Their Dreams and Possibilities . . . and the Necessity of Accurate Representation: LGBTQ Individuals Within Picture Book Biographies

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 60
  In Roundtable Session: Representation and Omission: Medium, Genre, and Identity in Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Although publication of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s literature has steadily increased (Möller, 2014; Naidoo, 2012) and such books provide important “windows and mirrors” (Bishop, 1990), the majority of texts are fictional. The preponderance of LGBTQ-fiction is reflected in the texts selected for classroom use (Ryan, Patraw, & Bednar, 2013; Schall & Kauffmann, 2003; Souto-Manning & Hermann-Wilmarth, 2008). However, little is known about narratives of (re)presentation of LGBTQ individuals in picturebook biographies. Informed by queer theory, this study details a critical content analysis (Short, 2017) of forty books to examine: What picturebook biographies about LGBTQ individuals have been published? How do these books reflect the person’s sexual orientation and/or gender nonconformity? Among the findings are three types of representation: explicit, implicit/coded, and excluded.

Author

• Stephen Adam Crawley, University of Georgia