Journal of Interactive Books: An announcement of a new journal

Earlier this month a new, peer-reviewed journal was launched that has ties to international literatures and to children’s literatures. Called The Journal of Interactive Books, it is an initiative of the Fondazione Tancredi di Barolo in Turin, Italy. The open-access journal is published by the International Centre on Interactive Books. The articles in Volume 1 are published in the language of the respective author’s home country--in this volume Italian and English--with parts of the journal being accessible in both languages.

This project occurs in tandem with ongoing digital displays of movable books, a library, an archive, and a children’s museum at the foundation. They also engage in educational outreach and activism as witnessed by their “Pop-up against the Coronavirus project”, a collaboration with Italian and Chinese movable book makers working with children who were shut in at home.

The website for the journal describes their broad scope with a focus on collaboration within and beyond Italy to promote “studies, research, and conservation activities to safeguard and increase the appreciation of the cultural heritage of animated books of historical, artistic, scientific and didactic value with attention to the most recent and significant experiences in multimedia and art books.”

The first issue (Vol. 1 no. 1) is the proceedings of a virtual international conference held a little over a year ago (February 16-19, 2021) from the home base in Turin. Aptly called “Pop-App”, the conference featured a broad mixture of researchers, curators, conservators and educators working in material and digital interactive media. These ranged from those who study Medieval and incunable movable books, to those who work with children’s movable books from the 17th century to the present day, to those who work in a digital realm for children and adults. The connection to children’s texts and culture is emphasized in the cover image of the volume, featuring a magnificent jack-in-a-box movable book. The journal is actively inviting articles from the broader academic community.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jacqueline Reid-Walsh is an Associate professor in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, at the Pennsylvania State University. She teaches courses on children’s literature and girlhood studies and engages in research on children’s movable books, past and present. Her latest book is called Interactive Books: Playful Media Before Pop-ups (Routledge 2018) and her latest article is called “The Pop-Up against Coronavirus Project: Child-Made Movable Books Evoking Smiles, Tears, and Hope” in Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures (Summer 2021).