Cultural Affirmations as Remedy Within Latinx Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session discusses how Latinx children’s books can serve as opportunities for healing amidst negative rhetoric, book bans, and censorship. Collectively, the papers in this session challenge distortions and omissions within children’s books by drawing from Latina/o Critical Theory (Solorzano & Bernal, 2001), a Critical Race Content Analysis (Perez Huber et al., 2020, and Translingual Writing (Canagarajah, 2013; Horner et al., 2011) to advance children's books as tools for affirming the humanity of Students of Color. The session discusses central findings from studies that critically engage students in reading banned texts, engage in a content analysis of picture books, and draw from interviews with children’s and young adult novelists to explore asset-based approaches in children’s and young adult literature.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Literature

Chair

• Sandra Lucia Osorio, Erikson Institute

Papers

• “I Have Something to Say”: Reading Latinx Banned Books with Young Children - Sanjuana Carrillo Rodriguez, Kennesaw State University

• Racial Microaffirmations in Latinx Picture Books - Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, California State University - Sacramento; Lindsay Pérez Huber, California State University - Long Beach

• “Feels like home to me”: Bilingual Authors’ Uses of Spanish in Children’s and YA Novels - Emily Machado, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Diego Xavier Roman, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Angela Lake, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Mia Hicks, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Discussant

• Sandra Lucia Osorio, Erikson Institute