Play and storytelling are a crucial part of children's cognitive development. PixelCatchers Children develop an enormous amount during their early years – socially, physically, emotionally and cognitively. What happens between the ages of 0 and 8 years can predict important long-term outcomes: for example, how a child will fare at school; what their health will be like and their future earning potential. Children in sub-Saharan Africa have the highest risk globally of experiencing delays in their development. There are several reasons for this, among them a lack of stimulation. Too many parent ..read more

Shutterstock Gifting children books can be about more than just giving them something to read. Books are portals to adventure, imagination and new experiences. Importantly, books can help children understand and appreciate themselves, and those around them. Sadly, books normalising racial, cultural, family or gender diversity and diverse abilities are few and far between. When children see characters and stories reflecting their background, they can develop a stronger sense of identity. Research also shows reading books with diverse characters and story-lines helps children develop a greater u ..read more

The children's book, Little Louis, tells the story of a young boy preparing for his COVID-19 vaccination. (Morning Star Lodge), Author provided The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone. But communities are different, and so are their pandemic experiences. After more than a year of uncertainty and frustration, vaccines have brought many a sense that a return to normal is on the horizon. However, health and research communities now face a new challenge: vaccine hesitancy. Click here for more articles in our series about vaccine confidence. While there are countless reasons to be vac ..read more

The Ladybird books, first published in 1914, helped millions of children learn and love to read over the decades. These hardback, pocket-size books, with bright and interesting artwork on the front, are pretty distinctive. You might have had one in your childhood, or seen one of the many spoofs put out by the original Ladybird publishers in recent years. They were among the first books made solely with the child reader in mind and featured vivid, detailed and true-to-life illustrations and text simply and articulately expressed by experts in their field. The design of the original books has be ..read more

Maya Afzaal/Shutterstock A love for reading can be hugely valuable for children. The benefits of leisure reading include increased general knowledge, a positive impact on academic achievement, enhanced reading ability and vocabulary growth. Indeed, research suggests that time spent reading for pleasure could be a key indicator for the future success of a child – even more important than their family’s socio-economic status. It is therefore not surprising that many parents are interested in getting their children hooked on books. But certain reading practices used by parents and teachers could ..read more

Dick Bruna, Miffy at the gallery 1990. Courtesy and © Mercis bv Amsterdam She couldn’t get much simpler in visual terms. A white bunny cutout, dots for eyes and a little crisscross mouth. But Miffy is an enduringly endearing rabbit. Called nijntje in the author’s native Dutch, Miffy was originally created by Dick Bruna for his son. Now 65 years on, Miffy remains universally popular. Miffy books are available in 50 languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. A stop-motion animated television series brought more world fame and a Miffy museum in Bruna’s native Utrecht was establi ..read more

Some fairy tales aren't so innocent. danez/iStock / via Getty Images Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: “Children’s Literature” What prompted the idea for the course? The idea came from a book I bought at a used book sale. It was Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” but it wasn’t the version I expected. While reading the book to my children in 2017, I discovered that in the copy of the book I had bought, Willy Wonka describes the Oompa-Loompa characters – the subservient chocolat ..read more

A teacher tells a story to a group of students. Getty Images In a Cambodian children’s folktale, one man is afraid of lawyers and another is afraid of filth. As the story goes, both are constantly bombarded by their fears despite their efforts to avoid them. The moral of the tale is revealing and contains a powerful anti-racism message: What you hate becomes your fate. As an educational linguist and a psychologist who specialize in children’s literacy development, we know that reading such folktales about people from different ethnic groups reduces prejudice in young children. By age 4, childr ..read more

An illustration by Beatrix Potter from The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA Peter Rabbit, the cute and wily bunny who wears a bright blue jacket, is the best-selling creation of English author Beatrix Potter. Originally published in 1902, the Tale of Peter Rabbit – the first of 23 tales in the series – has since been translated into more than 45 languages and sold over 45 million copies. Peter’s home is the Lake District in north-west England, among ancient stone walls and picturesque rolling hedgerows that crisscross emerald fields. Heralded as Brita ..read more

A banned books display in a US bookshop Ted Shaffrey/AP A new lawsuit against a Florida school board marks a “first-of-its-kind challenge to unlawful censorship”. On May 17, the world’s largest English-language publisher, Penguin Random House, free-speech organisation PEN America, five authors (including bestselling queer YA author David Levithan) and two parents joined forces. Their lawsuit claims Florida’s Escambia County School Board has “unlawfully” removed or restricted books about “race, racism and LGBTQ identities”, and those by non-white and/or LGBTQ authors. “The School District and t ..read more