Handbook of Research on Diversity in Children's and Young Adult Literature

Diversity in children’s and young adult literature encompasses shifting and often ill-defined historical and contemporary meanings, and yet, remains a necessary term for examining the possibilities and limitations of representation in storytelling for young people. The Handbook of Research on Diversity in Children’s and Young Adult Literature calls attention to the ideologies and social narratives that underwrite how books are published and circulated, how storytellers shape new images and interpretations for themselves and others, how literary works for young people are critiqued and studied, and how these works are made accessible in libraries and introduced in school settings.

The editors and contributors raise these questions at a time when storytelling by minoritized authors and illustrators has never been more exploratory and visible and simultaneously more subject to politicized surveillance, isolation, and exclusion. These questions also resonate with scholars in international contexts, highlighting the limits of western meanings and practices of diversity. Across four key dimensions for understanding children’s and young adult literature, authors from multiple fields and contexts illuminate how and why diverse literature matters in the lives of young people and their communities.

Part I addresses the history, status, and future of publishing and related ecosystems and the ways diverse literature is foregrounded in the United States and globally.

Part II features scholarship on intersectional representations and the speculative possibilities for storytelling within and across ‘beloved communities.’

Part III introduces new insights and tensions for studying diverse literature, focusing on methodologies and interdisciplinary scholarship encompassing literary studies, education, library science, cultural studies, media studies, critical race theory, critical youth studies, eco-criticism, and queer theory.

Part IV provides comprehensive research reviews on the role of diverse literature in classrooms, libraries, and community settings and proposes new directions for understanding how diverse literature is being reframed through classroom dialogue and pedagogy to advance critical inquiry.

Scholars, librarians, and educators working in the fields of Education, English Studies, Library and Information Science, and Ethnic Studies will find historical overviews and new theoretical frameworks suggesting new questions and frameworks for future inquiry. This volume directs the field of children’s and young adult literature scholarship to the most pressing questions of our time, with the intention to inspire and strengthen dialogue, inquiry, advocacy and artistry.