Publication Date
8-2026
Abstract
This article reports on a study that examined eight picturebooks published since 2021 that portray contemporary wars, exploring picturebooks’ potential role in shaping children’s understandings of armed conflict. It investigated how these texts present historical context and construct representations of war. The authors’ analysis focuses on three key elements: the causes of war, depictions of wartime scenes, and the resolutions of war. The findings indicate that the picturebooks portray war realistically through textual and visual narratives, illustrating how war disrupts the child protagonist’s everyday life. However, the books rarely address the underlying causes of war. This study suggests that teachers critically consider what information children receive (or do not receive) from war narrative picturebooks and how it shapes their understandings of war.
Recommended Citation
Kim, H., & Wee, J. (2026). Deferred Understandings: A Critical Content Analysis of Representations of War in Picturebooks. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 65 (2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol65/iss2/4
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