How Informational Activity Picturebooks Work: Interactive Invitation to a Critical Approach to Knowledge

Abstract

This article proposes a typology useful for analysing informational activity picturebooks, a noticeable ‘genre’ in the international children’s book market. Because such editions indicate the active role of the child reader, the term ‘co-creator’ borrowed from Nina Goga seems more accurate. In the first part, the article stresses the importance of the peritext, often explicitly focusing on the co-creator. The latter part defines and elaborates on different modes and levels of interaction, engaging the co-creator manually and intellectually, simultaneously requiring and developing cognitive skills, such as visual literacy and knowledge acquisition.