Out of sight: the censoring of family diversity in picture books

Abstract

Family diversity has long been censored, silenced, and ignored in Australian picture books. Despite its long running representation in books for older readers, the concept of exploring family diversity at picture book level remains nothing short of radical. Of the little available, much comes in the form of issue-driven books and from specialist presses overseas, presenting a distinct gap in Australian children's literature. The contentious history of diversity in children's books creates added issues in the struggle for representation, and diverse stories (and diverse authors) face ongoing challenges. Furthermore, public outrage at the 'shunning' of nuclear families, as well as society's distorted understanding of what constitutes diversity, present further complications in the advocating for family-diverse stories. This essay will examine what it means to be a family, the issues surrounding family diversity in picture books, and why such books deserve to be championed.

African American Language in Children’s Literature

“…Further, with such a small percentage of books portraying characters from African American backgrounds (Huyck & Dahlen, 2019), it is important that books include authentic language experiences that are relatable to most African American students, as AAL is not inferior to WME, and should be viewed as a form of counter-storytelling and cultural capital when teaching through mechanisms such as language ideology. Also, we must question the reasons why WME continues to be the standard in schools.…”

“…We found it critical to interrogate the presence of AAL in children's literature because of the high percentage of African Americans speaking AAL. With only 10% (Huyck & Dahlen, 2019) of children's books depicting characters from African American backgrounds (23% for all books with characters of color), many of the titles of children's books, according to Huyck and Dahlen (2019), denote imprecisions and inequities. If the goal of multicultural education is to design educational opportunities for students from varied backgrounds and to assist students in developing affirmative mindsets toward diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups (Banks, 1993), the accurate portrayal of African Americans must be included in texts.…”