The Almost Invisible Community in New Zealand Award-Winning and Finalist Children’s Literature Published Between 1997-2021

Since the early 1990s New Zealand has seen law reforms and new legislation to improve the rights of LGBTQIA+ New Zealanders. While work has been done to document representations of this community in children’s literature in other jurisdictions (Clark & Blackburn, 2016; Crisp, Gardner and Almeida, 2017; Jiménez, 2015; Lo, 2011; Young, 2015), there is very little research available relative to the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community of New Zealand in award-winning and finalist New Zealand children’s literature. Through quantitative data and critical content analysis of 243 award-winning or finalist books from the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults from 1997-2001 and 2017–2021 this article examines how frequently the LGBTQIA+ community of New Zealand is being represented in New Zealand children’s literature, and whether that representation has changed over time. Results show that heterosexual New Zealanders are being privileged over LGBTQIA+ New Zealand who are underrepresented relative to their population; there are portions of the LGBTQIA+ community that are entirely invisible. However, there were examples of books to show how heteronormativity can be disrupted in the future of New Zealand award-winning and finalist children’s literature.