Diversity, equity, and inclusion has long been the focus of educational scholarship. This study explores the potential of wordless books with protagonists of color for children to access portraits of diverse characters and engage with various stories. To expand the existing body of literature on diversity in picturebooks, this study offers two…

The existence of transgender children is not new. However, for over 100 years, Western culture has worked to restrict the gender expressions and gender identities of children. This forces them into a binary model of gender understanding. This critical content analysis examined the ways that transgender children within picturebooks can both conform…

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…

This article asks: How is peacemaking represented in the Jane Addams Children's Book Award (JACBA) collection of children's book awardees (2015-2021)? The authors sought to build on previous scholarship that has examined JACBA, including Taber's (2015) study of JACBA for older readers and Colabucci and Napoli's (2017) study of JACBA's books for…

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…

In schools similar to the one in this study, where over 75 percent of the students were non-White, students come to their classrooms having lived experiences with racism, and yet, in many classrooms, racism is never discussed or it is relegated to the past. This means, in many classrooms, there are White teachers who are unwilling or unable to…

Liminality, both etymologically and practically, is generally meant to be navigated through, not permanently occupied. The Disney "Descendants" series, marketed for ages seven to twelve, is an example of children's literature that engages with liminality as not only a lasting choice but also one of joy and reconciliation. The books…

When we considered how current sociopolitical events may impact experiences of girlhood today and remembered our own lived girlhood experiences, we came to the collective realization that we often turned to books as a way to make sense of our liminal experiences during girlhood. Given the sociopolitical moment in which we are living and…