Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2026 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee.

Children's Book Committee

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2025. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

Trouble In Paradise: Paul And Virginia‘S Snapshot Of Limited Enlightenment Progressivism, Henna Neilson

CAFE Symposium 2026

This project analyzes the 1788 children's story "Paul and Virginia" by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Written in the pastoral literary genre, it tells the star-crossed love story of Paul and Virginia, childhood friends who live on the French colony Île-de-France (present-day Mauritius). The work exemplifies many highlights of the Enlightenment progressivism, socializing its young readers to criticize the oppressive class systems in Europe. However, the work is limited by the physiocratic view of slavery, which maintained that the slave trade was justified if the enslaved humans were treated "humanely". As a result, Paul and Virginia's slavery plot line includes problematic …

The Best Children's Books Of The Year In Spanish [2026 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

An annotated list of the best children's books in Spanish published or translated in 2025. In English and Spanish.

Spanish title: Los mejores libros infantiles del año 2026.

Modernism’S Wild Child: The Interplay Of Modernist And Children’S Literature, Rachel Riffel

All Master's Theses

Within literary criticism, American and British modernism are often characterized by the disillusioned writers and creators who established an elitist literary community during the early 20^th century. This period is also distinguished by the Harlem Renaissance highlighting Black art, culture, and writing. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps are well-known for contributing core texts to modernism and the Harlem Renaissance that expressed existential themes and developed experimental techniques. What many readers don’t know, however, is that these authors and many other contemporaries wrote stories and poetry for children. In this thesis, I explore the children’s …

“We Sing Too:” Pedagogical Approaches For Listening To Children In Indigenous Picturebooks, Rachel Stubbs, Anja Dressler Araujo, Kari Dressler, Jadyn Fischer-Mcnabb, Aubrey Hanson, Erin Spring

Occasional Paper Series

This article explores how storytelling, particularly through picture books, facilitates learning across boundaries of age, culture, gender, and education. In this article, we emphasize the value of picture books in integrating Indigenous oral traditions into the classroom, highlighting how these texts foster a reciprocal relationship between listener and storyteller. By focusing on the act of listening, our article argues that Indigenous picture books require active participation and decentering of the individual, positioning listeners as part of a larger collective. This article also underscores the importance of viewing children as active, responsible, and agential members of their communities, aligning with Indigenous …

Nordic Sagas As Children’S Literature: Victorian And Edwardian Retellings In Words And Pictures By Velma Bourgeois Richmond, Maria K. Alberto

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

The 2024 Whippoorwill Award: Gathering Stories Of Indigeneity, Connection, And Belonging, Erika L. Bass, Michael J. Young, Alan Hoffman, Jacqueline Yahn, Monica Roe, Devon Brenner, Chea Parton

The Rural Educator

No abstract provided.

The Power Of Pets: Navigating Infancy, Early Development, And Eventual Loss/ Exploring The Mutual Human-Animal Bond Through Children’S Board And Picture Books With Critical Anthropomorphism, Mary Teresa Woodcock

Children's Book Writing and Illustrating (MFA) Theses

Pets are powerful elements of picture books. Alongside our animal companions, we navigate infancy, early childhood and adulthood, and better understand our relationships and life itself. Critical anthropomorphism allows us to represent our relationship to our animal companions ethically in the written and illustrated text. This paper acknowledges an array of primary and scholarly texts about animals and their roles in human experience as a foundation for my three book projects “A Colorful Night for Cat,” “Grandma, Sam, and Me,” and “Tired Old Socks.” I work to portray animal companions authentically, showing how both humans and animal companions benefit from …

The Best Children's Books Of 2025: Holiday Gift Edition, Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

Notable titles that have captured the attention of Children's Book Committee members just in time for the holidays!

The Best Children's Books Of The Year In Spanish [2025 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

An annotated list of the best children's books in Spanish published or translated in 2024. In English and Spanish.

Spanish title: Spanish title: Los mejores libros infantiles del año 2025.

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2025 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee.

Children's Book Committee

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2024. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

The Best Children's Books Of 2024: Summer Reading Guide, Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee.

