Book, chapters, articles, other resources

Book

From Tongue to Text​
The connection between childhood and poetry runs deep. Drawing on Walter Ong's theory of orality and on Iain McGilchrist's work on brain function, this book develops a new theoretical framework for the study of children's poetry. Engaging with a wide range of poetry from nursery rhymes and Christina Rossetti to Michael Rosen and Carol Ann Duffy, From Tongue to Text argues that the poem is a multimodal form that exists in the borderlands between the world of experience and the world of language and between orality and literacy – places that children themselves inhabit.

From Tongue to Text: A New Reading of Children's Poetry was published by Bloomsbury Academic (2017)
From reviews
Pullinger returns to the idea of “tactful reading” to argue that children’s poetry is best understood, not through arm’s-length theories, but through methodologies that are grounded in “commitment, immersion, abandonment, trust”

This is an ambitious conclusion to an ambitious study. Its success reflects the author’s broad knowledge of contemporary British poetry as well as her willingness to draw from multiple academic perspectives.
Angela Sorby,  Review, The Lion and The Unicorn, 2018
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From the back cover
From Tongue to Text is that rare thing: a book which marks an important step in critical thinking, and which is readable and accessible, and which above all is original.
Peter Hunt, Professor Emeritus in Children's Literature, Cardiff University, UK.

“This book is a rather thrilling call to take poetry for children seriously – that is, not earnestly, but with an appetite to see its fullest implications. Unafraid to engage with theory, the argument is anything but cerebral. Rather, it leads the mind back to the body, to its play and humour and its tactile wrestling with experience.
Philip Gross, Professor of Creative Writing, University of South Glamorgan

Chapters

Articles

Most article links are to the journal website.
​If you're interested in something you don't have rights to access, ping me a request and I'll send you a copy.

Journals

Text and images © Debbie Pullinger