Use analysis strategies below to make up your mind about the picture book you have in front of you.
Does the children's book expand or confirm traditional gender norms?
Check: What gender does the main character and the subordinate characters of the picture book have? The “counter” analysis strategy pinpoints and documents the gender statistics of the picture book.
Examine: Which gender norms does the picture book have? The norm critic checks the gender patterns in the picture book and assesses whether it confirms or contradict these.
Examine: How is the main character’s gender and environment presented? What colours are used in the picture book? Pink, light blue and black? Is the main character drawn with an expressive face?
Examine: Is there something queer about gender, love, and family life in the book? The queering researcher looks for these mismatches, ambiguities and deviations and asks what they mean.
Ask a child: What does she or he think about the book? The child researcher analysis knows or examines what children are accustomed to reading. What would a child see in its picture book?
Check out: Are there other picture books or works of art that describe similar gender conditions? Does the book tell us something about how it is to grow up as a girl or a boy in today’s and tomorrow’s society?
