Scenes from the Class Struggle in Picture Books: Depictions of Housing and Home in Books for Young Children

While there is still much to be done, there have been tremendous strides made in increasing the diversity of children’s literature; however one area that is often overlooked in these conversations is social class. From years of providing picture book story time to young children living in homeless shelters, it became obvious that picture books being published in the U.S. privilege the experiences of middle- and upper-class people, especially in their depictions of home and housing. Based on analysis of 185 picture books published in the U.S. between 1999 and 2019, I argue that home as typically represented in children’s picture books presents a limited and privileged view that normalizes single-family homes, material possessions, and related middle-class experiences. Further, these books do not reflect the lived experience of the millions of American children in the United States experiencing homelessness and housing instability, as well as those who live in apartments, trailers and other types of homes that contemporary picture books would have us believe do not exist.