The Multicultural and Murderous in New Children's Lit Scholarship

Here are a few new reads to add to your research and collection. 

The first, Reading Diversity through Canadian Picture Books: Preservice Teachers Explore Issues of Identity, Ideology, and Pedagogy, edited by Ingrid Johnston and Joyce Bainbridge, may appeal to those interested in picture book study, multicultural studies (through a Canadian lens) and pedagogical practices. The description from the UTP site explains:

What is the value of picture books in educating a diverse society? This collection of original essays explores how preservice teachers from faculties of education across Canada engage with issues of diversity and national identity as represented in children’s picture books. Based on research drawn from education courses and student teaching experiences, the book illustrates new and culturally relevant approaches to curricula that meet the needs of increasingly diverse student bodies.

In the second book, Bloody Murder: The Homicide Tradition in Children’s Literature, Michelle Ann Abate discusses the long history of violence that prevails in children's books -- not merely an indicator of American obsession with the grim, but also a sign of the complications, severity, and seriousness that children witness and face in reality. You must read Abate's insightful and excellent interview with the Boston Globe as well. Bloody good stuff.