Course
ENG198
Semester
Fall
Instructor's Name
Laura Vorachek
Year
2024
Writing Process
This paper discusses the influence that picture books can have on perceptions of gender and societal expectations, first for children and later for adults. Elementary literature has become a controversial topic in recent years, as censorship has increased. There is a serious fear that children have ineffective and even harmful role models for their gender. I studied how picture books—for both young readers and the adults they will inevitably grow into—have lasting positive and negative impacts on how individuals perceive gender in relation to society and themselves. I evaluated scholarly sources, many of which involved studies that showed how children interacted with and absorbed the literary material they were presented with. This was an expansion on a previous essay I wrote, which focused solely on juvenile development, by surveying adults between the ages of 18-30 on their own attitudes in relation to the picture books they read through childhood. Through my research, I concluded that the effect of children's picture books is dependent on how the author handles discussions of gender, whether that be explicit or implied through character representations.
Recommended Citation
Roell, Rachel
(2025)
"The Lessons Behind the Bedtime Story,"
Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing: Vol. 11:
Iss.
2, Article 6.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/lxl/vol11/iss2/6
