Human Rights in Children's Literature

One of its strengths is that it does not merely depend on adults' analyses of key works of children's literature, but it also incorporates responses from child readers themselves. As the authors explain, they 'designed a qualitative, descriptive study' that involved their facilitation of reading groups comprised of 'children as young as four years old and as old as seventeen in their natural settings (schools and after-school programs)'; in turn, they drew on the participants' insights, anecdotes and questions as they considered how 'children's books allow children to think about human rights in ways that are developmentally suitable and profoundly imaginative'. s
The authors analyze and discuss children's books that exemplify the rights and ideas covered within that area of international law, as well as reader responses from children engaged with those same fictional texts. The result is a book that is complex, informative, and multifaceted... The selected results of this qualitative study help bolster the authors' claims that children's literature can and does affect the perception of human rights among young readers while supporting the idea that the study of children's literature is valid and important in this context. * Rebekah Fitzsimmons, The Lion and the Unicorn *
For those working to bring human rights home, the book offers important and unique insights on the role that childrens literature can play in shaping a culture of human rights, near and far. * Risa Kaufman, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute (Human Rights at Home Blog) *
The authors have embarked upon a unique and thought-provoking exploration of childrens literature through which readers gain new insights into how stories influence childrens awareness of their rights. This groundbreaking inquiry is a must read for all those interested in learning how literature serves as a vehicle for human rights education. * Association for Childhood Education International *
Jonathan Todres and Sarah Higinbotham reveal in this remarkable and long overdue book [that] the content of children's literature is crucial. It matters for the children concerned and, by extension, for the very nature of the societies in which they grow up. It helps children to understand that they have rights, and that these rights are important. Children's literature has a pivotal role to play in forging that early sense of self-worth, and Jonathan and Sarah are to be congratulated for shining a new light on a role that has, until now, been under-appreciated". (From the Foreword) -Carol Bellamy, Former Executive Director of UNICEF
Human Rights in Children's Literature is an important book for educators and anyone who believes that society is better off when everyone knows their rights and then adults are expected to talk about and teach rights to the next generation. This original inquiry combines children's rights, human rights, and literary theory with the larger purpose of finding better ways to teach human- and children's- rights in a timely manner to young people. The authors are interested in advancing children's rights by striving to enforce an under-appreciated principle in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - a requirement that people (children and adults alike) be informed of their rights. Instead of focusing on what rights children have or ought to have, this books asks us to consider why it is important to teach young people what are their rights. This could transform society, leading to citizens expecting and demanding that their rights be honored." -Martin Guggenheim, NYU Law
The relationship between human rights and children's literature is of the utmost importance to all those with an interest in either. Human Rights in Children's Literature is the first book to comprehensively reflect on the influence and interpenetration of the discourse of rights and the experience of literature in the moral development of children. The authors reveal a powerful sensitivity to the deep emotional undertow that the books we read in childhood instil in us and exert over us all of our lives. At the same time they demonstrate a sophisticated understanding not only of the theoretical and legal framework of human rights, but of the actual experiences of vulnerable children around the world. Those children, and our own, deserve no less." -Professor Desmond Manderson, Australian National University
Human Rights in Childrens Literature serves as an important guide and inspiration as parents, teachers, and advocates work together to develop a constructive vision for developing a human rights consciousness based on learning theory, literature review, and human rights legal analysis. - Sarah H. Paoletti, International Journal of Childrens Rights