I libri per l’infanzia: dagli alfabeti ai pop-up

In the paper Children’s Books: from ABCs to Pop-ups, I reconstruct the development of published offerings for pre-schoolers, both in Italy and abroad, across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The rich and varied documentation held at Turin’s school museum allows us to analyse this kind of source at multiple levels: from the graphics (dimensions, colours, and font type) to the messages directed at children and calibrated to their social class; from the blend of realistic and fantastical content to the diverse methods used to present the alphabet and foster both visual and phonic learning; and from the characteristics of illustrations to the relationship between written text and the language of images. It is interesting to observe how, from the early twentieth century onwards, the progressive affirmation of a sentiment of childhood was reflected in the production of books designed to actively engage children in play – one of the most distinctive and spontaneous expressions of the nature of childhood.