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Offers new insights into the continuing influence of postmodernism on a wide range of international picture books for children published between 1963 and 2008. Its chapters include metafiction; disruption to narrative conventions; interrogation of ´truths´; historiographic metafiction; difference and ex-centricity; globalisation and media.

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Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: Looking Back Looking Beneath the Surface Destabilising Modes of Representation Disturbing the Air of Reality Interrogating Representations of the Past Problematising Unity through Ex-centricity and Difference Towards the Postmodernesque Picturebook (In)Conclusion: Looking Forward Notes References Index

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´Playing with Picturebooks is a valuable and timely interrogation of its subject, whether for those requiring an introduction to a fascinating topic, or for those who want to consolidate existing knowledge.´ - Valerie Coghlan, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children´s Literature

´This study focusses in an innovative and resourceful way on the theoretical foundations needed to understand trends in recent picturebook production and on the modifications of the genre in general. The study is of high significance in the field of children´s literature research and will benefit not only academics in the field of children´s literature, but also teachers and students, whether to introduce them to the topic, or to give a fresh perspective and encourage further debate.´ - Mateja Latin & Dina Alexandra Pavkovic, Libri & Liberi

´...Allan accomplishes that wonderful and increasingly rare feat in contemporary criticism: she describes, analyses, and explains how picturebooks interact with aspects of contemporary culture without taking an advocacy or an oppositional position.´ - Karen Coates, Children´s Literature

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CHERIE ALLAN is a Lecturer in Children´s Literature at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She has also worked on a number of research projects for AustLit: the Australian Literature Resource and is affiliated with the Children and Youth Research Centre at QUT.

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