Studying Empowerment in English, French, and Persian Picture Books in the White Ravens Catalogues from 2015 to 2017

The International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich publishes the White Ravens Catalogue every year in 25 languages in order to recommend good children’s and young adults’ books. Many adults, including librarians, parents, teachers, and also researchers, refer to this list to select books or to do research. The present study is based on catalogues from 2015 to 2017 in three languages: English, French and Persian. In this paper, after having introduced the concept of empowerment in children’s literature, I have analyzed this concept in original picture books published in these catalogues and subsequently rated them. Altogether I have closely read 53 picture books with fictional stories; I intentionally excluded non-fiction and poetry. Also, in order to clarify the process of evaluation, I have elaborated on three sample picture books. The main objective of this study is, therefore, to show how empowerment occurs (or does not) in White Ravens Lists in those years. The results, however, show that empowerment is more prevalent in English picture books than in French picture books, with Persian picture books less empowering. This paper defines aspects of empowerment in children’s and young adult literature with an ideal goal of calling attention to the concept of empowerment in judging and selecting books for children.