Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books
Published on 31. January 2025
Book
Hardback
277 pages
978-1-4968-5490-2 (ISBN)
Description
Contributions by Sara Austin, Robert Bittner, J. Bradley Blankenship, Gabriel Duckels, Caitlin Howlett, Isabel Millan, Jennifer Miller, Kaylee Jangula Mootz, Tim Morris, Dana Rudolph, j wallace skelton, Jason Vanfosson, River Vooris, and B. J. Woodstein
Picture books are books aimed at children where the illustrations are as important, or more important, than the text. Picture books, the effects of their simple text and importance in the literary cannon, have been studied by scholars for decades, but little attention has been given to LGBTQ+ picture books. Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books is a collection of essays that identifies and interprets children's picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ+ content.
Contributors to the volume include established and emerging scholars with expertise in the fields of children's literature, young adult literature, cultural studies, critical race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, and education. Each essay introduces readers to several children's books that denote unmistakable LGBTQ+ content. Essays bring various interpretive frameworks and intellectual commitments to their unique readings of LGBTQ+ children's picture books. The essays in Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books produce innovative new scholarship about a range of topics including representations of LGBTQ+ marriage and parenting and LGBTQ+ history and culture. The topics explored, and theoretical frameworks applied, significantly expand available and accessible up-to-date scholarship on the growing field of LGBTQ+ children's picture books.
Picture books are books aimed at children where the illustrations are as important, or more important, than the text. Picture books, the effects of their simple text and importance in the literary cannon, have been studied by scholars for decades, but little attention has been given to LGBTQ+ picture books. Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books is a collection of essays that identifies and interprets children's picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ+ content.
Contributors to the volume include established and emerging scholars with expertise in the fields of children's literature, young adult literature, cultural studies, critical race and ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, history, and education. Each essay introduces readers to several children's books that denote unmistakable LGBTQ+ content. Essays bring various interpretive frameworks and intellectual commitments to their unique readings of LGBTQ+ children's picture books. The essays in Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books produce innovative new scholarship about a range of topics including representations of LGBTQ+ marriage and parenting and LGBTQ+ history and culture. The topics explored, and theoretical frameworks applied, significantly expand available and accessible up-to-date scholarship on the growing field of LGBTQ+ children's picture books.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Jackson
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paper over boards
Illustrations
11 b&w illustrations; 5 tables
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
665 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4968-5490-2 (9781496854902)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jennifer Miller | Sara Austin
Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books
E-Book
01/2025
NYU Press
€29.49
Available for download
Persons
Jennifer Miller is a high school English teacher in Arlington, Texas. She researches LGBTQ+ children's picture books, digital culture, and subcultures. She is author of The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books, published by University Press of Mississippi, and a contributing editor to Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies: A Cross Disciplinary Approach.
Sara Austin is assistant professor of English at Kentucky Wesleyan College. She is author of Monstrous Youth: Transgressing the Boundaries of Childhood in the United States. Her interest in race, gender, and childhood identity has yielded articles in Transformative Works and Cultures, The Lion and the Unicorn, The Looking Glass: New Perspectives in Children's Literature, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, International Research in Children's Literature, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, Adaptation, and The Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics.
Sara Austin is assistant professor of English at Kentucky Wesleyan College. She is author of Monstrous Youth: Transgressing the Boundaries of Childhood in the United States. Her interest in race, gender, and childhood identity has yielded articles in Transformative Works and Cultures, The Lion and the Unicorn, The Looking Glass: New Perspectives in Children's Literature, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, International Research in Children's Literature, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, Adaptation, and The Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics.
