Children's and young adult literature involves dancing, swimming, laughing and crying. It provides information about nutrition and physical changes, explores how to deal with emotions and scrutinises concepts of the body, for example through the depiction of cyborgs. It is not only young adult novels that deal with these topics; children's literature and picture books also often deal with mental and physical change processes such as puberty, illness and old age. - Both children's and young adult literary texts that deal with these aspects are currently booming. But how long have these topics been dealt with in literature for children and young people? Did sports stories or depictions of illness already exist in the 19th century? And if so, how are they portrayed in literature? Do these texts serve to 'educate' or 'enlighten'? Are they aimed at 'training resilience' in children and adolescents?

The Oldenburg Research Centre for Children's and Young Adult Literature is addressing these questions as part of KIBUM 2025 and will be presenting an exhibition entitled "Bücher machen stark? Body and Soul in Children's Books"and will showcase children's and young adult literary texts in this field. How can books help to promote resilience and build inner strength? The exhibition not only asks what children's and young people's books tell us, but in particular how they can move something in us. The exhibition offers the opportunity to have stories read to you at listening stations. A lecture corner invites visitors to read to each other, browse through books themselves and linger together. This year's KIBUM motto takes a complex interplay approach to the topic of resilience. Inner strength is all the more important in view of the current tense world situation, which can make it difficult for children and young people to find their place in this world. The exhibition is aimed at adults who live and work with young people and are interested in the world they live in - and at anyone who was once a child themselves: Students, teachers, lecturers, parents, grandparents, educators and literature enthusiasts. The exhibition will be on display in the foyer of the University of Oldenburg library from 18 November to 16 December 2025 and can be visited free of charge during the library's opening hours. The exhibition was curated by Franziska de Vries and Denise Neumann.

The exhibition will be opened with the symposium "Children's and youth literature as a seismograph of social ideas: Body and Soul". The symposium will take place on 18 November 2025 from 3 to 7.30 pm in the BIS Hall of the University Library and will focus on new publications and historical texts in children's and young adult literature that offer different approaches to body and soul. The potentials inherent in children's and young adult literature texts will be explored from a medical, theological, media and cultural studies perspective. The speakers are Prof. Dr Ines Oldenburg, Prof. Dr Dr Joachim Willems, Dr Sarah Huck and Dr Nils Lehnert. The symposium will be followed by the festive opening of the exhibition. Prof. Dr Yulia Golub, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Oldenburg, will give the keynote speech at 6 pm. No registration is required for the symposium. Please register to attend the exhibition opening: .

Symposium "Children's and youth literature as a seismograph of social perceptions: Body and Soul", BIS Hall of the University Library, 18 November 2025, from 3 to 7 p.m. (no pre-registration required)

14.00
Opening of the symposium

14.15
Prof. Dr Dr Joachim Willems (Oldenburg, Religious Education): What dies? Body, soul and death in children's literature and religious education

3.00 pm
Dr Nils Lehnert (Bremen, Literary Studies): Of breadcrumbs and rivers of honey, eating disorders and hunger - nutrition in children's literature as a reflection of discourses on poverty, health and the body and soul

16.00
Prof. Dr Ines Oldenburg (Oldenburg, Sachunterricht): Body and soul as topics for successful sexual education in primary school

16.45
Dr Sarah Huck (Oldenburg, Philosophy): Philosophising about the passions of the soul with children's books

Exhibition opening "Books make you strong? Body and soul in children's and young adult literature"

18.00
Welcome

18.30
Prof. Dr Dr Yulia Golub (Oldenburg, Director of the University Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy): The world in the mirror of the child's soul: traces of early experiences in the brain and psyche

Exhibition "Body and Soul in Children's Books" in the foyer of the University Library from 5 December 2025 to 16 December 2025 during the opening hours of the library (no pre-registration required)