Between the Covers: Suffering, Trauma and Cultural Perspective in Children's Picture Books (1980–2006)

Abstract

In our modern culture, we sometimes imagine that stories are kids' stuff: little illustrations, while abstract ideas are the real thing. So Jesus' stories, people say, were just "earthly stories with a heavenly meaning", but that's rubbish! Stories are far more powerful than that. Stories create worlds. Tell the story differently and you change the world. And that's what Jesus aimed to do. People in Jesus' world knew that stories meant business; that stories were a way of getting to grips with reality. (Wright,

IJCE and Scholarship on Christianity and Education

“…How should spiritual formation be approached in professional programmes for nurses and educators (Hegeman et al, 2011)? How does the depiction of suffering in children's books relate to Christian accounts of suffering (Belcher, 2008)? How do the beliefs and identities of Christian English as a Second Language teachers interact with their educational practices (Wong et al, 2012)?…”

Untitled

“…It is not surprising that researchers have been interested in the field of children's picture books as narrative vehicles that represent change in culture, and form a particular kind of literary history. Research on picture books has included themes of social interest such as family (Belcher, 2008(Belcher, , 2010Heath, 1982;Johnson, 1999); culture (Owens & Nowell, 2001); social issues (Dyches, Prater & Heath, 2010;Johnson, 1999); education (Wolfganger & Sipe, 2007); and currently, media and narrative/special needs (Maich & Belcher, 2012;Maich, Belcher, Sider, & Johnson, 2015;Belcher & Maich, 2014). The common thread in all the above research lies in examining how picture books written in a specific time, history and culture, engage current life.…”