Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Children's Literature in Education
Publication Date
2026
Keywords
Eastern Asian American children's literature, critiques of children's literature, adult-centered orientation in children's literature, bias in multicultural children's literature, thematic analysis
Abstract
This analysis examines multicultural children’s literature, specifically Eastern Asian American children’s literature, through a critical lens focusing on how adult influence shapes the stories and messages embedded within texts. Drawing on Nodelman’s (2008) critique of children’s literature as inherently structured by adult authority, we incorporate Chetty’s (2017a; 2017b) framing of bias as an adult-centered orientation and situate this within Biesta’s (2017) conceptualization of the normalization of adult authority in children’s experiences. Using this framework, a corpus of Eastern Asian American children’s literature was thematically analyzed. Themes centered on the simplicity of textual and visual presentation, the sociocultural power texts hold, and the forms of bias embedded within representation and narration. Patterns suggest that Eastern Asian American children’s literature reflects broader genre-level critiques while also revealing distinct tensions related to cultural representation, bias, and audience positioning. These findings highlight how multicultural texts can both challenge and reproduce dominant narratives, pointing to the need for more nuanced critical engagement with this growing subset of children’s literature.
DOI
10.1007/s10583-026-09713-7
Recommended Citation
Kim, S. & Evans, K. (2026). Who Is the Text Really Written For? A Critique of East Asian Children’s Literature. Children's Literature in Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-026-09713-7
Comments
This is the accepted manuscript of an article first published in Children's Literature in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-026-09713-7