Diss. Linköping : Univ., 2004.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate how children use picture books in the everyday practices in the Swedish pre-school. More specifically, I want to study the use of picture books based on the child's interaction with the book. How does the dialogic process between the child and the picture book proceed? How is the peer group used in book practices? What draws children to certain books - as favorites of the individual or of the group? How do they use the pictures in the books? What do they do when on their own with books and how does this usage differ from teacher-initiated activities with the books? By focusing on the 3- to 5-year-old children's book interactions, the study contributes to our understanding of how children use picture books for their identity work. A basic assumption is to see children as social agentswho influence and are influenced by the world they live in. The empirical data comprises over 35 hours video recorded interactions. Episodes of child initiated book practices were transcribed in detail, and the theory of subject positioning was applied for its analysis. The study shows that children in their picture book activities, in the every day peer-group interactions, use the books as a contact surface between them. In addition they use the book arenas for negotiations of subjectpositions, where they position themselves or are positioned as powerful or powerless persons. Children employ a rich repertoire of strategies (verbal and nonverbal) for excluding and including themselves and others in ongoing book activities. The empirical material show clearly that the pictures constitute an 'idea box' for children, from which they can take inspiration or use as tools in activities such as play, fantasy, and conversation. We can see that preschool children also produce and negotiate the meaning of the pictures. In some cases, the children use all of the pictures while in others they use only isolated pictures that are pulled out of their context and "take on a life of their own." The children use the pictures in several different ways: as a play arena for their games and activities; as props for play in progress; as markers of positions in their play; and as pictures for creating stories. Children actively use picture books in their day-to-day lives at the educational institution. Through this use, children create meaning for the cultural content of the books by testing subject positions that the pictures offer. In their use of picture books, it becomes apparent that children are competent to use and discover books on their own and sometimes need to share the experience with other children and with adults. Through the use of picture books, the children acquire experience of books and use them to create meaning; that is, they create a sort of children's cultural competence for themselves.