This study examines illustrations of girls in Israeli children's literature of the years 1948-2019. 54 illustrated books for children in which the image of a girl is at the center were analyzed. The illustrations were examined according to two key periods: 1940s-1976, and 1977-2019. The research findings did not confirm the conventional…

This Critical Comparative Content Analysis employs theories of poststructuralist feminism to examine two versions of a nonfiction fitness text for young adult readers, one written for females and one for males. The analysis reveals the persistent naming of gendered assumptions about the appropriateness of particular sports to particular athletes,…

Although gender-role stereotypes in children's literature have been widely explored, the study of the role of mothers and their representation in picturebooks has not received much attention from the academic world, especially as far as Spain is concerned. This paper analyses a sample of seven picturebooks published in Spain over the last 7…

The article discusses the image of the family and the family home in a series of novels for young people by the popular Polish writer Malgorzata Musierowicz in the context of literary conventions and stereotypes about the family in contemporary Polish society. The novels, which cover a period of over 40 years, generally fit contemporary Polish…

In delivering instruction aligned with the Common Core State Standards, many teachers are utilizing the accompanying book exemplars. While prior studies have revealed the importance of selecting texts that represent diverse characters, few studies have examined the extent to which the book exemplars reflect this trend. In this paper, an…

In the twenty-first century, the Gothic has experienced a cultural resurgence in literature, film, and television for young adult audiences. Young adult readers, poised between childhood and adulthood, have proven especially receptive to the Gothic's themes of liminality, monstrosity, transgression, romance, and sexuality (James, 2009, p. 116). As…

School stories in contemporary China, which target a pre- and early-adolescent readership, frequently evoke representations of girlhood and boyhood in normative gender terms. The present article considers issues of femininity and gender in "Tomboy Dai An" ("Jia Xiaozi Dai An"), one among a series of commercially successful…

A new model of society in post-Soviet Russia introduced novel family patterns to everyday life as well as to children's literature, with traditional parent and children's functions becoming subject to rethinking. The tendency to reconsider parental functions can be observed in texts from different genres, but it appears most overtly in modern…

This essay makes the case that during the American cold-war era, Disney's animated film classics worked in tandem with their True-Life Adventure series of nature documentaries to reproduce traditional mothering ideology under patriarchy. The animated films do this not by animating the realities of marriage, childbirth, and mothering work for girls…

As Amanda Diekman and Sarah Murnen (2004) note, studies of "nonsexist" children's books tend to focus on girls performing stereotypically masculine behaviors without consideration of how boy characters perform gender (p. 381); however, this narrow focus on girl figures in the identification of nonsexist works has two side-effects:…

Few pieces of GLBTQ fiction have received the popular and scholarly acclaim awarded to Alex Sanchez's "Rainbow Boys" series. Although "problem novels" are rarely taken seriously as literature, the books--the first novel in particular--have joined the few pieces of GLBTQ literature incorporated into educational discourse and curriculum. In this…

The American Civil War has been a popular topic for young-adult writers for years, with new books now being written from young women's perspectives. In this paper, I will examine the gender ideologies that infiltrate contemporary Civil War books for young adults. I will examine four recent young-adult Civil-War novels: G. Clifton Wisler's "Mr.…

Examines arguments that view "The Secret Garden" as stereotyping female roles and making females subservient to males. Argues that Mary's quest remains central throughout the book and is successful to the point that she is able to transcend egocentric concerns, while Colin remains trapped in the same kind of male self-absorption that…

Notes almost no books encourage boys in their love of intellect and imagination. Discusses stories that give ambivalent encouragement to boys for such activities. Notes that boys in books written by women seem more comfortable with their enjoyment of books and writing. Encourages writers and publishers to experiment with more positive portrayals…

Proposes that the "Girl's Own Annual 1927" displays a distinctly Victorian construction of womanhood which was at odds with the views of "modern" girls in the 1920s. Examines tensions created by these differing social expectations and focuses on the intergenerational debate about the role of women in work and marriage. Suggests that the magazine's…