Reading, writing, playing: children's books for creative writing

This research intends to analyse a sample of seven books for creative writing addressed to an infant audience and published in Spanish. To do that, a qualitative methodology is used, more specifically, a cases study methodology. In the analysis, the paratexts and illustrations have been considered, as well as the objectives, targeted age and the content of the works. The books analysed intend to make children acquainted with the practice of literary creation, which is understood as the offspring of fantasy and play with words, but also as the product of the dialogue with other texts. Most of them intend to foster creativity through enjoyment and play, but they also try to develop literary competence through the production of poetic and narrative texts. Some works combine reading and writing activities, as well as visual and verbal languages. To sum up, it can be stated that these resources provide a methodological option to develop the interest in reading and to introduce children in literary creation.