The essays in this collection discuss multicultural issues in children's and adolescent literature, focusing particularly on African and African American cultures. They challenge everyone's understanding of what, in an age of globalization, multicultural texts really are. Cumulatively, these essays illustrate multicultural literature's power to educate young readers about the numerous and varied perspectives on their own cultures and roles in society, as well as those of other cultures. The scholarship presented here makes it clear that not only should multicultural literature be integrated within the school curriculum, but that it can be examined to reveal subtle cultural nuances that show how cultures, customs, and people may be at once similar and different. This book begins with "Domestic and International Multiculturalism: Children's Literature about Africans and African Americans," an introduction by Vivian Yenika-Agbaw and Mary Napoli. Three sections follow. Section I, Black Multicultural Literature that Targets Pre-K-3, contains: (1) Fathers Know Best: Traditional Families in Recently Published African American Children's Literature for the Early Grades (Ruth McKoy Lowery); (2) Powerful Words: Celebrating Poetry with Young Children (Mary Napoli); (3) Representing Cultural Identity in Children's Literature: Black Children in Their Communities (Janet Helmberger); (4) Spirituality and Young Children: Literature as a Support for Resilience and Coping (Patricia Crawford); and (5) Sharing Culturally Relevant Literature with Preschool Children and Their Families (April Whatley Bedford and Renee Casbergue). Section II, Black Multicultural Literature that Targets Upper Elementary and Middle Grades: 4-8, contains: (6) "I Want My Mama!": Young Black Adolescents Reading through the Grief (Shanetia Clark and Kimetta Hairston); (7) African American Female Literacies and the Role of Double Dutch in the Lives and Literature for Black Girls (Rachel Grant); (8) Discrimination and Preadolescence: Two Readers' Constructions (Ann Berger-Knorr); (9) Daring to Dream: Characters in Coretta Scott King Author Award-Winning Books and Their Pursuits of the American Dream (Linda T. Parsons and Michele D. Castleman); (10) Representing Black Experiences: Engaging Hearts and Minds with Excellent Nonfiction Literature (Barbara Marinak); and (11) Riddles as Critical Thinking Tools: A Case of African Traditional Oral Literature in the Social Studies Classroom (Lewis Asimeng-Boahene). Section III, Black Multicultural Literature that Targets High School Grades: 9-12, contains: (12) Reading "Black" Poverty in Postcolonial Anglophone Caribbean Young Adult Fiction: Michael Anthony's "The Year in San Fernando" and Cyril Everard Palmer's "The Cloud with the Silver Lining" (Denise Jarrett); (13) Alternative Families in Young Adult Novels: Disrupting the Status Quo (Corinna Crafton); (14) Disability in Africana Adolescent Literature (Vivian Yenika-Agbaw); (15) Lessons on Discrimination: Historical Fiction and the Culture of Struggle (Lauren Lewis); (16) Keeping Hope Alive: Reading and Discussing Adolescent Novels and Modern-Day Miracles (Barbara A. Ward and Deanna Day); and (17) The Exoticizing of African American Children and of Children of Color: Care Work and Critical Literacy (Tamara Lindsey). "Global Literacy: Implications for the Classroom," an afterword by Mary Napoli and Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, and an index are included. A list of African American and Small Multicultural Children's Book Publishers is appended.