The article attempts to reread the canonical work of Polish children’s literature. It perceives its protagonist, Koziołek Matołek, as a sage and insightful observer of the world, whose disguise of a fool allows him to distance himself from it. Hence, Przygody Koziołka Matołka [The Adventures of Matołek the Billy‑goat] might also serve didactic purposes when it comes to the young readers in the 21st century; these might learn from it how to laugh at themselves or dissociate from problems, which are indispensable qualities regardless of the times we live in.

The text raises the question of movement as a crucial category in the process of a child’s literary reception. The article reflects on the kinetic aspects of a text and a reader as well as on the perspective of a child’s subjective reception as dependent on personal predispositions of a child‑recipient. The author is interested in the intersections of the components of a literary work and the capabilities of a child‑recipient, that is, in the phenomenon called “reader response.” Referring to achievements of developmental psychology, the researcher introduces the figure of a child reader. Next, on the example of Jan Brzechwa’s poem “Stonoga,” she presents its mobility in language, pointing to the existence of “dynamic images,” created in a recipient’s imagination. In this way, she indicates the kinesthetic value of children’s literature.

The author of the paper explores two dichotomous phenomena — boredom and entertainment — in Polish prose for children from the period of PRL, basing on the adventure novels written by Edmund Niziurski in the 1960s: Awanturza w Niekłaju (1962) and Siódme wtajemniczenie (1969). Both notions are discussed from the perspective of ethnography, anthropology, and the history of childhood. Referring to Roger Caillois’s concepts of play and games, the researcher analyses the images of transformation of entertainment behaviours as presented by young characters from Niziurski’s novels, and links between the text and social and political reality in Poland of the 1960s. Her findings indicate that, in his writing of this period, Niziurski both withdrew from socrealistic poetics and abandoned the ideological, persuasive function of entertainment for the sake of uninhibited, spontaneous children’s games and play.

This chapter consists of two parts: theoretical background and case studies. It aims at presenting children’s fantasies or mental images (be it verbal or iconic) of paidia as a word. The first part is dedicated to the investigations into children’s imagination, stages of its development, and factors that affect it. The other part analyses the works of 51 pupils who were supposed to draw “a paidia” and reads the ways they both concretised it on the pictures and described them.

The correct pronunciation of [č] sound is one of the most difficult problems in articulation that arises in the last period of speech development among children. Be it nursery rhymes or other rhymed texts, the orthophonic games and activities supposed to evoke this sound and develop articulation include the words of fairy‑tale origins; not only do they contain and exercise the aforementioned sound, but also they point to the theme that is liked and highly regarded by children. In addition to the brief analysis of this issue, the chapter presents some of the games and activities that might facilitate acquisition and processing of the correct pronunciation of the aforementioned “magical” sound.

The interview is devoted to the artistic work of Za Królestwo i Pół Córki [For the Kingdom and a Half of the Daughter], a children’s theatre founded in Żory by Beata Kupisz. It discusses the children’s theatre and education, didactic and pedagogic aspects of a children’s theatre, and work with children actors belonging to the theatre group. Moreover, Kupisz shares her own ideas concerning directing and scenography, inspiring such artistic activities that include and engage children.

This short study embraces both the first sprouts of the written Macedonian literature for children (somewhere around the second part of the 19th century), and the literary production which happens after the establishment of the contemporary Macedonian language, that is, after the 1945. Still, the main accent is on two newer books: Verses also Grow (И строфите растат) by Alexandar Kujundziski and Jump and Skip (Скокни прескокни) by Vasil Mukaetov which is a part of the refreshed reading list as an optional book for the Macedonian language lessons in the primary schools in Macedonia. Both authors put an emphasis exactly on a child’s sensitivity and such issues as character growth and maturation. In their books, they transfer the reader from childhood to adulthood unnoticeably and lightly. Their message is to help the little human in the complex process of his or her own comprehension and to show him or her that he or she are not alone in this process.

This short study embraces both the first sprouts of the written Macedonian literature for children (somewhere around the second part of the 19th century), and the literary production which happens after the establishment of the contemporary Macedonian language, that is, after the 1945. Still, the main accent is on two newer books: Verses also Grow (И строфите растат) by Alexandar Kujundziski and Jump and Skip (Скокни прескокни) by Vasil Mukaetov which is a part of the refreshed reading list as an optional book for the Macedonian language lessons in the primary schools in Macedonia. Both authors put an emphasis exactly on a child’s sensitivity and such issues as character growth and maturation. In their books, they transfer the reader from childhood to adulthood unnoticeably and lightly. Their message is to help the little human in the complex process of his or her own comprehension and to show him or her that he or she are not alone in this process.

The aim of this paper is to bring a set of specific semantic features which profile both a pupil and a pupil’s perception of a teacher. This issue is manifested at several levels and in various aspects of the concept of SEEING in Slovak linguistic world view. The study seeks to examine this subject in view of the statements collected in the questionnaire survey conducted on 10—14‑year‑old high school students. Therefore, the author focuses on the adolescent pupil, his or her perception of the school environment, and the selection of perceived object properties.

Oleś i Pani Róża by Anna Janko is a postmemorial narrative for the youngest. The trajectory of the fate of a several‑year‑old hero is a literary realisation of the course of dramatic events connected with displacement, separation from parents, the stay in a temporary camp in Zwierzyniec, an orphanage, and the potential danger of not only Germanisation but also death. Thus, the title character becomes a figure of the fate of Children of Zamojszczyzna (Zamość region); in some way he represents them. The piece is also an expression of the homage paid to Róża and Jan Tomasz Zamoyski in recognition of their merits for saving actions for the youngest inhabitants of Zamojszczyzna. Janko’s work is based on family transmission, that is, on inheriting the experience of great‑grandfather (former Oleś) by his great‑granddaughter Róża (namesake of Róża Zamoyska). The narrative touches upon a subject that until recently was considered a taboo, introducing Polish expressions that accentuate the category of “Children of Zamość region” — a toponymic, tragic, negative distinction of the age group, region, and history. One can see character‑related or constructional parallels between the work of Anna Janko and the novel by Éric‑Emmanuel Schmitt — Oskar i Pani Róża (Oscar and the Lady in Pink), which is also intertextually indicated by the very title: Oleś i Pani Róża.

The text analyses the Harry Potter series by Joanne Rowling from the perspective of eugenics and the ideology of National Socialism. What is indicated and examined are the statements or attitudes of heroes that may be considered part of the Nazi discourse, implemented in the novel by the author. The aim of the paper is to show that this cycle may be a pretext for teachers to initiate the discussion on eugenics, Nazism, as well as broadly understood ideology.

The article focuses on Ten i tamten las [This and That Forest] by Magdalena Tulli, which is another recent example of a book addressed to children, whose sender is a distinguished author of adult literature. The interpretation of the text reveals the adult problems and emotions faced by its animal heroes, subtly hidden behind the adventurous layer of the work. Consequently, the reader receives a book that defies the traditional division into children’s literature and adult literature: a book that requires not so much the right metrics as sensitivity.