In this article, the authors analyze four picturebooks about adoption that highlight these experiences of liminality. Children who have been adopted may feel torn between two families and cultures. Children who are adopted must make sense of their lives and identities, residing in a state of in-between-ness. Adoption presents a time of…

This article examines the pedagogical potential of art-based, early critical literacy as a space in which young bilingual children can explore the issues of human diversity and uniqueness. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, this study focused on 12 five-year-old children of Mexican origin at a charter school located in Texas.

African American children's literature is a subcategory of diverse books that has benefited from critical theoretical research as well as historical and contemporary social movements. More recently, activist bloggers and online movements have extended the work of activist librarians and critically conscious educators and parents. These individual…

Research has shown that individuals resettled as refugees are represented as passive victims who are dependent on government aid, and are often associated with trauma (MacDonald, 2015; Shapiro & MacDonald, 2017). This should not undermine the traumatic and difficult experiences that people resettled as refugees undergo, but a focus on such…

An understanding of the importance of nonfiction literature in classroom instruction is not new within the field of education. The recent implementation of the Common Core State Standards (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) has brought an increased policy focus. The Common…

Ideology is embedded in children's books; it is an unavoidable and widespread occurrence (Apol, 1998; Hollindale, 1988/1992). Neutrally described as a vital system of beliefs of any culture, ideology is often examined with regard to its incorporation into plots, character portrayals, and images in literary texts for children. More importantly,…

This article presents how one teacher engages with children's nonfiction professionally for the Common Core State Standards and personally to teach for social justice.