Why political books for kids are more popular than ever – and six you should definitely read

Children’s literature with a political message was once frowned upon, but now it’s everywhere, with authors writing about everything from eco-socialism to redistribution

All children’s books are political, because everything is: to walk the under-fives through a gallery of girls in pink who are waiting for a prince is easily as strident as any of the more delicate messages about human intercourse you might find in a Michael Rosen book. Yet children’s literature with a progressive political bent was traditionally frowned upon – often held to be “politicising”, and thereby exploiting the malleable young mind. That has been turned on its head. It’s not so much that authors don’t recognise the politics in their own work; rather that they have decided, en masse, that the miniatures are ready for it.

This is discernible both in newly bold, explicit messages – from eco-socialism to trade unionism to racial diversity – and in the cast of characters, fore and background: a recent US study found that, in 2017, a quarter of kids’ protagonists were not white, up from 14% the year before. It’s not new, of course – Dr Seuss was speaking for the trees before anyone even believed in climate change (The Lorax, anyone?) – but it is everywhere.

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from Books | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2z6BVzP

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