"Depictions of Religion in Children’s Picture Books" by Don A. Wicks, Darin Freeburg et al.
 

Document Type

Article

Subject Area(s)

Library and Information Science

Abstract

How children are introduced to concepts of faith is a sensitive matter. One approach used by both religious and secular organizations is children’s literature, including children’s picture books. Picture books are books primarily for preschoolers. The books tell a story using illustrations and few words. This paper offers an exploratory study of how children are introduced to religion and spirituality through illustrative techniques and textual content in such literature. A content analysis of illustrations from 12 titles sampled from a larger collection of 21,000 picture books published in the past 40 or more years was conducted. The current sample comes from a larger sample of 56 books that were analyzed for textual content. The intent of the study is to introduce possible areas of more-detailed research into how religious concepts are represented in picture books. Using subject descriptors in the cataloguing records of the collection, analysis was restricted to the following themes: angels, church, god, heaven, Jesus, and creation.

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