The Kitchen in Picture Books: Representation and Implications of Social, Environmental, and Ecological Issues

This study examines how the kitchen in contemporary picture books is represented as a symbolic place that goes beyond a mere cooking space to embody social, environmental, and ecological meanings. For this purpose, recently published picture books featuring kitchens were selected, and thematic and narrative analyses were conducted to explore the issues and implications embedded in them. The analysis revealed that the picture books implicitly reflected issues such as poverty and dietary imbalance, ecological destruction, and the breakdown of community, while commonly representing the kitchen as ‘a symbol of sustaining life and coexistence,’ ‘a space for recognizing causal relations of life,’ and ‘a place for restoring care and sincerity.’ Based on these findings, kitchen-themed picture books were discussed in terms of narratives that highlight the recovery of sincerity in everyday spaces, the cultivation of ecological responsibility, and the practice of social solidarity. This study suggests that picture books, by shaping literary representations of social, environmental, and ecological issues, also carry implications for internalizing ethical and communal values.