Sandra Beckett – författare

First Published in 2002. Transcending Boundaries is an autobiography tracing the multifaceted and wide­ranging career of choreographer. director, performer and professor of dance Donald McKayle. His chance meeting with the legendary Bill Robinson, who obligingly responded to the entreaties of an adoring nine-year-old and executed an impromptu version of his infectious stair tap-dance, and an electric encounter as a teenager sitting in a darkened theatre witnessing a performance by concert artist Pearl Primus, are key early experiences which bring about McKayle's life in dance, theatre, film, television, entertainment and education. He learned at the feet of the masters, trained and developed some of the profession's top practitioners, and worked in theatres and studios around the world -on Broadway, in Hollywood -creating a repertoire of acclaimed masterworks. He experienced failure, success, love, marriage and family. Readers will find his autobiography a revelation in an ongoing and still evolving story.

This book situates the picturebook genre within the widespread international phenomenon of crossover literature, examining an international corpus of picturebooks — including artists’ books, wordless picturebooks, and celebrity picturebooks — that appeal to readers of all ages. Focusing on contemporary picturebooks, Sandra Beckett shows that the picturebook has traditionally been seen as a children’s genre, but in the eyes of many authors, illustrators, and publishers, it is a narrative form that can address any and all age groups. Innovative graphics and formats as well as the creative, often complex dialogue between text and image provide multiple levels of meaning and invite readers of all ages to consider texts that are primarily marketed as children’s books. The interplay of text and image that distinguishes the picturebook from other forms of fiction and makes it a unique art form also makes it the ultimate crossover genre. Crossover picturebooks are often very complex texts that are challenging for adults as well as children. Many are characterized by difficult "adult" themes, genre blending, metafictive discourse, intertextuality, sophisticated graphics, and complex text-image interplay. Exciting experiments with new formats and techniques, as well as novel interactions with new media and technologies have made the picturebook one of the most vibrant and innovative contemporary literary genres, one that seems to know no boundaries. Crossover Picturebooks is a valuable addition to the study of a genre that is gaining increasing recognition and appreciation, and contributes significantly to the field of children’s literature as a whole.

Sandra Beckett's book explores the contemporary retellingof the Red Riding Hood tale in Western children's literature.

This book situates the picturebook genre within the widespread international phenomenon of crossover literature, examining an international corpus of picturebooks — including artists’ books, wordless picturebooks, and celebrity picturebooks — that appeal to readers of all ages. Focusing on contemporary picturebooks, Sandra Beckett shows that the picturebook has traditionally been seen as a children’s genre, but in the eyes of many authors, illustrators, and publishers, it is a narrative form that can address any and all age groups. Innovative graphics and formats as well as the creative, often complex dialogue between text and image provide multiple levels of meaning and invite readers of all ages to consider texts that are primarily marketed as children’s books. The interplay of text and image that distinguishes the picturebook from other forms of fiction and makes it a unique art form also makes it the ultimate crossover genre. Crossover picturebooks are often very complex texts that are challenging for adults as well as children. Many are characterized by difficult "adult" themes, genre blending, metafictive discourse, intertextuality, sophisticated graphics, and complex text-image interplay. Exciting experiments with new formats and techniques, as well as novel interactions with new media and technologies have made the picturebook one of the most vibrant and innovative contemporary literary genres, one that seems to know no boundaries. Crossover Picturebooks is a valuable addition to the study of a genre that is gaining increasing recognition and appreciation, and contributes significantly to the field of children’s literature as a whole.

Building on several years of research that included an examination of children's literature texts in 140 languages, Sandra Beckett introduces the retelling of the Red Riding Hood story in the general context of fairy tale intertextuality, a topic that has received very little attention in children's literature sespite its widespread application to adult literature. She demonstartes the ways in which the story has been internationally appropriated in contemporary texts and chooses representative retold stories from different languages and genres to examine a particular mode of motif in retellings of this classic tale. Ending the book with an analysis of Red Riding Hood in poular culture, Beckett summarizes the last 300 years in fairytale intertextuality and makes predictions about the future of this classic tale in the context of new media.