Children's literature in the 21st century and social-emotional health

Abstract

This study aims to address the key role of children's and youth literature in activating emotional and mental processes that contribute to achieving children´s mental and emotional well-being. The relevance of emotional health at an early age has not been given much attention. The illustrated book provides tools to the child reader that allow him to develop and understand his
emotional and social skills and stands as an important means to motivate and promote psychological well-being. Using Martin Kaltenbacher´s theory of multimodality (2007) and Santos Zunzunegui's theoretical approach to the concepts of image, colour and language modalities (2010), my analysis will address ethical and emotional elements. Furthermore, adhering to the semantic theory of François Rastier, the concept of sememe in the narrative will be analyzed, as influence of the construction of the narrative. The illustration book ¡Estela, grita muy fuerte! (2008) by Isabel Olid will be used to demonstrate how the use of multimodal resources contributes to the young reader´s developing resources of resilience, denunciation and achieving emotional well-being.