Children's Book Committee

Notable titles that have captured the attention of our members as well as experts in the field of children’s literature, such as librarians, authors, teachers, psychologists, and editors. This is the perfect place to find a book that will delight young readers during the long days of summer.

Little Cricket On The Hearth: The Quiet Feminism Of _Little Women_, Caroline Anderson Klein

Honors Theses

Since the advent of the cult of domesticity, the stakes for female characters in domestic literature have been notoriously high. There was no room for flaws, rebellious decisions, and certainly no room for mistakes—whether of the woman’s own accord, or simply as collateral damage of a male character’s immorality. In this shallowly Calvinist domain, women were never more than one broken guardrail away from social ruin or death. In writing Little Women, Louisa May Alcott breaks these molds through unflinching kindness to her female characters from childhood to adulthood, even unto death. Alcott achieves this quietly feminist feat by …

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2024 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee.

The Center for Children's Literature

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2023. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

Who’S Afraid Of Anne Frank? Or Why White Supremacists Should Fear This Book, Laura S. Brown

Journal of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

No abstract provided.

The Best Children's Books Of 2024: Holiday Gift Edition, Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

Notable titles that have captured the attention of Children's Book Committee members just in time for the holidays!

The Best Children's Books Of The Year In Spanish [2024 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

An annotated list of the best children's books in Spanish published or translated in 2023. In English and Spanish.

Spanish title: Los mejores libros infantiles del año 2024.

Gary D. Schmidt Josette Frank Award 2024 Acceptance Letter, Gary D. Schmidt

Children's Book Committee

Author Gary D. Schmidt wins the Josette Frank Award 2024 for The Labors of Hercules Beal

The Josette Frank Award

This award for fiction honors a book or books of outstanding literary merit in which children or young people deal in a positive and realistic way with difficulties in their world and grow emotionally and morally. The award has been given annually since 1943. Josette Frank, the editor of anthologies for children, served for many years as the Executive Director of the Child Study Association of America of which this committee was a part.

Exploring Colorism In Children’S Literature: Sulwe And Black Is Brown Is Tan, Jasmine April Fortunato

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

My analysis of the texts Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o and Black Is Brown Is Tan by Arnold Adoff works to evaluate the representation of colorism in children’s literature to understand how it is represented and has evolved in its messaging towards a young audience. Using the frameworks of Critical Race Theory, Critical Skin Theory and Color Blindness under a lens of colorism, my research utilizes visual analysis to view how it is physically conveyed and research in the literacy of children in understanding intersectional issues. Utilizing literary analysis, I analyze the ways colorism is discussed and combatted through comparisons, representation, …

Characteristics Of Award-Winning Children’S Books About Agriculture: An Analysis Of Content, And The Perspectives Of Authors, Illustrators, And Publishers, Addison L. Beckham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this two-article qualitative study was to characterize children's literature about agriculture and to describe the perceptions of authors and illustrators who are responsible for writing and designing these successful publications. This will result in the ability of organizations like Feeding Minds Press to provide writers, illustrators, and publishers with effective strategies and techniques to improve the accuracy and overall quality of children’s literature about agriculture. Few parameters exist for authors of children’s books about agriculture (Biser, 2007). These parameters are necessary to ensure the quality and accuracy of these educational efforts (Serafini, 2012). Though Feeding Minds Press …

Legends Of Light: Crafting Middle Grade Fantasy In The Tradition Of Catholic Philosophy And Medieval Visual Culture, Bernadette Lamb

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay promotes the writing and illustrating of middle grade literature that mirrors the wonder-inducing experiences of leafing through an illuminated manuscript and stepping into a Gothic cathedral. An examination of Catholic medieval visual culture moves into a discussion on its underlying philosophy and theology, which are profoundly centered on relational healing and the dignity of the human person. Christian writers including St. Pope John Paul II, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Josef Pieper, Madeline L’Engle, Dr. Bob Schuchts, Makoto Fujimura, and Andrew Peterson inform an exploration of mercy, forgiveness, and love as self-gift in the context of illustration and storytelling …

