Trends in Global Literature for Children and Adolescents

By Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Young boy shows his mutli-colored fingernails.WOW Currents for this month highlights the trends in global books published and/or distributed in the U.S. between Summer 2021 and 2022. Each year, we examine the new books published in that period of time and check out review sources and awards to identify books we believe will be of most interest to K-12 educators for use in their contexts. This process allows us to update the K-12 global reading lists, fiction and nonfiction, to post on the Worlds of Words Center website. This immersion into the new books also helps identify publication trends and patterns over the past year. This post overviews these trends and the posts during the month of August examine one trend in more depth with examples of books.

Note that the global lists are organized around themes such as everyday adventures, strength through relationships, forced journeys, taking action, locating self in the world and mythology and traditional literature. At the end of the upper grade fiction lists are several examples of paired novels where teachers can pair a classic novel, such as The Secret Garden, with several pieces of global fiction. In addition, books that are out of print were deleted from the lists.

Girl with cat on shoulder holds sword at the ready another kid holds a flashlight in the backgroudGlobal books are selected for the lists by consulting global award lists, such as the USBBY Outstanding International Books and the Batchelder, and awards focusing on particular regions of the world, such as the Children’s Africana Book Award and the Middle East Book Award, among many others. Throughout the year, global books are identified from review sources and global books sent to Worlds of Words by publishers for review. To be considered for inclusion, a book must be set in a global culture outside the U.S. or focus on a character who moves between a global culture and the U.S. The book must receive positive reviews and be recommended for educators to consider for classrooms and libraries. Finally, the book must be culturally specific,rather than a generic story where no cultural references or values are evident. Some picturebooks depict animals or children in a generic setting with no obvious connections to a culture’s traditions or values. Others focus on animals or children in a setting that includes cultural artifacts in the illustrations or have cultural values at the heart of the story. The same pattern can be seen in fantasies, with some embedded in the mythology and cultural traditions of global cultures and including characters with strong cultural identities, while other fantasies remain generic.

Some of the trends in the 2022 global books are continuations of trends from 2021, such as more books set in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, with many of the authors having strong family ties to the global cultures in which their books are set. Picturebooks and novels from India are a major trend for 2022, with many of these books written by immigrants from India. Another continuing trend are books about refugee experiences, but the focus of these refugee books has shifted to the experiences of families at the Mexico/U.S. border and to historical immigration experiences such as refugees from Cuba and Bosnia. In addition, the trend of middle grade fantasies that integrate global mythologies and folklore continues with recent books set in different Asian traditions, such as Pahua and the Soul Stealer (Lori Lee, 2021) based in Hmong mythology.

Three figures on a bridge over fireA positive trend is the publication of contemporary picturebooks in multiple global contexts that depict the everyday experiences and concerns of young children. Many recent books portray relationships with grandparents, particularly the separation across oceans between a child and a grandparent, such as Grandpa Across the Ocean (Hyewon Yum, 2021). Other portrayals include grandparents experiencing memory loss, the death of a grandparent and grandparents as teachers. In addition, recent picturebooks highlight children’s changing emotions as in Rainbow Hands (Mamta Nainy, 2022) and several novels highlight anxiety such as The Thing I’m Most Afraid Of (Kristin Levine, 2021).

three teens on a balcony look surprisedAnother interesting trend are translingual picturebooks and novels written in English but integrating another language within conversations between translingual characters. Himawari House (Harmony Becker, 2021), a graphic novel set in Japan, integrates five languages as teens gather for a language institute. This focus on language is also evident in books about language learning for immigrant children and in children’s fight to retain their own names despite struggles by peers to pronounce their names, such as in Thao (Thao Lam, 2021).

Children in red togas enjoy bubbles inside a bath houseOther trends include picturebooks focusing on a wider range of holidays, such as The Monster in the Bathhouse (Sina Merabinan, 2022) about the Persian New Year, and picturebooks and novels in which children are depicted as taking action for social justice in their own contexts, such as Thirst (Varsha Bajaj, 2022), about water inequity in Mumbai, India. Finally, new picturebooks and nonfiction highlight an appreciation of nature and environmental issues, particularly related to the ocean. Given the current global focus on climate change, many more books about this focus are sure to emerge in 2022 and 2023.

These trends are discussed in more depth in posts over the month, along with examples of books that reflect these trends. The 2022 K-12 global reading lists are available on the website and are organized by grade level, K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12 and separated by fiction and nonfiction. Separate lists of global poetry and short stories are also available. Each book on these lists includes text complexity information and a short annotation and the most highly recommended books are starred.

WOW Currents is a space to talk about forward-thinking trends in global children’s and adolescent literature and how we use that literature with students. “Currents” is a play on words for trends and timeliness and the way we talk about social media. We encourage you to participate by leaving comments and sharing this post with your peers. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit its archival stream.

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