”Tänk om Egon tar min cykel”

Concentrating on Doris drar (Doris Leaves, 2015), Pudlar och pommes (Poodles and Fries, 2016), and Vitvivan och Gullsippan (Vitvivan and Gullsippan, 2021), this article explores how Pija Lindenbaum utilizes the artistic possibilities of the picturebook medium to communicate with the child reader. Following James Phelan, my investigation goes beyond a static and universal understanding of narratives to seeing them as context-determined and composed in relation to a rhetorical audience. Mike Cadden points out that this rhetorical turn is particularly striking when it comes to children’s literature, as the targeted reader by definition is a child and narratives for children often use specific strategies for more or less well-defined purposes. Taking my cue from rhetorical approaches to literature, I argue that a focus on plots and conflicts enhances our understanding of reading as ethical meaning-making. Conflicts in modern children’s literature are regularly perceived from the child’s point of view in ways that are essential for the transaction of meaning. In my terminology, the conflict constitutes an aesthetic-pedagogical node connecting the reader with the evaluative perspective of the narrative. Addressing the dynamics between text, image, and medium in Lindenbaum’s picturebooks, this article argues that plots and conflicts are pivotal for the reader’s involvement, directing interest and emotional engagement. The plot not only invites the reader to the fictional world, but it also stimulates a context-bound meaning-making involving thoughts, feelings, and values.