Episode 28 - Coming of Age: How Literature Helps Children Understand Their World

Jun 15 2021 • 33 mins

In flipping the pages of a book, you can be transported anywhere and introduced to people and cultures you’ve never experienced before. For kids, the content in books can be especially impactful, encouraging a sense of wonder and curiosity as well as nurturing their development and understanding of the world. On this episode of UNT Pod, we talk with UNT History Associate Professor Kathryne Beebe and Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education Dan Heiman about the origins of children’s literature, the role books can play in meaningful conversations with our kids inside and outside the classroom and the efforts to bring more diversity and inclusion to the genre. We’ll also learn about how they are applying their academic expertise to their own children’s book projects.

In this episode, we discuss:

● Origins of children’s literature and how the genre has evolved

● The role books can play in meaningful conversations with our kids both inside and outside the classroom

●The efforts to bring more diversity and inclusion to the genre

● Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ decision to stop printing some of the famed children’s author’s books that contain racist and insensitive imagery

● Children’s books in the Gustine Courson Weaver Collection inUNT Special Collections

● Dr. Beebe’s children’s books including Brother Hugo and the Bear; Nile Crossing; Thunder Trucks; Good Morning, Harry, Good Night, Daddy and her forthcoming books, The Pilgrimage of Friar Felix and The Very Nosy Babies

● Behind My Mask: Detras de mi cubrebocas, a book Dr. Heiman developed with his wife and an art education graduate student Martha Samaniego Calderón to talk with kids about mask wearing, identity and the emotions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic

A few children’s book recommendations from Drs. Beebe and Heiman:

● A Different Pondby Bao Phi

● Black is a Rainbow of Color by Angela Joy

● Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard

● Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

● We are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom

● When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff

● When We Love Someone, We Sing to Them by Ernesto Javier Martínez

● Under My Hijab by Hena Khan

Featured in this episode are:

● Dr. Kathryne Beebe, associate professor in the Department of History in UNT’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

● Dr.Dan Heiman, assistant professor of bilingual education in UNT’s College of Education