Representing gender and the body in narrative non-fiction picturebooks for children and young adults

Insight into decisionmaking by publishers, authors and illustrators

Abstract

This article analyzes four current non-fiction picturebooks published between 2017 and 2021 on the topic of the body and addresses the question of what can be depicted and what is appropriate for children. Whose bodies are depicted and how, and why? First of all, the political-social level will be illuminated. This forms the basis for the thesis that non-fiction picture books are first and foremost a mirror of what is negotiated as the norm or just barely accepted deviation and what adults (with children) dare to talk about. Authors, illustrators, and employees in publishing houses thus find themselves in the role of having to decide what is most likely to be bought by adults for children and what is marketable, as well as to explore subversive potentials of identification possibilities.