Language Arts - Volume 103, Issue 2, 2025

This article analyzes fat male figures in children’s picture books, examining gendered anti-fatness and advocating for stories that challenge biases and promote understanding. Educators and children can view spaces of fat joy without shame that ultimately beg the question: How can we imagine and create these spaces?

Through interviews with students and classroom observations, the study highlighted how classroom environments fostered collaborative writing opportunities by supporting choice and autonomy.

Using the lens of new literacy studies, this literature review examines how immigrant families’ literacy practices and parents’ perspectives are demonstrated in empirical studies.

This essay advocates integrating the Active View of Reading, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, and Universal Design for Learning for holistic literacy development and inclusive classrooms.

Seven teacher educators critically examined writing instruction to disrupt whiteness, center student agency, and foster equitable, justice-oriented, and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

This column showcases winners of the 2024 Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children.

The column celebrates the awardees of the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction.

The 2025 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts are of enduring quality, inviting readers to deeply engage with language in expansive and varied ways.

Charles R. Smith Jr., winner of the 2025 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, is celebrated for vivid, lyrical poetry that blends athleticism, history, and powerful imagery to honor African American experiences and inspire appreciation of humanity and diversity.

This column highlights the winners of the 2025 Notable Children’s Poetry Books and Verse Novels and explores strategies for cultivating students’ joy in reading, writing, and sharing poetry.