Welcome to the web site of GRETEL, the Research Group on Books for Children and Youngsters and Literacy Learning from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona).

GRETEL, led by Dr. Teresa Colomer, began its work as a Research Seminary in 1999 and became a group in 2006. A few years later, it was acknowledged as a “Research Group” by the Generalitat de Catalunya (*2009SGR1477) (2009-2014). The GRETEL team includes lecturers and doctorate students from the Department of Language and Literature Education (Departament de Didàctica de la Llengua i la Literatura), as well as secondary school teachers, and external experts. Our main objective is to study the use of children’s and young adults’ books for literary learning in compulsory education. We work in the following areas:

• The analysis of literary works aimed at children and adolescents in regards to their potential for learning processes of readers in training.
• The analysis of literary works aimed at children and adolescents as a reflection of educational values in post-industrial societies.
• Literary learning in schools projects.
• Electronic literature for children and young adults.
• The relationship between reading habits and school reading programmes.
• The discussion of children’s and young adults’ books in the school context.
• Metafictional learning and the acquisition of literary competence in young readers.

The web site contains information about our group members, research projects, publications, the activities (conferences, courses, congresses, etc.) in which we participate, a section of texts, documents, and articles that may be otherwise difficult to find, in addition to on-line articles, several databases which we are continually creating, and links related to our research areas.

The web page is part of Gretel’s Website, where you can find information on many other aspects of our activities that are not directly linked to research (teacher training, recommendations of children’s books, forums, etc.). You can also access information regarding the MA on Books and Literature for Children and Youngsters of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Banco del Libro de Venezuela, and also information about the online courses about “Escritura literaria para niños” and “Curso en Libros y Literatura Infantil y Juvenil”. Moreover, we also offer an online english course in English called “Children’s Literature from a Global Perspective”. You can also find all the information on the official Master’s course in School Library Content and the Promotion of Reading (Biblioteca Escolar i Promoció de la Lectura) organised jointly by the Universitat Autònoma Barcelona (UAB) and the Universitat de Barcelona (UB).

Below you can see a couple of videos that summarize what we do:

https://vimeo.com/155395238