We present a sampling of recently published picturebook biographies with noteworthy endpapers. First, we highlight scholarship related to picturebook biographies and peritextual features. Second, we present examples of three ways endpapers function, using nine picturebook biographies while also incorporating pedagogical suggestions related to the endpapers. Last, we explain the importance of noticing peritextual features in picturebook biographies.

A child’s personal name is an integral part of their identity. Names and name negotiation in children’s picturebooks can explore this connection by narrativizing the impact of positive and negative experiences involving name-carriers, name-givers, and name-users. In this study, we began with a framework combining a socio-onomastic perspective with the children’s literature metaphor of “mirrors and windows” (Bishop 1990) and the educational research concept of “damage and desire” narratives (Tuck 2009). Our content analysis of twelve picturebooks featuring characters with culturally and linguistically diverse names led to a coding scheme of six common episodes of name negotiation in the picturebooks’ narrative arcs: (1) inflicted damage; (2) internalized damage; (3) supplying desire; (4) internalized desire; (5) asserting the desire; and (6) joining the desire. Our findings highlight how episodes of damage focus on the pain, sadness, and struggle name-carriers undergo, while episodes of desire center the support of parents and teachers as well as detailed cultural and familial information about names. We conclude that while both “damage and desire” episodes contribute to the narratives, too heavy a focus on damage could lead to the perpetuation of a “single story” (Adichie 2009) that normalizes pain and struggle as an inevitable experience for children with linguistically and culturally diverse names.

No abstract

Consulting engineers Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and the University of Reading established a TCS (Teaching Company Scheme) programme in 1993 to introduce the application of information technology to support project management methods used within the firm. Young graduates in TCS are eligible to compete for an annual scholarship to visit Hong Kong and China. The scholarship, sponsored by the British Council, provides an allowance for a six-week visit. In this article, Carrie Thomas, the 1995 scholar, details her experiences during the visit, which enabled further investigation of the methods, techniques and circumstances surrounding the management of engineering projects in Hong Kong compared to those in the UK. She also comments on the benefits of this kind of academic-industrial collaboration and of international exchange scholarships.