The Power of Picturebooks, Summer 2024
The Project
The second project added to the Windows and Mirrors site, "The Power of Picturebooks," arose out of a graduate seminar called "The Power of Picturebooks: Activism in the Face of Book Challenges" in the Department of English at the University of Ottawa in the summer term of 2024. In the intensive six-week course, students read and analyzed a selection of exciting recent picturebooks, each of which has at some point been challenged or banned. While the class studied the artistry of the books, they also addressed questions about what scholar Jennifer Miller refers to as the "transformative potential" of children's picturebooks; in other words, students considered each book's potential to change the way its audience sees or experiences the world around them and, by extension, the extent to which the book could be considered an activist text.
Under the direction of Professor Kelly St-Jacques and with the guidance and assistance of Digital Humanities Support Specialist Roxanne Lafleur, students embarked on a scaffolded, multi-stage research project that aimed to apply some of the tools and resources of the digital humanities to 1) an investigation of the broader field of children's literature and its response to the current climate of book challenges and bans and 2) a study of the picturebooks themselves: after analyzing how text and image work together to create meaning in picturebooks, each student argued for a particular book as worthy of being added to the syllabus of a course in children's literature (or in literary activism) because of its inherent transformative potential.
The project involved three separate parts.
The three-part project
Part 1: Understanding how to "read" images (the Molly Bang exercise)
In the first class of the term, students worked with a seminal text in the study of images, Molly Bang's Picture This: How Pictures Work. Bang's text seeks to answer a single question: "How does the structure of a picture--or any visual art form--affect our emotional response?" (xiv), and it lays out 12 principles to answer that question.
The text includes an exercise that advances understanding by applying those principles in a response to a specific prompt; students did that exercise in class.
To see the results of their efforts, go to the Molly Bang exercise page.
Part 2: Interviews with stakeholders in the field of children's literature
At the same time as the class was discussing the transformative potential of picturebooks for children, they were also researching the current coordinated surge in book bans, book challenges, and shadow bans (i.e., instances when particular books are moved to a less accessible and/or visible area of the library). A number of guest speakers visited the class, either in person or via video link, to talk with students about the power of picturebooks and about censorship and their efforts to curate or create powerful, inclusive collections in a climate that is at times hostile to those efforts.
To get a better understanding of the field of children's literature from the perspective of those actively involved in it, each student also conducted an interview with a stakeholder in the field who had agreed to participate. The interviews were conducted either in person or via video link and were recorded. The interview subjects provided further insights into the power of children's literature in general and picturebooks specifically as forms of literary activism and into their own work in today's challenging climate.
To access the recordings and/or transcripts of those interviews, see the Stakeholder interviews page.
Part 3: The student book pitches
The final, most involved part of the project was the students' "book pitches." Each student chose a picturebook that had been banned or challenged and that they believed would be a valuable addition to the syllabus of a Children's Literature course (or of a course on literary activism), not only because of the powerful way(s) in which its text and images work together to create story and evoke responses in its readers but because of its transformative potential. These are books that students believe could change the way their readers understand the world; they are books that could help their readers imagine a different--and better--way of being and guide them to question conventional ways of thinking.
Because the majority of banned and challenged books are challenged because of LGBTQ+ and/or racial content, all books and creators were catalogued to capture available data about the diversity (race, gender, sexuality, religion, ability) of their creators and characters.
The students' pitches are presented as multi-page exhibits. They can be accessed via the Picturebook pitches page.