Culturally authentic literature is widely recognized for its efficacy in developing children’s multicultural awareness and intercultural understanding. Through systematic examination and analysis of 53 Children’s picture books featuring China and its culture published in North America, this study investigated the extent to which the selected books were culturally authentic, and how these books would exert their functions as multicultural literature for readers. The results revealed that most books portrayed cultural elements authentically, while a number of books contained incorrect, stereotyped or outdated information. The mismatch of some cultural elements in illustrations with the storylines was especially notable. The ways in which the selected books would play their roles as windows and mirrors for multicultural education, and the implications drawn for writers, illustrators, and publishers of multicultural children’s books were discussed.
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Zhang et al. (2021) studied this question.
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