From the Editors

Letters
An Analysis of Settings in Selected European Picture Books
Penni Cotton

India: Children's Lives in Color
Deepa Agarwa

Canadian Picture Books: Shaping and Reflecting National Identity
Joyce Bainbridge and Brenda Wolodko

Authors of Picture Books in Croatia
Ranka Javor

Children's Book Illustrations in Turkey Today (Eight Representative Artists)
Zeynep Bassa and Serpil Ural

Recent Award-Winning Children's Books
Carl M. Tomlinson and Susan M. Stan

Other Voices
A Mother Goose Genealogy
Alice Benthall Saltzman

Regular Features
Focus IBBY
IBBY Jubilee Congress in Basel-Not To Miss! o Indian IBBY Donates Books for Earthquake Victims o IBBY President Attends Thai IBBY Symposium in Bangkok o IBBY Regional Conference in Havana o Read the World-USBBY Regional Conference in San Francisco o Christine Nöstlinger Celebrates Her 65th Birthday

Author Spotlight: Martin Auer
Eva-Maria Metcalf

International Children's Books of Note
Professional Literature
News and Announcements

Dear Bookbird Reader,
This issue of Bookbird offers an international celebration of picture books by exploring the art and form of this type of literature for children. Although texts may create barriers across languages, pictures offer a form of communication with great potential for universal understanding. "Reading" the pictures in a book creates much meaning in terms of plot, setting, character, or theme, even if the words of the text are written in a language outside the reader's experience. Thus, readers of all ages and nationalities have the opportunity to enjoy picture books from many different lands and cultures through the powerful messages of illustration.

Several themes emerge across the articles in this issue. First, recognizing the universality of art in picture books does not mean that all picture books display uniformity in style, content, or form. In fact, descriptions of books from various countries and regions of the world in this issue point out the unique characteristics found in picture books from particular places. For example, Penni Cotton's semiotic text analysis of six picture books from the European Picture Book Collection provides new insights into cultural contexts revealed through picture book illustrations that are distinctive to individual countries yet also identifies unifying themes found across individual works. Similarly, three more articles describe the unique characteristics of picture books from India, Croatia, and Turkey, including important historical perspectives.

A second theme builds on the idea that picture books both reflect a culture and contribute to the ongoing development of culture as argued by Joyce Bainbridge and Brenda Wolodko in their article about Canadian multicultural books. The books they reviewed reflect a myriad of cultures-Aboriginal, French, British, and more recent immigrants-yet, together, contribute to the development of a distinctive Canadian national identity.

A third theme across this issue is the unique history of picture books from various places worldwide, each with specific political and economic challenges. What are the influences of politics, war, and power struggles on children and their books? How do translations affect publication decisions? How can talented new writers and illustrators establish their careers in challenging economic times? This issue of Bookbird is a modest beginning to an ongoing conversation about these issues.

The articles and features in this issue invite readers to consider the important contribution of picture books to children's development as readers, to reader's emerging sense of personal and cultural identity, and to the qualities of their literary lives. There are, also, significant issues to consider regarding the challenges of the publication and translation of picture books, which, if overcome, could allow the role of picture books to increase in the lives of readers worldwide.

The Bookbird Editors:
Evelyn B. Freeman, Barbara A. Lehman, Lilia Ratcheva-Stratieva, Patricia L. Scharer

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