Mums, dads and the kids: Representations of rainbow families in children’s picture books

Abstract

Picture books depicting LGBTI + families now form a significant sub-genre within children’s literature. However, despite significant scholarship on representations of queer people in child and young adult literature generally, the way rainbow families are depicting in picture books, in particular, has received rather less attention. This paper seeks to address the need for further critical insight in this area. By undertaking a survey of approximately 60 different examples of children’s picture books depicting rainbow families, key themes and representational strategies are identified in order to uncover how such families are represented, and the dominant discourses that attend them. Our contention is that while there is a significant number of children’s picture books depicting rainbow families, only a relative few are consistently visible and discussed, so that stakeholders may find it challenging to access a diverse range of resources in this area. Nevertheless, we argue that because this sub-genre of children’s literature is still developing, evidence suggests that there is also a small but important number of contemporary texts that have the potential to expand the ways in which LGBTIQ + families are depicted.