This proposal builds on an established line of research, grounded in previously funded and successfully completed projects: LIJACE (2019), LIJACE ALB (2021) and LIJACE ILU (2023). The main aim of the present project is to deepen the study of the picturebook as a key aesthetic and cultural product in the processes of enculturation of new generations, revealing the internal and external mechanisms that shape its message and its canon.

The picturebook is conceived as a total aesthetic product in which text, illustration and format interact dialectically to construct meaning (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2013; Sipe, 1998). Starting from this theoretical basis, three interdependent lines of research are proposed to address its complexity.

• Paratext and integral aesthetics in the picturebook. This line focuses on the analysis of the paratextual elements (Cantavella and López, 2025) that modulate reception, paying particular attention to the book’s front cover. Historically understudied in comparison with other elements such as endpapers, the cover operates as a fundamental semiotic threshold. The analysis will aim to determine how this paratextual component contributes to shaping the total message and to anticipating the cultural and aesthetic content of the picturebook.

• Linguistic analysis of picturebooks in English. The study will address the linguistic characteristics of the picturebook text, focusing on vocabulary and textual complexity. To extend the framework of analysis beyond children’s literature in Spanish, the work will draw on an English-language corpus compiled from the highest-rated and most widely circulated titles on social reading platforms. This approach will allow for a comparative view and a better understanding of the textual properties that determine reception and success in today’s educational community (Larragueta and Ceballos-Viro, 2018).

• Canon, publishing awards and jury profile. This third line focuses on the mechanisms through which the current canon of children’s and young adult literature is formed, with a particular eye to the influence of publishing awards (Larragueta et al., 2025). A sociological and discursive study is proposed that delves into the roles and profiles of the jury members who grant these awards. The aim is to identify the underlying aesthetic, pedagogical and cultural ideologies that influence the selection of works, making it possible to understand the cultural industry’s own view of childhood and its literature.