Re-Enchanting the World. The New Non-Fiction Picturebook

At the start of the new century, and more specifically since 2010, we have witnessed an exponential increase worldwide in the number of non-fiction books for children. Not only has the number of non-fiction publications increased, the books themselves have completely changed in nature compared to the traditional children’s learning books of the past. Increasingly released in the form of a picturebook – very often large format picturebooks – non-fiction publications have recently offered and continue to offer ample space for far-reaching experimentation using a range of original, surprising and previously unthinkable ways of combining transmission of knowledge and artistic research, description of the world and a poetic approach, especially achieved by means of a well-meditated and skilfully designed visual code. This chapter explores the educational, philosophic, and aesthetic implications of this new medium and its potential role in innovative, interdisciplinary, 'dialogical' teaching methods.