Interrogating Anti-Asian Racism: Children’s Literature as a Nexus for Racial Literacy

Abstract

This article draws on reflections from a year-long study in a community-based book club in a southeastern Chinese Heritage Language (CHL) school during which Wenyu Guo read and discussed Asian American picturebooks with local Chinese immigrant children for nearly four years. These experiences demonstrate that children’s literature depicting authentic racialized history fosters students’ understanding of race, provides suggestions for using children’s literature with supplemental material to teach racialized history, and facilitates race talk. This article also includes a select list of picturebooks along with relevant resources.

Keywords

• global children's literature
• asian american literature
• education
• racialized history
• picture books