Two Professors Critique the Representations of Africans and African Americans in Picture Books

The authors examined the sociocultural representations of black children in picture books. Three critical perspectives were used to examine 23 picture books containing black characters. Questions used in this critical analysis were derived from sociocultural implications of implicit messages within texts, critical literacy, and cultural and social reader response theories. Our aim was to determine what stories are being told and how two adults, one black and one white, interpret these stories. We also considered the importance of analyzing these picture books when using them in elementary classrooms. We found that our different cultural and racial backgrounds influenced our response to a number of the books, clearly pointing to the advantage of discussing children's books with colleagues of different races.