Faculty Research Grant

The cover of Maya Gonzalez's picture book, "When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times"

Illustrating Resilience: Children’s Picture Books for Oppressive Times

How might children’s literature help us respond to our current political climate? While all literature is politically (or at the very least, ideologically) motivated, a picture book that exemplifies political content for children is Maya Gonzalez’s When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times. Not only is it an indirect comment on Trump but it also reframes US history through bully discourse in its reflections on colonization, slavery, war, and xenophobia. When read as political texts, picture books have the potential to inspire collective action or activism.