About Janet

Janet Evans PhD., MA., M Ed., B Ed., Dip Maths Ed., Dip Science Ed., CELTA

Dr. Janet Evans is an Independent Scholar, Freelance Literacy and Educational Consultant, and former Senior Lecturer in Education at Liverpool Hope University.  Previously an Early Years and primary school teacher, she completed a two-year secondment as Literacy Consultant with The National Literacy Strategy from 1998 to 2000.

Janet has taught in India, Nigeria, Australia, America, Canada, Chile and Spain and was awarded two research scholarships, which enabled her to work and study in the USA. She has presented keynote speeches and papers at many international conferences along with organising and teaching on numerous in-service conferences. She has written ten books on children’s literature, literacy and maths education along with many articles on literacy and mathematics education and chapters in edited books.

Her first two academic books, What’s in the Picture: Responding to Illustrations in Picture Books published in 1998 by Sage and The Writing Classroom: Aspects of Writing and the Primary Child 3-11 Years published in 2001 by Routledge (England) and Heinemann (USA), reflect her research interests of children’s literature, reader response and literature circles, along with her interest in children as writers. Her third academic book, Literacy Moves On: Using Popular Culture, New Technologies and Critical Literacy in the Primary Classroom published in 2005 by Routledge (England) and Heinemann (USA), looks at the changing nature of literacy in the 21st century. Janet’s fourth book, Talking Beyond the Page: Reading and Responding to Picturebooks focuses on how we can encourage children to respond to picturebooks and was published in spring 2009 by Routledge.

Janet’s latest book Challenging and Controversial Picturebooks: Creative and Critical Responses to Visual Texts, was published by Routledge who made Janet their Author of the Month in June 2015.

In 2010 she was awarded a research scholarship to study at the International Youth Library in Munich where she researched challenging and controversial picturebooks. Janet’s current research interests include children’s responses to picturebooks which reflect some of the socio-economic, political and philosophical issues in our rapidly changing international society, and to wordless picturebooks.