The child's image of his ever-changing physical body, combined with social speculations on his appearance, exists in a charged state of emotional tension. The child seeks to build a strong, confident body image which appeals to himself, but finds this stressful when social others attempt to make claims on his physicality, on how he should look as opposed to how he wants to look.
This study focuses on children's picture books with protagonists who suffer a disfiguration and therefore defy socially-defined body images; their respective disfigurations make them outcasts. Children's picture books convey political themes regarding bodily image to a receptive child readership skilled enough to interpret visual and verbal codes conveyed through images of child protagonists in disfigured bodily forms.
Journal
The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's LiteratureISSN
1551-5680Volume
15Issue
1Publisher
La Trobe UniversitySection Title
Emerging VoicesAuthor Biography
Andrew Hoe his degree in literature from the University of Redlands. He has worked as a high school English teacher, where his involvement in the school-wide reading program led to an interest in children's literature. He hopes to continue his studies with an emphasis on Asian American children's literature.Date Created
2011-03-04Rights Statement
Essays and articles published in The Looking Glass may be reproduced for non-profit use by any educational or public institution; letters to the editor and on-site comments made by our readers may not be used without the expressed permission of that individual. Any commercial use of this journal, in whole or in part, by any means, is prohibited. Authors of accepted articles assign to The Looking Glass the right to publish and distribute their text electronically and to archive and make it permanently available electronically. They retain the copyright and, 90 days after initial publication, may republish it in any form they wish as long as The Looking Glass is acknowledged as the original source.Data source
OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/261
