AbstractThe purpose of this essay was to study women?s and men?s place in the room, the public room or the private room, in the five best sold picture books written by Astrid Lindgren and the analysis was done with a feministic perspective. A lot of children read Astrid Lindgren?s picture books and therefore this might influence what?s female and masculine. The five best sold picture books written by Astrid Lindgren is: 1) Känner du Pippi Långstrump 2) Den där Emil 3)Visst kan Lotta cykla 4) Nils Karlsson-Pyssling flyttar in 5) Kajsa Kavat hjälper mormor.

Each year a significant number of children?s books, with a wide range of themes, are being published. The relation between children and adults is a common theme. In this study I have analyzed ten children?s books, five from the 1970?s and five from the 2010?s.

This study is based on 26 essays about A Good Book, written by as many participants inSwedish classes in secondary education for adults. The object is to analyse the students'views on fiction and reading: What books they prefer, but also why and how they read.Objectivity and subjectivity in literary criticism is also discussed.Most favoured author both among men and women is Stephen King. The majority of thebooks mentioned are translated from English. The women also read historical and psychological novels while the men prefer fantasy. The question whether a book is goodor not is in the students' opinion only a matter of taste.

AbstractThis essay concerns a qualitative case study seeking to understand six boys? reading habits and to investigate why it is that some boys who do not like reading nevertheless display good reading comprehension according to the results achieved for that skill in national tests. The study shows that the boys? perception of reading has a lot to do with the contact they have with books when they are small. Whether or not there are adult role models in the home and whether the early encounter with texts in school is a positive or negative experience is significant for the boys? later attitude to reading.

This essay is a qualitative content analysis of Flickornas julbok andPojkarnas julbok from 1915/1916 to 1920 and from 1966 to 1970. Mainfocus is the representations of gender that is produced in the books, and howthe ideal of the girl and the ideal of the boy is described.The result shows that the girl is undergoing a change of personality. The idealimage of the girl develops from caring, helpful, compassionate, and diligent,to become independent and brave. The Ideal for the boy in the books, bothfrom the 1910s and 1960s, is described as adventurous, courageous, curious,independent, sensible, strong and loyal. In the 1960s books the girl and theboy are described with similar characteristics, but the girl is also expected tobe cute while boy is expected to be technical and knowledgeable.

This Master's thesis examines some aspects of children's books for 9-12 year olds, and the children's books market, from a gender perspective. The main objective is to make a gender analysis of attitudes among children and other agents in the book market towards children's books of different qualities. Children's reflections on gender roles in the books and the importance of gender aspects for publishers in the field, are investigated. A combination of methods are used, including literary analyses, surveys of publication lists of the BTJ group Bibliotekstjänst interviews with children and questionnaires sent to children as well as to Swedish publishers of children's books. The analysis of children's books clearly shows that images of gender roles vary in different kinds of books which supports theories of gendered literature.

Conversing about books at A-level - a qualitative study on six teachers experience from conversing about books.

AbstractReading books to children is often an integral part in preschool activities. The purpose of thisstudy is to investigate how educators think about the educational function of literature inpreschool activities. I have in my study used qualitative interviews with active educators andobservations to answer my questions about why the educator reads to the children, how theeducator thinks about the choice of literature and if the literature can contribute to thechildrens development and if so, how. The knowledge- and research background presentsliterature and previous research done on the subject. The results of my study shows that theeducators have many thoughts about the importance of literature in preschool.

The aim of this study is to look at censorship and attempted censorship of books about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual (GLBT) people in public libraries in the USA. People from the public can submit formal challenges to a book at the library when they find the material offensive which can lead to those books being taken away from the library shelves. The questions asked are why GLBT- literature is being challenged, and sometimes banned, and how do the libraries deal with the challenges to the books.It is nowadays the people from the public, rather than the government or the librarians that are behind many cases of removal of books with homosexual themes. The study presents some of the fictional GLBT- literature that has been cause for much controversy in the USA. All the five examples mentioned are children?s books concerning GLBT- themes and are among the most challenged books in American libraries in the past twenty years.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to examine how male and female stereotypes are used to describe the characters in modern detective stories for children. We have analyzed six books in the aforementioned genre written for children between the ages of 9 and 12. This essay examines which inner qualities, appearances, activities and professions are used to describe the persons? character in the analyzed books and if these stereotypes agree with the person?s biological sex.

The aim of this study was to investigate how four middle school teachers use and process the contents in read-aloud books, to stimulate the pupils interest in reading and increase reading comprehension. A qualitative approach was used to collect data, through interviews and observations. The findings show that all of the teachers work with read-aloud books regularly. The teachers state that read-aloud books have a positive effect on pupils language, vocabulary, reading comprehension, imagination and ability to reflect. The teachers have three distinctive purposes with read aloud-books, a moment of relaxation, create an interest in books and increase the pupils reading comprehension.

The educational underachievement of children in foster care has been known for a long time. This study aimed to compile and analyze the current knowledge about interventions, intended to improve foster children?s school achievements. The method used was a systematically undertaken narrative review. Despite a comprehensive searching strategy, only ten relevant studies were found, indicating that little has been done to improve the educational outcomes for children in public care.

Background: There have been several reforms within the Swedish educational system since the 1960´s, not only within the elementary school but also within the teachers? education and the school leaders´ educational program.Aim: My aim with this study is to explore if teachers´ expectations and experiences of school leadership have changed since the many educational reforms began in the 1960´s.Method: For this study I have a used a comparative design. By making qualitative interviews with five teachers born in the 1940´s and five teachers born in the 1980´s I have then analyzed the result.Result: Regardless of the 40 years of age difference and the multiple reforms within the educational system in Sweden the result shows that the teachers in this study did not have any clear expectations on their school leaders as they started their careers..

This masters thesis concerns the Public Library Service in Eastern Africa, Tanzania. Our subject was developed through a feasibility study that gave us comprehension that developing countries have individual problems concerning books and libraries. We understood that the main problems were the libraries financial situation and their dependence on aid. We also understood that the libraries do not have the resources to satisfy the society as a whole. The major questions raised in this study are: - How do the regional librarians describe their work situation? -Which role do the Regional Librarians have in society? Data was collected through interviews and observation, and the study is a qualitative case study.

The aim of this master thesis is to obtain a greater understanding of childrens choice of favourite books, insight in their reading experiences and their thoughts about the reading of these books. We also want to investigate if, and if so, how childrens librarians obtain knowledge of the childrens reading preferences and reading experiences and how they use this knowledge in their work to stimulate childrens reading. To reach our aim we have been carrying out quantitative interviews with six children aged nine to ten years and three childrens librarians working in public libraries. As a theoretical starting point we use the reader-oriented theory and Chambers Reading circle, which states that support from adults is the most important factor in the childs reading process. The empirical results are linked to theories and earlier research and are analysed under four different themes.