Antiracist Children’s Literature Scholarship: A Transnational History

In this chapter, Élodie Malanda and Philip Nel map both tensions between and intersections among antiracist children’s literature scholarship in France, Germany and the USA. They start by reflecting on how they practice antiracism in their research and teaching about children’s literature, drawing from their experiences in different academic contexts and from their different positionalities. They then highlight how different national and historical contexts have produced antiracist and aspirationally antiracist children’s and YA books, and how different schools of antiracist thought have shaped the discourses around these books. Finally, they discuss what kind of books can be considered antiracist, highlighting potential benefits, deficits, and harm.