Re-dressing books with meanings: An analysis of dust jackets in children’s literature

Abstract

In relation with the increasing importance of peritexts in illustrated children's books, which are object of a growing attention by illustrators and graphic designers, the purpose of this text is to analyse the dust cover or dust jacket of children’s books. Although the presence of dust covers is not very frequent, when it is used, this peritexts have importance in the reading process, clearly exceeding their more traditional functionality, linked to the protection and coating of the book. Functioning as a very autonomous element, the dust cover does not repeat the information of the cover, but can establish a productive dialogue with it, proceeding with its cover-up / disclosure for narrative purposes, commentary and even parody. From a corpus of illustrated books originating from different cultural and linguistic contexts, we intend to reflect on the particularities and implications of this peritext, thus contributing to the reflection on the relevance of the materiality of the object book.