"Argues for the importance of including in K-8 classrooms high-quality diverse books that accurately and authentically represent the world students live in and explores the ways in which engaging with diverse nonfiction children's literature provides opportunities to counter constricted curricula and reposition the possibilities of pedagogical policies and mandates through centering the histories, lives, and cultures of historically marginalized and underrepresented people"--
This volume contains 11 chapters on reading and teaching with nonfiction children's literature that provides representations of populations traditionally marginalized in media and culture. Education, English, and other scholars and librarians from the US discuss the role and function of nonfiction and informational texts in preK-8 classrooms, addressing critical multicultural analysis as a framework that addresses issues like voice and power, then the history and trends in nonfiction children's literature about specific populations (Latinx, indigenous peoples, Asian Americans, African Americans, multiracial individuals, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ people), as well as religious holidays in nonfiction literature. They describe relevant texts, criteria for selecting and evaluating literature, points for consideration, and why it is necessary to include these books in classrooms. Annotation ©2021 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
This edited volume brings together ongoing professional conversations about diverse children’s books and the role and function of nonfiction and informational text in K–8 classrooms. The authors in this book respond to the urgent need to advance scholarship on children’s nonfiction literature that provides representations of populations traditionally marginalized in media and culture. Grounded in children’s literature research and criticism, the authors in this volume take as a given the reality that issues of representation matter, and that, with the existence of exemplary children’s nonfiction books, all educators, researchers, and scholars have a responsibility to move beyond texts with limited or problematic depictions and utilize quality books that accurately and authentically represent the world in which we live.
