del libro ilustrado para niños en Colombia, the largest volume of the series so far, takes on the history and development of Colombian children’s book illustration from its beginnings to the present. Historical account and critical survey of the current state of the art in one, the work is based on five hundred books from the collection of the National Library in Bogotá. The authors of the twelve chapters, all recognized authorities in the field, cover the professional spectrum from university, education, library, publishing, and illustration. Their different views of the field make for interesting and varied reading.

Just as for other Latin American countries, the beginnings of what could be considered autonomous literature for children and young adults took shape only toward the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In her essay covering the period until 1920, Beatriz Helena Robledo describes textbooks and primers as precursors to illustrated children’s books for children in Colombia. Their images were still overtly didactic, merely serving the text. These books followed European models, such as the “Orbis pictus” by Come-nius, or books in the spirit of European educationists like Pestalozzi. John Naranjo defines the decades between 1920 and 1940 as the “decisive” and formative ones for the country’s children’s book illustration. During the two World Wars and the Spanish Civil War, Colombia imported fewer Spanish books. This created a need and provided the opportunity to establish the domestic book industry. In synchrony with social reforms, publications with a new kind of illustration took shape: pedagogically progressive textbooks, children’s magazines, such as “Rin Rin,” or milestones like the illustrated book for children “El país de Lilac” (1938) by Oswaldo Díaz Díaz.

It was not before the final decades of the twentieth century that Colombia had developed an independent, expanding children’s book production, according to Silvia Castrillón. Looking at the period between 1970 and 1990, she observes a gradual shift away from the traditional didactic ways of using children’s literature and illustration. Moreover, the images tend to go beyond their previously dominating decorative function.

In the following chapter, Carlos Riaño analyzes the remaining twenty years from 1990 to the present. Himself a graphic artist and illustrator, he focuses more strongly on the artistic-aesthetic aspects. He describes how children’s book illustration was influenced by new artistic techniques and the audio-visual media, and how these developments fostered greater diversity.

The other contributions to the book offer different ways of approaching the topic. María Osorio, for example, presents a selection of eighteen illustrations from t wentieth-century Colombian children’s books, which she considers indicative and emblematic of the development of the art of illustration. Zully Pardo analyzes the genre of the picture book as a specific type of illustrated children’s book, which in comparison with other Latin-American countries, such as Venezuela, developed late in Colombia and has only just begun to gain more ground.

Una historia del libro ilustrado para niños en Colombia comes with high-quality reproductions of book covers and pages. A name and title index would make a welcome addition to a new edition. Overall, the book is a remarkable piece of pioneer work. By giving a compact, extensive view of the development of national children’s book...