The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books (Children's Literature Association Series)

2023 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title In The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books , Jennifer Miller identifies an archive of over 150 English-language children's picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ+ identities, expressions, and issues. This archive is then analyzed to explore the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters and content from the 1970s to the present. Miller describes dominant tropes that emerge in the field to analyze historical shifts in representational practices, which she suggests parallel larger sociocultural shifts in the visibility of LGBTQ+ identities. Additionally, Miller considers material constraints and possibilities affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of LGBTQ+ children's picture books from the 1970s to the present. This foundational work defines the field of LGBTQ+ children's picture books thoroughly, yet accessibly. In addition to laying the groundwork for further research, The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books presents a reading lens, critical optimism, used to analyze the transformative potential of LGBTQ+ children's picture books. Many texts remain attached to heteronormative family forms and raced and classed models of success. However, by considering what these books put into the world, as well as problematic aspects of the world reproduced within them, Miller argues that LGBTQ+ children's picture books are an essential world-making project and seek to usher in a transformed world as well as a significant historical archive that reflects material and representational shifts in dominant and subcultural understandings of gender and sexuality. "In The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ Children's Picture Books, Jennifer Miller identifies an archive of over 150 English-language children's picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ identities, expressions, and issues. This archive is then analyzed to explore the evolution of LGBTQ characters and content from the 1970s to the present. Miller describes dominant tropes that emerge in the field to analyze historical shifts in representational practices, which she suggests parallel larger sociocultural shifts in the visibility of LGBTQ identities. Additionally, Miller considers material constraints and possibilities affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of LGBTQ children's picture books from the 1970s to the present. This foundational work defines the field of LGBTQ children's picture books thoroughly, yet accessibly. In addition to laying the groundwork for further research, The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ Children's Picture Books presents a reading lens, critical optimism, used to analyze the transformative potential of LGBTQ children's picture books. Many texts remain attached to heteronormative family forms and raced and classed models of success. However, by considering what these books put into the world, as well as problematic aspects of the world reproduced within them, Miller argues that LGBTQ children's picture books are an essential world-making project and seek to usher in a transformed world as well as a significant historical archive that reflects material and representational shifts in dominant and subcultural understandings of gender and sexuality"-- Provided by publisher In The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books, Jennifer Miller identifies an archive of over 150 English-language children's picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ+ identities, expressions, and issues. This archive is then analyzed to explore the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters and content from the 1970s to the present. Jennifer Miller identifies dominant tropes that emerge in the field to analyze historical shifts in representational practices, which she suggests parallel larger sociocultural shifts in the visibility of LGBTQ+ identities. Additionally, Miller considers material constraints and possibilities affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of LGBTQ+ children's picture books from the 1970s to the present. This foundational work defines the field of LGBTQ+ children's picture books thoroughly, yet accessibly. In addition to laying the groundwork for further research, The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books presents a reading lens of critical optimism to analyze the transformative potential of LGBTQ+ children's picture books. Many texts remain attached to heteronormative family forms and raced and classed models of success. However, by considering what these books put into the world, as well as problematic aspects of the world reproduced within them, Miller argues that LGBTQ+ children's picture books are an essential world-making project and seek to usher in a transformed world as well as a significant historical archive that reflects material and representational shifts in dominant and subcultural understandings of gender and sexuality. Cover The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books Title Copyright Dedication Contents (Anti-)Acknowledgments Chapter One What Can Picture Books Do? The Politics of LGBTQ+ Children’s Literature Chapter Two A Genealogy of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books: The Early Years Chapter Three Virtually Normal: Lesbian and Gay Grown-Ups in Children’s Picture Books Chapter Four Beyond the Sissy Boy: Pink Boys and Tomboys Chapter Five Queer Youth and Gender: Representing Transgender, Nonbinary, Gender-Creative, and Gender-Free Youth Chapter Six Queer Youth and Sexuality: Camp Flamboyance, Queer Fabulousness, and Even a Little Same-Gender Desire Chapter Seven Queer Histories: The Politics of Representing the Past Concluding Thoughts Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C: Archive Notes Selected Bibliography About the Author Identifies an archive of over 150 English-language children's picture books that explicitly represent LGBTQ+ identities, expressions, and issues. This archive is then analysed to explore the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters and content from the 1970s to the present.