Newbery Medal-winning books provide cultural models for children's developing cultural understandings of themselves and others. This article presents results of a critical content analysis that used sociocultural and historical lenses to examine representations of race/ethnicity, gender, and ability of main characters across the Newbery-winning…

This paper shares results from a critical content analysis of Newbery-winning titles from 1922-2019 for representations of race/ethnicity, gender, and disability. Each title was coded for the inclusion and representation of race/ethnicity, gender, and disability at both the book and main character levels. Lenses of critical race, gender schema,…

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Charged with identifying and honoring the most distinguished American picturebooks annually, the ALSC Board of Directors first awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1938. This article presents a…

We examined representations of main characters in Caldecott Award winner and honor books over the past 25 years. Each book containing a human main character was coded for the following features: culture/ethnicity, gender, age, place where character lives, time period in which the character lives, disability, religion, socioeconomic status, and…