Depictions of Agency in Challenged Children’s Literature from School Libraries

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze depictions of agency in banned, challenged, and restricted picture books, specifically found in elementary school libraries in a selected school district. The books were identified by the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. Of the 156 challenges  27 were picture books that are included in the school library collections. The following research question guides this study: How is agency depicted, if at all, by the characters in the most banned, challenged, and restricted books, as identified by ALA’s OIF, specifically found in elementary school libraries in a midsized school district in the southwest? This study uses tenets from critical multicultural analysis (CMA) and elements of visual analysis (VA) to guide a critical content analysis of enactments of agency in the most banned, challenged, and restricted picture books from a selected school district’s school libraries in 2020. This study builds on and extends the existing research on intellectual freedom, agency development in children and demonstrations of agency in children’s literature.