We invite you to submit contributions to the 7th issue of Paidia and Literature, titled “Influences/currents. Rivers and Other Waters in Children's and Young Adult Literature.”
The river, as a symbol of water, has great imaginative power, serving both as a literary motif and an educational element. In the context of children's and young adult literature, it can serve various functions – from a place of adventure, to a space for reflection on nature, to a metaphor for emotions or a symbol of transformation. Especially today, the river, representing the element of water, plays a crucial role in shaping the environmental and climate awareness of young readers.

The aim of this issue is to engage in an aquacritical reflection on the presence of rivers and other waters in children's and young adult literature. We wish to draw attention to the diversity of ways rivers are portrayed, their role in shaping the imagination of young readers, and their significance in the process of education, particularly regarding climate and the environment.

We are interested in the following topics:
• The river as a motif in literary texts and cultural texts addressed to children and young adults
• Rivers of childhood – myth, topoi, imagination
• The liminality, transgression, and boundary aspects of rivers
• The new humanistic reading of rivers – renewing meanings
• Aquacritical perspective in reading
• The river as a convergence of the human and the non-human
• Emptiness, absence – rivers that are no longer there
• Rivers in the context of the environmental and climate crisis
• Relationships with rivers – adventures, challenges, changes, fears, anxieties, hopes
• New stories about rivers
• Non-fiction literature for young readers about rivers/water
• Interdisciplinary reading of the river
• The linguistic representation of rivers; hydronymy and river phraseology in children's literature
• Rivers and other waters in the education of both humanities and non-humanities subjects
• How to read the river/water – methods of working with rivers/water in education
• The river as a challenge for (humanities) field education
• The river as a space for therapy

The list of proposed topics is not exhaustive and remains open to alternative approaches related to rivers and other waters.

We are accepting articles until April 30, 2025.