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- Title
Childness and Musicality in Babies' Songbooks.
- Authors
Zou, Ying; Tan, XuDong
- Abstract
Despite the popularity of babies' songbooks, there is a lack of research on these works. This article tentatively proposes analytical tools for songbooks intended for babies. These tools are based on musicality, "childness"—which emphasises "the quality of being a child" and the mutual relationship between adults and children (Hollindale, 1997)—and poetic theories. The tools are also complementary in nature and based around the defining aspects of songbooks as a genre for very young children. First, such books' characteristics and functional components are examined. Second, to explore what they are and how they work, we attempt to reveal the books' typical features through the lens of musicality (Brand, 1985; Heald, 2008; Buren et al., 2021). We use the Children's Music Quotient (including music, lyrics and sonics) developed by Liam Maloy (2018, 2020) and the textuality and modality of childness. Additionally, the books' rhymes, the actions that the books seek to elicit and their material aspects offer many opportunities for play. Third, due to these qualities, we identify the subtle power dynamics of babies' songbooks. We believe musicality and other attributes of babies' songbooks that display childness are among the few channels through which very young children can exercise their agency; this potentially disrupts the top-down adult-child power structure in children's literature, and allows both parents and children to temporarily "enter the space in between" (Rose, 1984, p. 2).
- Subjects
SONGBOOKS; BABY books; CHILDREN'S books; MUSIC &; children; CHILDREN'S literature
- Publication
Children's Literature in Education, 2023, Vol 54, Issue 3, p395
- ISSN
0045-6713
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10583-023-09555-7