Nationally, one in 100 adults is currently incarcerated. Meanwhile, more than 2.7 million U.S. children--or one in 28 children (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2010)--currently have a parent who is incarcerated, and many more U.S. children face the daily effects of familial incarceration due to past parental incarceration or the incarceration of other…

Recently, an awareness of the value of representation has demanded an expanded canon of texts that includes those concerning children with illnesses. Research shows that reading such texts to children with illnesses or disabilities has proven validating, comforting, and helpful in the development of a positive self-image (Goddard, 2011). This…

Children's books work to balance many opposing forces. For instance, they are simultaneously written to be read aloud as well as independently and are written for children as well as the adults who purchase and often read them (Nodelman, 2008). Children's books also attempt to impart ideas while avoiding being overtly didactic (Hunt, 1999), yet…

A limited number of studies have examined Asian American children's literature over the last half century. While the selection and availability of this literature has increased substantially in the last two decades, many of these texts continue to perpetuate stereotypes (Morgan, 2012), such as the overachieving model minority (Loh-Hagen, 2014) and…

In this study, the authors explored a selection of middle-grade multimodal novels in order to push back against prior scholarship that tended to dismiss images in novels as mere decorations, visual reiterations of informational ready provided through written language (Godfrey, 2012). Inspired by the notion that the format of the middle-grade novel…

Zapata and Maloch feature pedagogical considerations for teachers as they plan for engaging and generative informational text experiences for young children.

When mostly white, middle class, female undergraduate preservice students enter social studies, reading, and language arts methods courses, they usually have not yet been asked to think critically about the curriculum they will be responsible for teaching. One of the primary conduits for sending messages to students about themselves and the world…