Picture Book Analysis

I once read the same picture book to two different five-year-old boys; one who is considered a “normal” child and the other had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Autism or ASD). The picture book that we selected, from the pile provided, was about a little boy who gets into trouble. The “normal” child was able to identify with the character; he giggled when the character did something naughty, and agreed that he was like the main character. However, the child diagnosed with autism asked: “if [the character] was like him,” because he wanted to be able to recognize his own struggles within a story, and it was heartbreaking to tell that he wasn’t . The number of quality picture books, that accurately, realistically depict autism, or

According to the article, "Juvenile Literature And The Portrayal Of Developmental Disabilities,” (2009) co-written by Tina Taylor Dyches, Mary Anne Prater, and Melissa Leininger: “Books with characters with disabilities often endorse demeaning attitudes toward individuals with disabilities, equate low intelligence with poor moral character, present positive attitudes but in a preachy way, or compensate for the character’s disability by giving them more of something else” (qtd. in Dryches, Prater & Leininger). These books were for the typical children, not for those with a disability. While the representation of disabilities in children’s books has improved over the years, studies have taken note of the slow moving progress of representation of children’s books. The characters that do have disabilities become one-dimensional figures, diminishing the quality of the literature that is being presented to children. In Santiago Solis’ article, “The Disabilitymaking Factory: Manufacturing ‘Differences’ through Children’s Books” (2015), he explains that many books promote ideas of what is good and what is bad, and in that depiction, things like “good looks, high intelligence” and “physical wholeness” are quantified as normal and good, whereas disabilities are regaled to be “demeaned, stigmatized, ridiculed, feared and degraded”