Book Riot | 16.07.2026 17:01
Metafiction is a fancy-sounding word for something pretty simple. It’s a literary technique where a writer in a book or story directly references the fictionality of the work. Sometimes, this is referred to as breaking the fourth wall. To be honest, I think metafiction actually works much better in children’s books than it does in adult books. Picture books, especially, are often a collaborative reading experience, with an older reader and younger listeners. To me, the point of a picture book is rarely to get totally swept up and lost in the story.
