Raccontare la storia. Percorsi e poetiche attraverso la letteratura per l’infanzia

Teaching history to children is a practice of fundamental importance not only for the transmission of historical knowledge, from which collective memory is constructed, but also for the formation of active and informed members of contemporary society. Representations of history in fact contribute to the development of a historical imagination and to the growth of a child’s awareness of our own ‘historicity’ and visions for the future. Among the tools for transmitting knowledge that have multiplied in the past century – and ever more in recent years, including through numerous Public History initiatives – it seems to us that verbal-visual narratives like picture books can be excellent means of developing historical knowledge in different contexts, privileging the practices and experiences of young citizens outside of school. The literary offerings indicated here reflect educational opportunities provided by a children’s publishing industry that is ever more attentive to the formal, textual, and iconographic quality of the book; nonetheless, they represent a methodologically efficient tool to teach history through the pleasure of reading.