Radical Children’s Literature

Abstract

Children’s literature can be radical in its form, its content, or both. At the most basic level, radical children’s literature challenges conventions and norms—about society and, often, about childhood—and it inspires change, especially movements for social and environmental justice. Radical children’s literature represents a paradox. On the one hand, some of the most enduring works of children’s literature are in some way subversive. Yet because of the persisting ideal of childhood innocence, “radical children’s literature” might be seen as an oxymoron, an impossibility: if it is radical, it cannot really be children’s literature. And yet, not only is “subversive children’s literature” a core thread within mainstream children’s literature, but radical children’s literature has also been an adjunct to nearly every social movement of the modern era, from abolitionism to socialism, communism, civil rights, Black Power, feminism, environmentalism, and gay liberation. The history of radical children’s literature is tied closely to the history of children’s rights (within whose history the impulse to protect and the impulse to liberate children have sometimes been at odds: with each other, and with the real needs of children). Radical children’s literature, like the children’s rights movement, is both a reaction to “childism,” or prejudice against children, and is also vulnerable to it. Like the romantic ideal of the essential Child, the child subject or object of radical children’s literature is almost always an adult projection, thus liable to serving adults’ needs over those of children. Within this dialectic, however, children’s literature has been a powerful force of positive change in many parts of the world, responding to and for the most part advancing the place of children in society. This has been the case even in repressive climates and under regimes hostile to change, both because children’s literature has tended to be a marginalized field, controlled by women and not seen as worthy of attention, and because of various institutional factors, from educational policies to children’s book awards that have inadvertently or actively helped promote the production and dissemination of radical children’s literature. Like the majority of historical children’s literature, contemporary children’s literature remains predominantly an agent of embourgeoisement. Even so, the range of radical children’s literature published, especially in the past few decades—challenging racism, sexism, and heterosexism; promoting environmental responsibility, internationalism, peace, and collective solidarity against injustice and the abuse of authority; and urging children to challenge childism and to imagine other possible worlds—has been vast.

Playing chess against the military

“…It is not about “what” stories children should or should not be told, but about “how” (Nicolajeva apud Muñoz-Chereau, 2018: 236–237). Likewise, and somewhat ironically, it has been argued that our concern should be directed not at “age inappropriate” books, but at the “age inappropriate” world in which children— and adults—live (Salutin, 2006, apud Mickenberg and Nel, 2011: 454). In that regard, books which depict historical atrocities as meaningful to children’s daily lives can be recast as “suitable” to young readers, to the extent that they challenge reductive understandings of children as apolitical subjects and encourage them to reimagine the world by re-signifying the past in light of present concerns.…”

“…The book’s power to communicate with different audiences worldwide can be attested by the many prestigious international awards it has received. Winner of the Americas Book Award, of the UNESCO Prize for Children’s and Young People’s Literature in the Service of Tolerance, and of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award for promoting peace and social justice, The Composition has been more recently praised as a vivid example of what literary scholars call “radical children’s literature,” thus defined by Julia L. Mickenberg and Philip Nel (2011):works that cast aside many of the traditional assumptions about what is appropriate to children, acknowledge pressing concerns of the day as relevant to children’s lives, and refuse to whitewash difficult truths, but which also display literary and aesthetic quality and recognize the cognitive and emotional capacities of children. Such radical children’s literature models and encourages activism by children as well as adults, and exposes unjust uses of power.…”