European
Picture 
Book
Collection

• Background to project:
  The EPBC was designed to help pupils to find out more about their European neighbours through reading the visual narratives of carefully chosen picture books. Here you can find out about how the project began, the theoretical papers that have been presented on European children's literature, and how the materials were initially used in schools.
  
• Teachers' Resource Book:
  The EPBC activities focus on the literary, linguistic and cultural aspects of the visual texts and can be downloaded from this website.
  
• EPBC Books:
  Each story has been carefully selected by an expert in the field of children's literature, and activities have been devised for classroom use.
  
• EPBC Video:
  The European Picture Book Collection video shows 3 French teachers using the EPBC picture books in a French Primary school in London. It lasts about 20 minutes and has helpful information for teachers wishing to use European picture books in their classrooms.
  
• Ordering Details:
  If you would like to use the European picture books in your school/Education department, all the information for ordering the EPBC materials can be found here.
  
• Chatline:
  You can chat to teachers in many countries who have used the books in helping their children to understand more about their own national identity whilst gaining a sense of what it means to be European.
  
• EPBC Contacts:
  If you would like to e.mail colleagues who have been involved in the EPBC project, here are their addresses.
  
• Web Site Links:
  This section is currently quite small but we hope it will expand as more children's literature web sites are created.
  
• European School Education Training course (ESET):
  This on-line course is freely available to all. It is designed to help teachers/teacher educators to use the EPBC methodology and has an introduction in more than 20 European languages. The course comprises three modules: Language; Literature; Culture; each of which includes 5 two-hour sessions plus relevant resources. ESET is available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Dutch.
  
• BARFIE Picture Book Collection (BPBC)
  Books And Reading For Intercultural Education is another Comenius funded project which benefits from picture book narratives. Here you will find 12 BARFIE books that use the EPBC methodology.
  
• Catalan Picture Book Collection (CPBC)
  This collection has been developed by students at the Facultat de l'Educació Blaquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona, Spain, as part of a translation project devised by Maria Gonzalez Davies.
  
• The New Zealand Picture Book Collection (NZPBC)
  The purpose of the New Zealand Picture Book Collection, He Kohinga Pukapuka Pikitia o Aotearoa,  is to provide a set of quality New Zealand English picture books reflecting diversity in New Zealand society which can be used in New Zealand classrooms with specially designed, curriculum-linked classroom activities. It is based on the concept of the European Picture Book Collection .
  
• European Picture Book Collection II
  EPBC II ( www.epbcii.org ) is an EU funded, Comenius Multilateral Project, which builds on experiences from the first EPBC collection ( www.ncrcl.ac.uk/epbc ). It makes more than 60 picture books from all 27 EU member states, and the ethnic, linguistic or religious groups within them, available to educators, librarians, students, and scholars. Intercultural dialogue is central in EPBC II, as its users are encouraged to read the diverse visual stories (several of them on-line) by bringing them into a constructive dialogue with each other, and exploring their cultural backgrounds. Participants discuss the various picture books from the collection in a comparative manner, identifying cultural, linguistic, literary, and pictorial similarities and differences, and appreciating the value of diversity.