Multicultural Children’s Literature as an Instrument of Power

This article affirms the vision of scholars, writers, and educators who have initiated and complicated the authenticity debate. Their discussions have inserted new standards of interethnic understanding within children’s literature. In addition, this article enlarges this vision by shifting the selection emphasis from only racial and cultural authenticity to issues such as reparation, justice, domination, and liberation. These issues create a discourse through which educators, authors, book sellers, and publishers may more thoughtfully and ethically consider multicultural topics in children’s literature.