La Trobe

Me and My Ladybirds: or "Mummy, They're All the Same!"

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posted on 2025-06-30, 06:05 authored by Lissa Paul
The use of standardised reading schemes to introduce early readers to literature may be convenient for curricula and publishers, but it also can stifle interest, enthusiasm and exploration by those readers. In particular, Paul draws on Bakhtin's concept of monologic texts to examine the limited language of the Ladybirds (and similar) series, and Margaret Meek's demand for texts that challenge language in order to develop playful, polyphonic texts and laughing, independent readers.

History

Journal

The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature

ISSN

1551-5680

Volume

1

Issue

3

Publisher

La Trobe University

Section Title

Alice's Academy

Author Biography

Lissa Paul (Professor, University of New Brunswick) teaches children's literature. She has a new piece on "dirt" in the September 1997 issue of Horn Book. And Reading Otherways, a little book on interpreting children's books, is forthcoming from The Thimble Press.

Date Created

2017-11-29

Rights Statement

Essays and articles published in The Looking Glass may be reproduced for non-profit use by any educational or public institution; letters to the editor and on-site comments made by our readers may not be used without the expressed permission of that individual. Any commercial use of this journal, in whole or in part, by any means, is prohibited. Authors of accepted articles assign to The Looking Glass the right to publish and distribute their text electronically and to archive and make it permanently available electronically. They retain the copyright and, 90 days after initial publication, may republish it in any form they wish as long as The Looking Glass is acknowledged as the original source.

Data source

OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/893

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