Building Citizens: The Patriotic Child

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Cover of Ganesha the Remover of all Obstacles

By Anant Pai,  H. G. Mirchandani for India Book House Education Trust, 1982-1983

In new nations and those undergoing radical transition, books for young people become unifying civic tools. In his ubiquitous spellers, Noah Webster introduced a distinctly American English language—freed from what he described as the clamor of British aristocratic affectation—to generations of the young republic's schoolchildren.

Revolutionary Russia's state-run publishers enlisted artists and writers to create picture books that embellished guideposts of good civic behavior with aesthetic delight. The long-smoldering Irish republican independence movement sparked a revival of interest in Irish fairy tales, in which the poets William Butler Yeats and James Stephens played leading roles.

Paperbacks in comic-book format proved wildly effective in familiarizing Occupation-era Japanese children with Western cultural ideals and postcolonial India's youth with their nation's labyrinthine cultural heritage. Currently, postcolonial French West Africa is in the early stages of a process that Webster would have recognized: the effort to craft authentically African children's books that, as the Cameroon-born artist Christian Épanya has said, "speak" to African children.


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Title page of The American Spelling Book

By Noah Webster, Columbia University, facsimile 1962

The American Spelling Book

Noah Webster

Originally published 1793

1962

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Cover of Irish Fairy Tales

By James Stephens, McMillian and Co., 1968

Irish Fairy Tales

Written by James Stephens

Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

1920

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Cover of Topotun i Knizhka

By Il'ia Ionov, Gosizdat, 1926

Topotun i knizhka

Written by Il'ia Lonov

Illustrated by Mikhail Tsekhanoveskii

1926

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Cover of T'Sirk

By Samuil Marshak, Raduga, 1928

T'sirk

Written by Samuil Marshak

Illustrated by Vladimir Lebedev

1928

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Cover of Daniel Boone

By Esther Averill, Domino Press, 1931

Daniel Boone (French Edition)

Written by Esther Averill

Illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky

1931

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Cover of In My Mother's House

By Anne Nolan Clark, Viking Press, 1941

In My Mother's House

Written by Anne Nolan Clark

Illustrated by Velino Herrera

1941

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Cover of La Calle es Libre

By Kurusa, Ediciones Ekare, 1981

La Calle es Libre

Written by Kurusa

Illustrated by Monika Doppert

1981

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Cover of Krishna Retold from the Bhagawat Puran

By Anant Pai, H.G. Mirchandani for India Book House Education Trust, 1982-1983

Amar chitra katha

Series created by Anant Pai

1982

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Cover of The Bicycle Man

By Allen Say, Parnassus, 1982

The Bicycle Man

Written and Illustrated by Allen Say

1982

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Cover of Le Taxi-Brousse de Papa Diop

By Christian Épanya,  Syros, 2005

Le Taxi-brousse de Papa Diop (Papa Diop's Taxi)

Written and Illustrated by Christian Epanya

2005

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Cover of Feng Zikai ji

By Feng Zikai, Dong fang chu ban she, 2008

Feng Zikai ji

Written and Illustrated by Feng Zikai

2008

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Cover of Tsunami

By Joydeb and Moyna Chitrakar, Tara Books, 2011

Tsunami

Written and Illustrated by Joydeb and Moyna Chitrakar

2011

Visions of Childhood
Building Citizens: The Patriotic Child