Immigration and Children's Literature

Stories, Social Justice, and Critical Consciousness

Wilma Robles-Melendez, Audrey Henry

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781350255913
• eBook ISBN: 9781350255937
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education
• Index: Social Sciences

This book explores the issues faced by immigrant children through the lens of children's literature. The authors employ the UN convention of the Rights of the Child, the lens of equity, and Freire's principles of critical consciousness as a framework for analysing children's literature and immigration. They focus on circumstances and experiences of immigration from the perspective of young children who are leaving their homelands and growing up as immigrants. The book focuses primarily on children from birth to 8 years old but with crossover and implications for older children. The chapters reveal the social, economic, and political issues faced by child immigrants, refugees and asylees throughout the global context, viewed through and alongside children's literature. The book provides suggestions for the implementation of children's literature in the curriculum and provides tools for educators and researchers working with immigrant and refugee children, showing how they can better understand their students and families. A variety of children's literature is covered, including analysis of works by Jairo Buitrago, Yanksook Choi, Sandra leGuen, Rosemary McCartney, Bao Phi and Jeanette Winter.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• About this Book
• Acknowledgments
• 1 A World of Children on the Move
• 2 Children’s Literature, a Voice for Social Justice and Critical Consciousness
• 3 We are Immigrants: Children Crossing Borders
• 4 Growing Up as the Youngest Immigrants: Through the Eyes of Children
• 5 An Unending Saga: Forced to Leave Home: Children and Families as Refugees
• 6 At School! Immigrant Children Coming to School
• 7 Bringing Immigration Realities to the Classroom through Children’s Literature
• Appendix: Topical List of Children’s Books on Immigration Experiences
• Index
• Imprint