Geopolitics and Activism in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
e-Book – Open Access
ISBN 9789027243829
This volume explores how literature for young readers shapes and is informed by the geopolitical realities of our world. Bringing together perspectives from across the globe, the volume shows how children’s and YA texts foster young people’s agency by engaging with national identity, conflict, ecological crises, decolonial struggles, and social justice movements. Through case studies spanning Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Palestine, Ukraine and beyond, the contributors reveal how books for young readers become sites of resistance, empowerment, and political imagination. The book also reflects on teaching and research practices that challenge epistemic inequalities. This collection offers a vital invitation to rethink young people’s literature as a dynamic force in negotiating and transforming geopolitical contexts.
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition, 18] Expected August 2026. ix, 229 pp. + index
Publishing status: In production
© John Benjamins
To be made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements | pp. vii–viii
- List of figures | pp. ix–x
- Introduction: Children’s and young adult literature, agency, and geopoliticsJustyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak and Giuliana Fenech | pp. 1–14
- Part 1. Child, community, and nationhood
- Chapter 1. Children of revolutions and war: Citizenship and agency in Ukrainian post-2014 children’s and young adult literatureMateusz Świetlicki | pp. 16–27
- Chapter 2. The small girl who lives next door: Child language activism in New ZealandNicola Daly | pp. 28–40
- Chapter 3. Children’s agency in/through Canadian children’s literatureJennifer Duggan and Amanda Fayant | pp. 41–61
- Part 2. The politicization of childhood
- Chapter 4. The hero called a pioneer: Constructing socialist citizens in YugoslaviaSvetlana Kalezić Radonjić | pp. 64–79
- Chapter 5. Questions of identity and belonging in Palestinian children’s literatureHanan Mousa | pp. 80–91
- Chapter 6. Negotiating space through playful resistance: Vignettes of Muslim girlhoods in Pakistani and Iranian narrativesTehmina Pirzada | pp. 92–103
- Chapter 7. The imaginary citizens, the trickster, and the mighty child: Anti-corruption children’s stories from IndonesiaHerdiana Hakim | pp. 104–117
- Part 3. The call to action
- Chapter 8. Reclaiming children’s narratives: Children writing for children in contemporary IndiaRitwika Roy | pp. 120–133
- Chapter 9. Ecoliteracy on the Nile: Egyptian picturebooks on protecting the Nile riverYasmine Motawy | pp. 134–153
- Chapter 10. Young adult voices against homophobia in Russia: Same-sex parenting in the coming-of-age novel The Days of Our Lives by Mikita FrankoIana Nikitenko | pp. 154–170
- Chapter 11. Relational agency and geopolitics in life writing by William Kamwamba, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, and Greta ThunbergKebere Maldaye | pp. 171–187
- Part 4. Care-full geopolitics in children’s literature
- Chapter 12. Empowering teachers and readers: Comparative understanding of social justice issues through inclusive youth literature in Germany and the UKFarriba Schulz, Melanie Ramdarshan Bold and Maureen Maisha Auma | pp. 190–210
- Chapter 13. Epistemic injustices in teaching and research practices with children’s literatureMacarena García-González | pp. 211–223
- About the editors and contributors