You, Me and Diversity: Picturebooks for Teaching Development and Intercultural Education by Anne M. Dolan (review)

Children’s literature is increasingly recognized for its ability to build bridges between cultures, to increase empathy, and to serve as a platform for learners to take social action. Anne M. Dolan’s You, Me and Diversity, in response to United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) research highlighting teachers’ lack of confidence in selecting suitable texts (7), aims to provide a comprehensive resource to encourage teachers and student teachers to use picturebooks to teach development and intercultural education (1). The research for this publication was funded by Irish Aid through the Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) project, and Dolan explains that the term development, also known as global citizenship or global education, is “about fairness, equality and justice, with a particular reference to the so called developing world” (29); by this definition, the term development extends to issues such as climate change and sustainability, while intercultural education focuses on recognizing and respecting diversity and promoting justice and human rights (27). It is apparent from the outset that Dolan’s task, to promote the critical use of picturebooks in the classroom across such a vast array of topics, is ambitious.

Dolan opens with a brief introduction to picturebooks, focusing on their role in developing the multiliteracies children require today (14–16), then examines key terms such as culture, multicultural education, and intercultural education. These definitions and insights are interwoven with numerous examples of picturebooks with potential for classroom use, with, among others, James Rumford’s Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad and Jeanette Winter’s The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq suggested as a Muslim perspective on Iraq (17) and Rukhsana Khan’s The Roses in My Carpets and Peqi Deitz Shea’s The Carpet Boy’s Gift suggested as introductions to topics on child labor. She briefly draws on the familiar metaphor of children’s literature providing children with a “mirror” in which they see their own lives reflected (45) and with “windows” to look out at the world to see “how children grow up in different places” and the issues they face (46); regrettably, Dolan does not mention the metaphorical door, which allows the final, and crucial, shift in the reader’s perception, the crossing of a threshold, and the invitation to take action (Botelho and Rudman 265). Dolan then cites James Banks’ (2008) Levels of Multicultural Education model, which measures the “levels of integration of multicultural content” (Banks 237), with the first level being a “tourist approach” or a “food and festival approach” and the fourth, highest level empowering learners to take social action (46). Dolan concludes with advice as to how teachers can select picturebooks for themselves, considering issues from authenticity to language (55–59). These initial chapters touch on a wide range of topics, highlighting the enormity of the task of defining and accounting for diversity in texts. Too often, Dolan moves on to the next topic, when further information—for example, how Banks’ Levels of Multicultural Education model could aid the selection and analysis of picturebooks—would be useful.

Dolan moves on to discuss critical literacy, which she defines broadly as “the ability to read texts in an active and reflective manner that promotes deeper understanding of socially constructed concepts such as power, inequality and injustice in human relationships” (63). Again, she provides numerous examples and descriptions of picturebooks that she feels promote critical thinking, and she provides a three-part curricular framework of respect, understanding, and action. A final chapter, “Exploring the Journey of Refugees through Picturebooks,” touts the importance of picturebooks about refugees (137); her primary examples include Sarah Garland’s Azzi in Between and Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young’s Refugee Diary series, which includes Gervelie’s Journey, Meltem’s Journey, and Hamzat’s Journey. Dolan sees refugee books as a way to emphasize “issues such as compassion, empathy, tolerance, justice, conflict resolution and human rights” (138).

You, Me and Diversity covers such an...