The Power to Change the World: A Call for a Children’s Crusade

ABSTRACT The purpose of this text is to analyse a children’s book published initially in Portugal in 2015, entitled A cruzada das crianças (vamos mudar o mundo) [The Children’s Crusade (Let’s Change the World)], by Afonso Cruz. Our twofold objective is: i) to reflect upon the hybrid and multimodal genre of this book, since it includes characteristics of theatrical/performative, lyric and narrative genres, combining them with references or excerpts from other discourses and arts; and ii) to analyse how it promotes and encourages children’s activism, in order to change the world as we know it, in terms of the core values of the society. By addressing issues related to child activism and by depicting children as self-aware, proactive and demanding citizens, The children’s crusade allows children to express their claims and illustrates a growing trend in contemporary children’s literature by combining literary elements with non-fictional ones.