When the global pandemic propelled the world into lockdown, artists of all kinds--musicians, writers, poets, painters, and dancers--began sharing art and their artistic processes from their homes and studios. This included children's book authors and illustrators who sought out new ways to maintain connections virtually with young readers…

Educators and librarians have a responsibility to capture the transnational border-crossing experiences of all students, including children of the African diaspora. Narratives of African diaspora border crossings disrupt stories of linear migration. These stories feature histories of displacement, trauma, and unbelonging. And yet, they embrace…

The disproportionate impact of environmental degradation on First Nations peoples and on other communities of color is not new. Indigenous peoples, Black people, and other marginalized communities experience the consequences of environmental degradation disproportionately (Taylor, 2014; Washington, 2019), telling us that environmental justice and…

The Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) Master Class in the Teaching of Children's Literature session, currently in its 26th year, provides opportunities for those who teach in university settings to share experiences related to teaching children's literature in the university and discuss contemporary trends and issues in the field of children's…

Poets Laura Purdie Salas and Janet Wong have known each other for several years, but mostly in an online, task-driven environment, for example, serving on the board of the Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) and cochairing the 2014 CLA Master Class on Poetry Across the Curriculum (Salas et al., 2015). They strengthened their bond by interviewing…

This article proposes the "badge of complexity"--a model that embodies the arguments for and against Holocaust stories for children--followed by a poetic and thematic mapping of Israeli Holocaust literature for young children.

When selecting and evaluating historical children's literature, there are many questions that must be considered. For example, who will be reading the book? Is the imagined young reader of these historical stories a White, middle class cisgender heterosexual, able-bodied student who was born in the United States, or are child readers from all…

Christopher Myers won acclaim at a young age as a vibrant illustrator of children's picturebooks. In this interview, Myers discusses how he has advocated for diversity in children's literature through themes that weave throughout his writing and illustration, collaborations with other artists, and his participation in the communities of artists,…

For the author's final Master Teacher article, she wishes to pay tribute to a scholar whose work in the field of children's literature has inspired her for years. Throughout her long and distinguished career, Rudine Sims Bishop, professor emerita from The Ohio State University, has shared extensive knowledge and numerous insights on issues related…

Books provide an opportunity through which children can learn what it means to be in the world and to respond flexibly and creatively to a diverse range of situations. Author/illustrator Kadir Nelson creates books that provide these opportunities for readers of all ages. A dominant theme in current conversations surrounding children's literature…

Apps are no longer technical innovation but rather a cultural phenomenon that touches upon potentially every aspect of daily life in Western culture (Stichnothe, 2014, p.198). In this article, Colleen O'Connell, the director for digital books at HarperCollins, is interviewed about the background of book apps and their potential for teaching and…

Like other multimodal texts, the design, publication, and delivery of contemporary picture-books have been impacted by the digital revolution and the affordances of digital reading devices. Print-based picture-books are being published alongside digital narratives, and new digital picture-books are being created that no long begin as print-based…

On the 40th anniversary of the Children's Literature Assembly (CLA), it seemed appropriate to document and reflect on where the assembly has been, and to discover how the organization that is so valued has evolved. Knowing the history is helpful for framing the future, not only of the organization but also of the field of children's literature. It…

As readers, we often seek out books that will help us find our way or will provide us with new insights. We select books for classrooms and children based on their interests, questions, and life situations. With this in mind, the selections this year are organized around the theme of searching. We search for peace around the world, among our own…

When teachers work with students to construct a metalanguage that they can draw on to describe and analyze graphic novels, and then invite students to apply that metalanguage in the service of composing multimodal texts of their own, teachers broaden students' analytical frameworks. In the process of doing so, teachers empower students. In this…