Mothering As Feminism, Meera Patel

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay proposes the concept of mothering-as-feminism, with the intention of interrogating American ideals of mothering and caregiving. Reforming the way we view mothering, as it relates to feminism, requires a re-evaluation of the American role of women and mothers—and how they are portrayed (and therefore seen and understood), valued, and supported. Focusing on the evolution of feminist theory throughout the past 70 years, as well as personal and secondary experiences, I demonstrate how political and social change occurs generationally and is dependent on the education of our children. Ultimately, I show the important role children’s literature plays …

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2023 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

Children's Book Committee

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2022. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

The Best Children's Books Of The Year In Spanish [2023 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

The Center for Children's Literature

An annotated list of the best children's books in Spanish published or translated in 2022. In English and Spanish.

Spanish title: Los mejores libros infantiles en Español.

A Ruff Day On The Road: How Relocation Affects Children Pre-K Through Third Grade And How A Picture Book Can Help, Bryant Miller

Honors Projects

Moving their home from across town, a couple of states away, or overseas is something most will experience at least once in their lifetime. For all, moving is a big change, but for children, it can have lasting effects. Presumably, social skills, academic development, and family dynamics are all impacted when children move. But how and to what length are these factors influenced? This led to the original research question, how does relocation affect children and how can this transition during relocation be eased? After the first portion of the research was done to answer these questions, the research then …

Meet Me In The Middle Ages: Engaging With Fantasy, Reality, And Collaborative World-Building, Amanda Greene

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This critical essay accompanies and describes my thesis project, Medievalia Miscellany, a magazine for middle-grade readers which explores the world of medieval fantasy through art, comics, stories, and activities. Throughout the essay, I use my own term “archaeological upcycling” to discuss and explore a variety of relationships between ideas of parts and a whole. I then use it to characterize the way stories are created out of many different parts and how these parts help a reader to relate to both the world of the story and the world in which they live. I describe the genre of medieval fantasy …

The Screen And Development: Creative Writing And Liminality In Children’S Literature, Rebecca E. Glenn

All Theses

This creative thesis strives to research and implement the overlap of liminality found within Children’s Literature, especially those works that exist through the screen. The critical component of this thesis explores the ways in which childhood development and maturity, a theme commonly found within Children’s Literature, embodies its own “right of passage” associated with the liminal. The journey of the Children’s Literature protagonist is often wrought with this movement from familiar boundaries to a sense of new development. The critical analysis emphasizes the methods Children’s Literature genre uses emotion, familial connections, symbology, space, and even elements of the monstrous to …

The Best Children's Books Of The Year [2022 Edition], Bank Street College Of Education. Children's Book Committee

Children's Book Committee

Includes more than 600 titles chosen by the Children’s Book Committee as the best of the best published in 2021. In choosing books for the annual list, committee members consider literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.

More Than Midnight Feasts?: A Gastrocritical Reading Of Enid Blyton’S Malory Towers, St. Clare’S And The Naughtiest Girl In The School Series, Rebecca Broomfield

Dissertations

Food is fundamental to life. It is also fundamental to culture; through our production, manipulation and consumption of foodstuffs, the way in which we eat has amassed a range of rituals and rules. This suggests that food can be used to indicate more than mere biological need. Food and foodways are a common occurrence throughout literature, not least children’s literature. This thesis applies gastrocriticism as a paradigm to investigate the use of food and foodways in Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, St. Clare’s and The Naughtiest Girl school series. Gastrocriticism is an emerging form of literary criticism that considers the complex …

Kids, Culture, And Queerness: The Progression Of Lgbtq+ Representation In Children's Media, Sarah Stevens

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Historically, popular media has functioned as a window into society’s ever evolving idea of normalcy. Children’s popular media, which contains elements of both entertainment and didacticism, is further burdened with the responsibility of influencing the perspectives of upcoming generations. This truth is particularly salient for the LGBTQ+ community, who have faced consistent misrepresentation or utter erasure from children’s media in the recent past. While there have been marked improvements in both the quality and quantity of queer representation in children’s media since 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges case, there is still a significant need to acknowledge intersectional queerness and queer gender …