- Tanja Nathanael and Olivia Bushardt
School in Children's & Young Adult Literature
For many, September means “Back to School!” In recent years, September has also been designated “World Kid Lit Month.” In celebration of both these themes that go so well together, we present the following selection of children’s books from around the world that share this dual topic. These selected texts range in time from the early nineteenth century to the present day and represent a variety of national and cultural contexts. As will be seen, “school” is more than merely a building where children are educated. Ideologies about what and how children learn are connected thematically to sites of learning. Additionally, classroom and playground interactions build children’s social skills, raise cultural awareness, and challenge emotional growth and personal identity. Especially in today’s multicultural world, a classroom may contain a multitude of cultural backgrounds, becoming as it were the “world” in microcosm. Global children’s literature can open up this world to today’s readers by illustrating transitions in education pedagogy and childhood development communities.
CHINA
The Anthology of Chinese Fictions on Adolescent Girls’ Psychology / 中国少女心理小说集
Authors: Qin Wenjun, Cheng Wei, and Chen Danyan
Publisher: 21st Century Publishing Group, 2016
Language: Chinese
ISBN: 978-7556818204
The Anthology of Chinese Fictions on Adolescent Girls’ Psychology (originally published in 1988) is one of the most renowned collections of girls’ stories in Chinese children’s literature. Authored by Qin Wenjun, Cheng Wei, and Chen Danyan, the Anthology includes 19 short stories/novellas depicting young girls' lives in late 20th and early 21st century China. Many of the stories are explicitly about school life, such as Chen Danyan's novella, "The Answer to the Riddle of Youth", "The Death of a Middle-School Girl", and "Black Hair." All these stories feature protagonists caught in the uncertain phases of adolescence while struggling to reconcile their emerging sense of self with the strictures of school rules, gender norms, and the pressures of a test-based education system. Questions of education within school contexts are also negotiated in stories like "A Belated Respect" and "Attachment" by Qin Wenjun, which explores the intricacies of teacher-student relationships and interrogates the meaning of education and the role of the adult mentor in fostering nurturing intergenerational bonds.
Importantly, the Anthology came into being alongside the increasing social prominence of only-child families in China. It thereby mirrors—and participates in—the broader, ongoing debates regarding children’s (especially young girls’) educational experiences within a unique social context and historical juncture. Within the backdrop of the one-child policy, home education was valued as much as school education. Thus we have stories depicting parental approaches to youth education, evidenced in works like “Girl Luo Wei”, “While You Are Young”, and “The Governess.” Overall, the Anthology can be seen as a microcosm for understanding the sophisticated interplay between socio-political forces and (gendered) representations of schooling and education in contemporary China.
ABOUT YAN DU: Yan Du is a PhD student and a CSC-Cambridge Trust scholar at the Centre for Research in Children’s Literature at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her research interest lies in representations of writing and girlhood in youth fiction, poetry, and media culture. Her academic works have been published or are forthcoming in journals including Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, and Cultures, Girlhood Studies, Barnboken, International Journal of Young Adult Literature, and Nordic Journal of Childlit Aesthetics. She has translated a number of picturebooks, and her new authored picturebook, My Pocket Bathroom, illustrated by Erin Vanessa, is published by Yehoo Press.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mrs. Leicester's School, Or, The Histories of Several Young Ladies, Related by Themselves
Author: Charles and Mary Lamb
Publisher: Printed for M.J. Godwin, 1809
Language: English
Mrs. Leicester's School, Or, The Histories of Several Young Ladies, Related by Themselves by Charles and Mary Lamb (1808), published in the UK. This book gives a glimpse into visions of education and school stories from some of the earliest decades of the school story as a specific literary genre. Co-authored by the Lamb siblings, it is one of the first school stories that does not betray any specific anxiety about what students will or will not learn at school. Unlike previous school stories, like Sarah Fielding's seminal The Governess (1742) or Dorothy Kilner's Anecdotes of a Boarding School (c. 1796), Mary and Charles Lamb are content to treat the school primarily as a place that unites a disparate group of girls in a social setting and downplays the significance of adult guidance in this setting. The education promoted in the Lambs' book encourages the girls to subvert authoritative structures and voices in place of a horizontal mode of respectful speaking and listening, challenging the idea that stories must be morally or intellectually educative, and promoting the empathetic or socially emotional education in their place.