Content
Chapter 1: Reading LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books: An Introduction
Jennifer Miller
Part 1: Representing LGBTQ+ Families in North American Picture Books
Chapter 2: From Roommates to Spouses: Shifting Representations of Marriage Equality in US Picture Books from 1995 to 2020
Jason Vanfosson
Chapter 3: "That's Not a Family": Microaggressions, Resilience, and Agency in Depictions of Same-Sex-Parented Families
Dana Rudolph
Chapter 4: Representation Matters Now More Than Ever: Transgender and Nonbinary Parents in Children's Picture Books
Rob Bittner
Part 2: Real(istic) Representations of GIaNTs in Picture Books
Chapter 5: Exceptional, Bullied, or Normal in the End: Representation of GIaNTs (Gender Independent, Nonbinary, and Trans) in Picture Books
j wallace skelton
Chapter 6: Be Who You Are!, I Am Jazz, I'm Not a Girl, and Sam! Picturing Trans Childhoods
Sara Austin
Part 3: Mapping Representations in European Picture Books
Chapter 7: The Road to Hell: Scandinavian LGBTQ+ Picturebooks
B. J. Woodstein
Chapter 8: Il y a plein de facons de composer une famille: Some Recent French-Language LGBTQ+ Picture Books
Tim Morris
Part 4: Queer(ing) Culture
Chapter 9: Many Dances, Many Regalias: Supporting the Two-Spirit Child in 47,000 Beads
Kaylee Jangula Mootz
Chapter 10: Queering Christmas: An Autoethnographic Author Interview about Publishing The Christmas Truck
J. Bradley Blankenship
Chapter 11: The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish: Playing Around with Gender and Celebrating Difference
River Vooris
Part 5: World Making in LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books
Chapter 12: Apples Begone: Queer and Trans of Color Aesthetics of Joy in ABC Books
Isabel Millan
Chapter 13: Children's Imagination and the Desire for Something Different: Nonhuman Subjects in LGBTQ+ Children's Literature and the Possibility of More Just Futures
Caitlin Howlett
Part 6: LGBTQ+ Nonfiction Children's Picture Books
Chapter 14: AIDS and the Antisocial Subject in Queer Biographical Picture Books: A Case Study on Keith Haring
Gabriel Duckels
Chapter 15: Now vs. Then, Here vs. There: Queer Identity and Community in Picture-Book Biographies
Jennifer Miller
Acknowledgments
About the Contributors
Index
Jennifer Miller
Part 1: Representing LGBTQ+ Families in North American Picture Books
Chapter 2: From Roommates to Spouses: Shifting Representations of Marriage Equality in US Picture Books from 1995 to 2020
Jason Vanfosson
Chapter 3: "That's Not a Family": Microaggressions, Resilience, and Agency in Depictions of Same-Sex-Parented Families
Dana Rudolph
Chapter 4: Representation Matters Now More Than Ever: Transgender and Nonbinary Parents in Children's Picture Books
Rob Bittner
Part 2: Real(istic) Representations of GIaNTs in Picture Books
Chapter 5: Exceptional, Bullied, or Normal in the End: Representation of GIaNTs (Gender Independent, Nonbinary, and Trans) in Picture Books
j wallace skelton
Chapter 6: Be Who You Are!, I Am Jazz, I'm Not a Girl, and Sam! Picturing Trans Childhoods
Sara Austin
Part 3: Mapping Representations in European Picture Books
Chapter 7: The Road to Hell: Scandinavian LGBTQ+ Picturebooks
B. J. Woodstein
Chapter 8: Il y a plein de facons de composer une famille: Some Recent French-Language LGBTQ+ Picture Books
Tim Morris
Part 4: Queer(ing) Culture
Chapter 9: Many Dances, Many Regalias: Supporting the Two-Spirit Child in 47,000 Beads
Kaylee Jangula Mootz
Chapter 10: Queering Christmas: An Autoethnographic Author Interview about Publishing The Christmas Truck
J. Bradley Blankenship
Chapter 11: The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish: Playing Around with Gender and Celebrating Difference
River Vooris
Part 5: World Making in LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books
Chapter 12: Apples Begone: Queer and Trans of Color Aesthetics of Joy in ABC Books
Isabel Millan
Chapter 13: Children's Imagination and the Desire for Something Different: Nonhuman Subjects in LGBTQ+ Children's Literature and the Possibility of More Just Futures
Caitlin Howlett
Part 6: LGBTQ+ Nonfiction Children's Picture Books
Chapter 14: AIDS and the Antisocial Subject in Queer Biographical Picture Books: A Case Study on Keith Haring
Gabriel Duckels
Chapter 15: Now vs. Then, Here vs. There: Queer Identity and Community in Picture-Book Biographies
Jennifer Miller
Acknowledgments
About the Contributors
Index