Conference Theme: Kids and Adults Allowed:
Children’s Literature for Everyone
Children’s literature and our understanding of it is becoming increasingly complex. The assumption that young people benefit from stories that have characteristics different from those read by adults is not something to be taken for granted. Some have argued, for example, that the ease of access to wide ranging knowledge via television and the internet has erased the division between adult and child. Some have further argued that children’s literature is a misnomer because the texts labeled as such really only serve adults’ interests. Certainly adults control the creation and dissemination of this literature. They also, increasingly, seem to be enjoying it. So much so, that adults can now enjoy “children’s books” written exclusively for them, as explored by Michelle Ann Abate in No Kids Allowed: Children’s Literature for Adults (2020). Much of the delight that children’s literature offers to readers of all ages comes through creatively experimenting with format and multiple modes of representation. Picturebooks and graphic narratives can make complex ideas easier to understand, and add layers of complexity to seemingly simple stories. Such features serve the interests of divergent age groups. Kenneth Kidd, for example, finds that children’s books often do the work of philosophy as well as contribute to the way philosophy is often learned by many adults. Some of the most poignant cultural critiques revolve around children’s texts and the perceiving eye of child narrators. Children’s books tend to be shorter than adult texts and linguistically simpler while still containing rich, poetic language and exploration of serious issues. Such features can stimulate meaningful foreign and second language learning to students of all ages. Although children’s literature may never have been completely the domain of the child, scholars, educators, and readers of all ages continue to find and reinvent ways in which texts broadly categorized as children’s literature can be used and appropriated by people of all ages. This conference seeks to explore the features and uses of children’s literature for divergent ages and people groups.