Discussions about books and ways of reading play an important role in the curriculum for the Swedish secondary school system. In an intervention study based on a series of book discussions of an easy reader novel, I investigated the cooperation between a group of Swedish language learners aged 16 to 19, their teacher in the introduction program for newcomers, and the school librarian. Based on my function as a teacher educator, and drawing on the current research in literature didactics, I planned and carried out six discussions where different reading strategies and methods were used. Using the concept of third space (Gutiérrez, 2008; Skerrett, 2010b) and interpersonal space(Cummins, 2000), I discuss the students’cognitive and emotional responses to the story we shared, and reflect upon the way these discussions have developed. Semi-structured interviews with five students, a teacher, and a school librarian constitute the data for this study. The analysis of the data indicates that the leader of the group discussion is instrumental in helping the participants shift between different perspectives, try out new roles, and transgress different boundaries, thereby offering the group different emotional, cognitive and linguistic challenges.     Keywords: book talks, class room instruction strategies, interpersonal space, third space

”My heart was with Malin”: Mediation and Transformation in Fredrika Bremer’s The Neighbours. This article focuses on a scene in Fredrika Bremer’s 1837 novel, Grannarne (The Neighbours), investigating the relationship between reading aloud and empathy established in this work. It discusses the characters’ varied responses to the shared reading experience, utilising reception theory. In a follow-up discussion, I examine the feasibility of using newer theories concerning narrative empathy. Fritz Breithaupt’s theory is of particular interest since he suggests that second-level observation (and thus placing oneself in another person’s perspective) is central to the experience of empathy. Finally, I consider the emotional responses of the characters in relation to melodrama in Bremer’s work.

Research on multimodal narration in illustrated children´s books and picturebooks have mainly focused on the relations between the text, the illustrations and the book itself as a medium. Relatively few studies discuss the importance of sound in this context. In this article, however, I examine what Irina Rajewsky refers to as a medial configuration presented by an illustrated book for children and an accompanying CD including the narrator's voice, songs and music. Drawing on the concept of aurality and Lars Elleström's model for intermedial analysis, I analyze how text, illustration, and sound mediate a detective story for children: Martin Widmark's and Helena Willis' Schlagersabotören (2012). The concluding discussion combines perspectives from both genre theory and intermediality studies: In which ways can auditory text and non-verbal sound present the young reader with some of the clues needed in a detective story? Two major functions of sound as a medium can be identified. Firstly, non-verbal sound helps the reader distinguish between the different diegetic levels in the story, thereby focusing the locked room so typical of the detective story. Secondly, auditory text and vocal pitch help the reader perceive some of the anger and frustration among the suspects in that room. Sound, together with text and illustration, presents the reader with a mystery, but also with the cognitive tools to solve it.