ABOUT JESSICA LIM: Jessica Lim teaches English at St Andrew's Cathedral School, Sydney. She previously supervised at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, where she was a Director of Studies in English. With Louise Joy, she has co-edited the book Women's Literary Education (Edinburgh University Press), and she has published articles in the Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies and the Charles Lamb Bulletin.
INDONESIA / AUSTRALIA
Pie in the Sky
Author: Remy Lai
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co, 2019
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1250314093
Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai is a heartfelt middle-grade novel that stands out both in its vibrant storytelling and captivating illustrations. This is one of my favorite books to recommend because it really embodies a child protagonist’s lived experience when moving to another country and confronted with a language barrier and the anxieties that come with ESL instruction. The book opens the space for educators, especially future teachers, to question the structure of a school setting in terms of what resources does a school need to support students in their language practices. Every time I recommend this book to a peer, they always come back to tell me that it is a sad book. While this book is seamlessly interwoven with humor and heart, it's a story of Jingwen, an immigrant boy who equates his challenging transition to a new country with the intricacy of baking cakes.
One of the novel's most impactful elements is its authentic portrayal of school life. Many students, especially those in diverse and multicultural environments, can relate to the feelings of alienation and the fear of being perceived as different. Through Jingwen's journey, readers are given a nuanced look into the trials and tribulations of adjusting to a new school system, which often goes beyond academic challenges to encompass emotional and social ones. Pie in the Sky reminds us of the resilience of children, and the importance of ethics of care and empathy, and the importance of providing tools for success for our students.
ABOUT EDCEL JAVIER CINTRON-GONZALEZ: Edcel Javier Cintrón-Gonzalez is a proud Puerto Rican, scholar, and graduate worker who is pursuing a Ph.D. in English Studies with a focus in Children and Young Adult Literature. When he is not working on academic things, he enjoys cooking, playing video games and writing about them in the website Gamers with Glasses and writing his monthly Children’s Picture Book review in Spanish for the Palabreadores Newsletter. Edcel is the author of Irma, Maria, Fiona, and Me published in May 2023 by PRESS 254/Spoonfuls and the recipient of the 2023 Outstanding Social Media Manager Award by #REDBIRDPROUD social media awards.
INDIA
The Hill School Girls
Titles in Series: Alone (#1), Secrets (#2), Strangers (#3), Trouble (#4)
Author: A. Coven
Publisher: Duckbill Books and Publications, 2018-2019
Language: English
ISBN: 978-9387103009
The Hill School Girls by A. Coven (India). These books were published between 2018 and 2019 by a pseudonymous collective of authors, and published by specialty children’s publishing imprint Duckbill. Set in an experimental school in a fictional Indian hill station, they relate the adventures of a group of four girls navigating changes in their school system and home lives. The boarding school story as a popular genre has its roots in 19th century Britain, and (as with all popular genres) several of its conventions have developed over time as part of a self-reflexive conversation about and within the genre itself. The Hill School Girls sets itself very firmly in this tradition of writing-with and-back to the genre, invoking well-known scenes and tropes, particularly from Enid Blyton. In a postcolonial India where both children’s and YA literature and the education system itself have a complicated history with Britain, the transplanting of this genre becomes particularly fascinating; through in its framing of the students’ relationships to the school, the school within the wider community, and the town's own colonial history, the series navigates those balances between the historical/contemporary genre and global/local context in complex and entertaining ways.
ABOUT AISHWARYA SUBRAMANIAN: Dr. Aishwarya Subramanian is an Associate Professor of English at O.P Jindal Global University. Her research encompasses popular and genre fiction, children’s literature, spatiality and postcolonial nationalisms, with a particular focus on postimperial Britain. She’s a reviews editor at award-winning SF magazine Strange Horizons, and serves on the editorial board of Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures.
Dr. Aishwarya Subramanian presented as part of the International Committee's Sponsored Panel at the 46th Annual Children's Literature Association Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
PHILIPPINES
Pol Purol
Author: Chris Rosales
Illustration: Leo Kempis Ang
Publisher: Lampara Publishing House, 2018
Language: bilingual, Filipino-English
ISBN: 9789715188890
The bilingual (Filipino-English) picture book from the Philippines tells the story of Pol, a young learner who struggles to perform at school. He finds school a not-so-friendly environment. He becomes anxious when asked to recite, participate, or complete a test. His poor response to school activities made his teachers mad, and his classmates saw him as dull-witted. Pol's concerned parents asked for help from various professionals, but nobody found a solution to his problems. In the end, Pol received a visit from his grandmother, who listened to his schooling woes. With grandmotherly advice to trust oneself, Pol developed his self-assurance and made progress in completing his studies. The story demonstrates the need to support young learners with love, confidence, and trust as they navigate the expectations and accompanying challenges in a new learning environment.
The illustrations using predominantly pastel colors complemented the narrative with emotions and a sense of humor. Using everyday helpers to help Pol, such as the plumber, gardener, and cleaning lady, to name a few, are quite hilarious, and children can easily relate to Pol since they encounter these individuals daily. Further, introducing the grandmother as someone providing the solution to the problem demonstrates the significance of family members in the Philippines as a source of compassion and wisdom. Finally, a study guide containing suggestions and strategies for using the picture book with children is available to parents, teachers, and caregivers.
ABOUT DANILO M. BAYLEN: Danilo M. Baylen is an instructional technology, media, and design professor at the University of West Georgia, USA. He studies visual representations, especially in Filipino children's books, and teaches the design of learning experiences for onsite, online, and hybrid modalities. In 2023, he served as a Fulbright U.S. scholar in the Philippines.
Dr. Baylen served on the ChLA International Committee from 2018-2021.
ITALY
Antigone sta nell'ultimo banco / Antigone sits in the last row
Author: Francesco D'Adamo
Publisher: Giunti Publisher, 2019
Language: Italian
ISBN: 9788809875067
The novel, in part through its creative weaving of Sophocles and of To Kill a Mockingbird into the plot, powerfully dramatizes how a middle-school girl navigates a series of ethical challenges related to the immigrant workers in her town. Her fellow students, her family, her teachers, and most of all her deep identification with Antigone as she rehearses the part of Ismene for the school play, all inform her growing social awareness and her choices.
ABOUT MARIA TRUGLIO: Maria Truglio is Professor of Italian and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State (University Park), and member of the International Committee (2020-2026).
PALESTINE
The Girl Who Stitched the Stars
Author: Shereen Malherbe
Illustration: Sarah Nesti Willard
Publisher: Bright Books, 2022
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-915025-09-8
For many children, “fitting in” is a key issue at school and an important part of developing personal and cultural identity. The Girl Who Stitched the Stars (2022) tells the story of one girl’s struggle to fit in at school while maintaining her Palestinian identity. Noor becomes quite anxious when she learns of the upcoming non-uniform day at her school. She has never gone to school without wearing her uniform, and she knows that her homemade clothes will be different than those of her friends. But her fears are calmed when she recalls the joy she experienced when selecting the beautiful blue fabric for her dress, and the pride she felt when cross-stitching stars in silver thread on the cuffs and hem. She remembers the joy of wearing her dress to harvest festivals and Eids when she lived in the souk in Palestine, and how each unique pattern in the traditional clothing represents each village – recognizable in her people’s culture all over the world.
Noor is still nervous on non-uniform day, but she discovers that other children have clothes with stories, too. Hannah wears a vintage coat that her aunty made as an eco-activist. Haris wears his traditional Malay sarong. In the end, Noor learns that believing in oneself and being different makes the best stories. And she learns that learning about each other’s stories brings people together.
This book features the art of Palestinian embroidery – tatreez in Arabic – recently added by UNESCO to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
ABOUT TANJA NATHANAEL: Tanja Nathanael currently teaches Children’s Literature and Fantasy & Science Fiction Literature online for San Jose State University. An alumni of SJSU, she earned her Bachelor's in 2005 and Master's in 2010. She received her doctorate from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2019. Her study of international children’s literature has taken her to Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. She formerly served on the international committee for the Children's Literature Association (2015-2018) and continues to support its goals as co-editor of the ChLA International Committee Blog to encourage interest in international children’s literature. She co-edited Global Children’s Literature in the College Classroom (2023) with Dr. Sara Austin (Kentucky Wesleyan College) and a managing editor for Climate Literature in Education at ClimateLit.org. Her research examines borders and peripheries in children’s literature, climate literature, fantasy & science fiction literature, and nineteenth-century British literature.
ARGENTINA
El alumno nuevo / The New Classmate
Author: Pablo De Santis
Illustration: Cristian Turdera
Publisher: Calibroscopio, 2021
Language: Spanish
ISBN: 978-987-3967-49-8
This picturebook from famed Argentinian journalist and author Pablo De Santis mixes elements of science fiction, mystery, the uncanny, and horror. A new “perfect” student joins protagonist Emma’s sixth grade class. At first, Emma attempts to cover her assignments so that the new student won’t copy her answers but soon realizes that the new student doesn’t need to cheat as he earns perfect marks in everything. The other students tease him but soon stop as he pays them no mind. One day the new student is absent, and the teacher asks Emma to visit his home. When Emma arrives, she finds the student lying open on the table with his gears and mechanisms open. The student is actually a robot constructed by his father.
The student soon moves away, and Emma grows up, completing her studies and becoming a sixth grade teacher at another school in another town. One day, her class gets a new student and in walks the robot boy, a little bit patched and worn. At the end of the day, Emma asks the student why he is still in the sixth grade when he had already mastered the material years ago when they were in school together. The student tells Emma that because he cannot age, he and his father had to move every few years and that he had to learn from the other students how to make mistakes, rather than making mistakes to learn as Emma did. This picturebook teaches readers to appreciate that mistakes that we make along the way to our educational destinations.
ABOUT OLIVIA BUSHARDT: Olivia Bushardt serves as co-editor of the ChLA International Committee’s blog and has presented her research at international children's literature conferences including the Children’s Literature Association and The Child and the Book Conference. Working on the blog has enabled her to create connections with children’s literature scholars, authors, illustrators, and teachers around the world. We are always looking for more stories, and if you would like to contribute to the blog, please email us your ideas chlainternational@gmail.com.
AUSTRALIA
How to Heal a Broken Wing
Author: Bob Graham
Publisher: Walker Books, 2010
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1406325492
It is so hard to choose just one when there are so many books that are my favorites. Thinking about the times we live in, two come to mind for their powerful messages that connect us to current realities. One of those that has become so special to me is How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham (2017). The visually appealing images make the story so emotionally strong, communicating a message of compassion and empathy. Calling on each of us, the story denounces the indifference that in many ways defines society. The image of the young child that carefully notices and cares for the injured bird calls us to reflect on the missed opportunities to act with concern and compassion. Graham makes us remember that every life is important and deserves attention. Even the smallest action is important for all that it means to those in need and especially for how by helping and caring for someone’s life we are changing our own.
ABOUT WILMA ROBLES-MELENDEZ: Wilma Robles-Melendez is Professor of Early Childhood Education and Leadership at the Fischler College of Education of Nova Southeastern University (Fort Lauderdale, FL). Her research addresses diversity, social justice issues, and immigration.
USA
Because of Mr. Terupt
Author: Rob Buyea
Publisher: Delacorte Books, 2010
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0375858246
It is a challenge for me to select one book that really stood out for me because I have read so many that have me revisiting them over and over again. This reminds me of Langer’s theory which says that response is recursive, the story does not end when the reader closes the book but the reader is constantly going back and rethinking what the story means. One of the books that have really stood out for me is Rob Buyea’s Because of Mr. Terupt (2010). This story is void of pictures but the author has skillfully described each character and action that the reader feels close to each of them. This story means so much to me because it lies at the heart of what teaching is about. It is about teachers who make a difference in the lives of the children they teach. The story represents a current day classroom, which has students who represent the spectrum of behavior that is found in most classrooms, from the prankster, to the bully, to the student who feels like an outcast, to the bookworm, but most of all is the teacher who makes a difference and changes the lives of the students.
ABOUT AUDREY HENRY: Audrey Henry is professor emeritus at Nova Southeastern University. Before retirement she was professor for Reading Education.
CHINA
I Want to Be Good / 我要做好孩子
Author: Huang Beijia
Translator: Nicky Harman
Publisher: New Classic Press
Language: English
ISBN: 9781912553853
What does Chinese-style education look like? In 2015, the BBC invited Chinese teachers to teach in a British secondary school for four weeks as part of the documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough?. The Chinese way of teaching was then known and criticized for its rigid discipline, heavy workload and teachers' absolute authority over students. As Chinese myself, I cannot deny that these do feature in Chinese-style education. But underlying these notions is China’s emphasis on academic performance. I Want to Be Good written by Huang Beijia reflects on Chinese-style education that prioritizes academic achievement over personality building. Jin Ling, the protagonist, is one of those average students who want to be “good”— academically good. Being good means her parents and her teachers will love her more. It also means she can get more resources as her academic success in turn validates the school’s teaching excellence. The top students in Jin Ling’s class are invited in secret to take an after-school course to improve their grades. Even if they do something wrong, they can avoid punishment simply because they are “good.” Jin Ling is frequently discouraged and stressed out by the societal expectations set by the school and her tiger mom, but she is brave enough to speak out against the unfair treatment of "bad" children and determined to maintain her laid-back lifestyle. Beijia depicts Jin Ling as an agentic girl: she works hard to improve her grades, but not to be consumed by grades. Unwaveringly, Jin Ling navigates her path to becoming a GOOD child.
ABOUT SHUYA SU: Shuya Su is a new PhD student at the University of Florida. Her areas of specialization and interest include multiethnic YA literature, death studies, and Chinese juvenile literature. In 2022, she received her MA in Children’s Literature, Media and Culture from the University of Glasgow, UK. She loves reading and reviewing international YA literature, and her most recent English-language book review appears on Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures.
UNITED KINGDOM
Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustration: Quentin Blake
Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 1988
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0142410370
I recommend Roald Dahl's Matilda (1988). First, Dahl's text teaches young readers about the faults inherent in the adult-child power dynamic, particularly through Matilda's relationship with her parents and school principal, Miss Trunchbull. Moreover, in a genre heavily dominated by male heroes, Matilda serves as an empowering narrative in which a young girl's tremendous power and agency allows her and her classmates to triumph over the tyranny of Miss Trunchbull. Ultimately, Matilda--while demonstrating that school bullies come in all forms--also provides a narrative in which the small and seemingly vulnerable triumph over such malice, offering (to use Dahl's words) "a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.”
ABOUT JAMES M. CURTIS: James M. Curtis, Ph.D., is an Instructor of English at Louisiana State University Shreveport. His work focuses on the intersections of psychoanalysis and children’s literature and appears in Children’s Literature in Education, the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Gender Forum, and in edited collections like Children and Childhood in the Works of Stephen King (2020). Most recently, he has edited a collection of articles on representations of childhood in popular children's narratives entitled Childhood and Innocence in American Culture: Heartaches and Nightmares (2023), published by Lexington Books.