What do we read our children? An analysis of picture books 
Creators: name: Plott, Annie Grace 
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2022

description:     What do we read our children? Not only what titles are we reading, but what is the actual content of the books that we are recommending and encouraging children to read? These are the questions that lay at the heart of this study. This study considers diversity in children’s books. Diverse children’s books are those that represent different races, genders, sexual orientations, classes etc. These books are an important part of children’s literature as research indicates that not only do they encourage children to develop empathy and consideration for other people, like doors, but they also act as mirrors. Acting as mirrors, these books allow children to see themselves reflected. As doors, these books introduce people to other people’s lives. There is also evidence that children are able to explore and thus unlearn notions about diversity that have severe negative impacts on our society through gaining socio-emotional skills such as empathy and understanding from picture books. Essentially, diverse books can help challenge stereotypes. 
    Coupling background research and two theories: Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and critical literacy (specifically critical conscientization), a methodology was created by the researcher (myself). After examining the importance of studying diverse picture books, I gathered and analyzed picture books. First, to identify books for analysis, social media enquiries and a google survey were used. This survey resulted in 95 responses from teachers and librarians across the United States. In the survey, respondents were asked to identify books that were both their top ten “teacher/librarian favorites” and their top ten “children’s favorites”. From these responses, titles that were mentioned 5 or more times were chosen for further analysis leading to a total of 53 books. After identifying these 53 books, a table was created for analysis. This table included questions about primary characters, secondary characters, and lastly illustration/plot. Using questions primarily borrowed and inspired from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (CCBC, 2021), these questions were then turned into a Qualtrics survey for easy textual analysis. 
    After creating this survey, I read and analyzed the 53 different children’s picture books. The results of this research were quantitatively and thematically analyzed. Of the main themes found there was a high prevalence for characters in the books who were white, male, able-bodied, and upper/middle class. I also identified an erasure and implicitness surrounding disability, an erasure of lower/working class representations, an insistence on gendering and gender roles, a prevalence of whiteness overall, and although diversity was identified to an extent across a majority of the books in some way, quite a lot of people’s experiences were left out. For instance, there were no LGBTQ families, adoption, indigenous people, etc. represented in these books. Although this project is only the beginning, it serves as a way to create and encourage discourse into whether or not picture books a) have diversity, and if then b) how this diversity is represented. As we can see from above, this first inquiry appears to be sufficiently satisfied, and yet this second inquiry appears to need further contemplation. For books that are supposed to be mirrors and doors, there are a lot of mirrors and doors missing in children’s picture books today.