Building Children’s Worlds reviewed in ‘International Research in Children’s Literature’
Building Children’s Worlds (Routledge, 2023) is an interdisciplinary edited book by Architecture’s Dr Torsten Schmiedeknecht, and Prof. Jill Rudd and Dr Emma Hayward (English).
The peer reviewed journal ‘International Research in Children’s Literature’ in May 2024 described the book as follows:
Architecture is frequently overlooked as a background in picturebook research. However, the field of children’s literature has increasingly focused on architectural spaces and environments in picturebooks as a result of the ‘spatial turn’ and the ‘pictorial turn’. Yet there are still relatively few studies specialising in the architecture of children’s picturebooks. Building Children’s Worlds: The Representation of Architecture and Modernity in Picturebooks is groundbreaking in this field, employing various research methodologies to present a diverse architectural world in children’s picturebooks that is closely related to history, culture, ideology, and emotion. The collection encourages further exploration of architecture and children’s literature and will undoubtedly appeal to all those interested in modern architecture and modernity in children’s picturebooks.
Xiao Zhang a PhD student at the Center for Research in Children’s Literature, University of Cambridge finished their review of the book in Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature (Volume 63, Number 1, 2025) by saying:
This edited volume provides a valuable bridge between the fields of architecture and children’s literature, while inviting a wider interdisciplinary discussion including history studies, digital humanities, and intercultural research. It not only demonstrates the modern connection between the material and literary worlds, but more importantly, reveals how they work together to shape children’s under- standing of modernity, on which our everyday lives largely depend.
The full reviews can be found here: