Fiction and non-fiction for children: The experience of popularising geographical knowledge

Abstract

The importance of geographical knowledge in the modern world can hardly be overestimated: a modern individual uses electronic navigation systems, designs travel routes, and takes an interest in the natural and cultural environment of other countries. The article provides an overview of contemporary children’s fiction and non-fiction, which enables students to acquire geographical knowledge. The relevance of the article lies in the fact that the authors investigate the genres which have received little attention in other studies, and the sources which are not included in the school curriculum. The research covers children’s detective stories, radio broadcasts, and popular science periodicals, as well as “graphic literature”, or comics. Closest attention was devoted to the authors in whose works the geographic component is most pronounced. They are: the author of a children’s detective series Steve Stevenson, artists and screenwriters Karl Barks and Don Rosa, who created adventure comics featuring Disney cartoon characters, as well as Clement Kreps and Vladimir Mintz, the scriptwriters of the children’s radio program “Famous Captains Club”, who subjected the scripts of individual programs to literary processing. In addition, the article offers an overview of popular science magazines published in Russia. Among them are the domestic periodicals “Around the World”, “Global Pathfinder”, “Young Naturalist”, the annuals “Globe” and “Earth and People: Geographical Calendar”. In addition to Russian periodical sources, attention is also devoted to international periodicals published in Russian: “GEO”, “GEOlenok”, “National Geographic. Russia”, “National Geographic. Traveller”, and “National Geographic. Young Traveller”, “Discovery” and thematic collections of the Italian publishing house DeAgostini. The authors analyse how well geographical information is presented in these sources, and what age groups are targeted. The authors conclude that these publications contribute to the expansion of children’s outlook in general and of their geographical knowledge in particular, and they can be recommended as additional reading on geography.