Latinø Children and Their Picturebooks Over Time

Latinø children’s literature scholars point to the early 1990s as a crucial time in the history of US children’s literature by and about Latinøs, rightly claiming that up to this time, such books presented miniscule publication rates and received limited mainstream attention (Koss et al.; Naidoo “Opening doors”; Nilsson). In some cases, books with Latinø themes presented highly problematic racioethnic representations in both their verbal (written) and visual narratives, particularly when created by non-Latinøs (Quiroa, “Promising Portals”). These trends continued beyond the 1990s until more recently when shifts in the larger field of US multicultural literature by and about diverse racial and ethnic groups occurred1. The history of children’s literature by and about Latinøs in the U.S. is not as robust as that afforded mainstream and European literature, and deserves periodic documentation that equally takes into account their verbal (written) and visual (illustrations) narratives. Therefore, I provide a historical review of related, extant scholarship and book titles of this body of books, specifically focusing on those in picturebook formats. A central tenet for my work is that their visual narratives have received too little consideration from an interdisciplinary approach, including the fields of a) education (English language arts, biliteracy, and social studies); b) librarianship, c) ethnic/cultural studies, d) Spanish language and literature studies, e) semiotics, and d) art. Thus, an interdisciplinary approach can broaden understandings of how Latinø children and their narratives are portrayed in their picturebooks today2. This review is also crucial given the increasing technological advances of the twenty-first century resulting in greater availability and emphasis on reading multimodal texts like picturebooks and graphic novels (Chesner; Serafini et al.).