The red elephant
The Red Elephant is a book recommendation list that refers to works of children's and youth literature. It has been published once a year since 1993 by members and friends of the Association for the Promotion of Children's and Youth Literature (eV) based in Berlin .
The printed edition appears annually in the autumn at the Frankfurt Book Fair and can be obtained as a single edition or by subscription. The database of the same name has been online since February 2019.
history
The recommendation list Der Rote Elefant was first published in 1976 by the Internationalismus Verlag in Hanover . It was published by the nationwide association of the same name, in which scientists, publishers, authors, illustrators, educators, librarians and critics had come together in connection with the 1968 movement . The founding members included Malte Dahrendorf , Johannes Merkel and Dieter Richter . The aim of the association was to fight for an educational "political culture for children". In addition to the organization of conferences and the edition of the magazine “Kinder-Bücher-Medien”, the association also gave the critical recommendation listThe red elephant out. In the first few years, books on topics such as colonialism, National Socialism and traditional gender roles were reviewed.
After the reunification of Germany , the association disbanded in 1992 and the then board of directors asked the Association for the Promotion of Children's and Youth Literature (eV) to continue the list of recommendations.
content
Every year, employees of LesArt and other specialists sift through picture, children's and youth books from the autumn production of the previous year and the spring production of the year of publication. Decisive for each recommendation are socially relevant topics, aesthetic quality and importance for the development of children and young people, especially with regard to reading and literary socialization.
The addressees of the list of recommendations are literature mediators in the broadest sense.