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The All-Heterosexual World of Children’s Nonfiction: A Critical Content Analysis of LGBTQ Identities in Orbis Pictus Award Books, 1990–2017

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Abstract

Despite increased attention toward children’s nonfiction and informational texts in recent decades, there is still little research that investigates the ways in which various cultural identities are depicted in nonfiction children’s books. Focusing specifically on the 143 winners and honor recipients of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Literature for Children (1990–2017), this article reports the findings of a critical content analysis of depictions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) identified people in award-winning nonfiction youth literature. The authors look across this set of texts as a literary construction of the world, making explicit where and how LGBTQ people are visible in these award-winning books for young readers. By analyzing specific depictions of queer-identified people, the authors argue the creators of these books rely upon heteronormative constructions, queer erasure, and compulsory heterosexuality to minimize (and even eliminate) queerness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Early Childhood and Elementary Education, College of Education and Human Development, Georgia State University, 30 Pryor Street SW, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA

    Thomas Crisp

  2. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA

    Roberta Price Gardner & Matheus Almeida

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  1. Thomas Crisp
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  2. Roberta Price Gardner
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  3. Matheus Almeida
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Correspondence to Thomas Crisp.

Additional information

Thomas Crisp is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. His work centers primarily on issues of justice and representation in youth literature, particularly representations of individuals who self-identify as LGBTQ.

Roberta Price Gardner is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Center for Evaluation and Research at Georgia State University. Her research focuses on high-needs communities of color, and highlights lived experience phenomena, issues of identity, critical perspectives on children’s and young adult literature, and creative and transformative literacy pedagogies in school-family-communal contexts.

Matheus Almeida is currently a biology student at Georgia State University. In addition to his work on this project, he worked on a previous content analysis of children’s books and was a research assistant on several cross-university collaborative projects in the sciences.

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Crisp, T., Gardner, R.P. & Almeida, M. The All-Heterosexual World of Children’s Nonfiction: A Critical Content Analysis of LGBTQ Identities in Orbis Pictus Award Books, 1990–2017. Child Lit Educ 49, 246–263 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-017-9319-5

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