LETIN UNIPD · Research Project
Reader Response Theory
Reading is a situated act of attention, interpretation and relation. This project studies how young readers encounter texts, images and books in the earliest years of life.
A field of inquiry
What children bring to a text matters.
Reader response research is interested in what readers of all ages bring to texts and how this response affects their reading style and attitude. From the perspective of children’s literature, it involves the observation and recording of the way children respond to their texts in different contexts.
This research project deals with reader response theory applied to literature for toddlers and pre readers. The aim is to present potential paths for studying and analysing both how to promote reading at school and how to conduct academic research.
Research practice
Following the movement of response
The project brings theory into dialogue with the close observation of early reading practices, where response may be spoken, gestural, visual, affective or shared with others.
How do toddlers and pre readers make meaning in shared encounters with books?
Which visual and verbal invitations sustain curiosity, return and dialogue?
How can research document reading as an experience without separating it from its context?
Publications
A research record
Foundational texts remain alongside more recent work on reader address, visual literacy and the literary forms through which childhood is imagined.
Campagnaro, M. Reframing Biography for Children: Historical Roots, Research Trajectories, and Literary Visual Strategies. Strenae, 27.
Campagnaro, M., and Li, C. BIBI Puzzle Cards e Visual Frames. Visual Literacy e ricostruzioni biografiche in gioco. In M. Campagnaro and L. Ferrari (Eds.), BIBI Research Handbook: Biografie e Bioficion d’Infanzia, pp. 97 to 111. Cagli: Settenove S.r.l. ISBN 9791281477155.
Donadello, D. Bambini ed estetica della lettura. Liber, 134, pp. 32 to 34.
Campagnaro, M. L’utile e il dilettevole della Letteratura per l’infanzia 0 to 3 anni. Riflessioni intorno alla literary literacy e alla reader response theory. Dossier NsRicerca, Nuova Secondaria, 7(34), pp. 86 to 104. ISSN 1828 4582.
Campagnaro, M. Questioni epistemologiche e ricerca pedagogica sui libri 0 to 3 anni. Dossier NsRicerca, Nuova Secondaria, 7(34), pp. 66 to 69. ISSN 1828 4582.
Campagnaro, M. These Books Made Me Really Curious: How Visual Exploration Shapes the Young Reader’s Taste. In J. Evans (Ed.), Challenging and Controversial Picturebooks: Creative and Critical Responses to Visual Texts, pp. 121 to 143. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781138797741 and 9781315756912.
Research exchange
Reading inside and beyond school
In March 2025, LETIN UNIPD hosted the tenth New Directions in Children’s Literature Research conference, Rolling Words: Dialogues, Experiences and Reading Practices Inside and Beyond School. Its programme brought reader response theory into conversation with multimodality, historical and comparative study, A/R/topography and educational practice.
From research to reading communities
The conference connected academic inquiry, teaching practices and local contexts, with particular attention to active participation, dialogue and communities of readers.
Research connections
A shared LETIN research environment
Marnie Campagnaro
Her qualitative research on reader response spans primary school, preschool and nursery settings, alongside work on literary, visual and aesthetic literacy. University profile
Chiara Malpezzi
Her 2024 doctoral research examines women’s biographies in Italian children’s literature through historical and ecofeminist perspectives, considering their role in the construction of gendered imaginaries for young readers. Research record
Chang Hasheminezhad Li
His doctoral project investigates hope, uncertainty and child agency in European borderland picturebooks, and uses phenomenographic interviews with educators to examine educational applicability. Research profile
Continue the conversation
Explore the Visual and Aesthetic Literacy and BIBI research projects, or consult the group’s publications.