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This paper critically examines the integration of online fanfiction practices into an advanced university English language classroom. The fanfiction project, The Blogging Hobbit, was carried out as part of a course in the teacher education program at a Swedish university for students who were specializing in teaching English at the secondary school level. Participants were 122 students who completed the course in 2013 and 2014. In both classes, students were organized into groups of three to six to write collaborative blog-based role-play fanfiction of a missing moment from JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novelThe Hobbit. The 31 resulting pieces of collaborative fanfiction, the online formats they were published in, the 122 reflective essays produced by the two classes, and interviews with a focal group of participants were used to explore how technology and learners’ experience with this technology may have mediated the resulting stories. In addition, the classroom fanfiction texts were compared with comparable online writing published in the fanfiction site Archive of Our Own (Ao3) to identify thematic and stylistic differences. The results showed that students’ lack of familiarity with publishing in blogs often posed a challenge that some groups were able to overcome or exploit to facilitate or enhance the readability of their completed stories. Compared to online fanfiction, the classroom fanfiction was less innovative with respect to focal characters yet more collective in its focus, with stories being told from multiple characters’ perspectives.

The article draws on recent research into emergent literacy and metacognition, and charts a developmental trajectory from early concept books to picturebooks aimed at children and young teenagers. Methodologically, the study is a research synthesis, where the aim is to systematize current research findings and offer an overview of different types of picturebooks, and how they build literary and metacognitive competence. My thesis is that picturebooks are crucial in that process. The analysis focuses on the metacognitive affordances that can be found in picturebooks directed at different age groups/competence levels. Both the verbal and visual dimensions of the text are analyzed with the help of picturebook and comic book theory (iconotext, sequentiality). The results show that early concept books are surprisingly abstract; they stimulate the child’s aesthetic-affective response by using clear colours and easily discernible shapes. In the next stage, things (nouns) from the child’s close environment are represented. Naming and identifying are crucial activities at this stage. Verb-oriented concept books follow; these typically focus on simple actions from the child’s lifeworld, such as getting dressed, or eating. Next, we find narrative picturebooks, in which the fundamentals of story, plot, and characterization are introduced. Finally, the potential for advanced storytelling is explored with regard to symbolism, irony, and character development.Keywords: picturebooks, early concept books, metacognition, iconotext, narrative picturebooksBilderbokens berättelser: Ett metakognitivt perspektiv på bilderböckerSammanfattningDen här artikeln bygger på nyare forskning om literacyutveckling och metacognition, och kartlägger utvecklingslinjer från tidiga begreppsböcker riktade till spädbarn till bilderböcker som vänder sig till barn och tonåringar. Metodologiskt är arbetet ett forskningssyntes, där målet är att systematisera forskningsrön, erbjuda en ålders- och/eller utvecklingsindelad bilderboksöversikt, samt påvisa hur dessa böcker kan bygga litterär och metakognitiv kompetens. Min tes är att bilderböcker spelar en avgörande roll i den processen. Analysen sätter fokus på de metakognitiva meningserbjudanden som kan återfinnas i olika bilderböcker. Såväl bild och skrift analyseras med hjälp av bilderboks- och serieteori. Resultaten visar att tidiga begreppsböcker är förvånansvärt abstrakta; de syftar främst till at stimulera barnets estetisk-affektiva respons genom användande av klara primärfärger och tydliga kontraster. I nästa skede återges saker och ting (substantiv) från barnets närmiljö. Verb-orienterade bilderböcker följer; dessa visar framför allt aktiviteter som barnet kan känna igen, som att äta, klä sig, eller gå och lägga sig. I nästa steg återfinns berättande bilderböcker. Där hittar vi berättandets grundbegrepp såsom handling, karaktär, konflikt. Till sist, i de mest sofistikerade bilderböckerna hittar vi symbolik, ironi, fördjupad karaktärsteckning och komplex tematik.Nyckelord: bilderböcker, begreppsböcker, metakognition, ikonotext, bilderboksnarrativ

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The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1906Nils ( -1907 by Selma Lagerlöf and Scouting for Boys (1908) by Robert Baden-Powell are characteristic of their time and their respective national and cultural contexts-the Swedish nation state of the early twentieth century and the British Empire. Taking its cue from recent theories on citizenship and education, the article discusses ways in which these two classic children's books relate to citizenship, nation and education. Ultimately, both books point to ways in which education-in and out of school-can be used to promote individual growth and a peaceful and durable society for world citizens.