Topics and Aesthetics of German Children’s and Youth Literature, by adults and children
Children’s Literature: A Curious Case was the title of the two day symposium held by the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai . Ingratubun Gudrun, was the first speaker of the day. She spoke about Topics and Aesthetics of German Children’s and Youth Literature by adults and children. Mumbai based children's author Katie Bagli shares her notes from the session. Germany publishes around 8000 titles of children’s literature in a year. What kind of subject are they portraying? Kids want something more than reality. Something beyond mythology and preaching. The focus is on intercultural topics so that children get to know about other countries. One of their titles on this aspect is the recently published ‘Frau Bengali’. Also, many of their books bring out the lives of refugees. For the very young, there are picture books that encourage children to come up with their own stories. As an example a page from a picture book containing ...