ABSTRACT
Children's literature provides significant access to the arts through the creation of illustration and text that invite readers into complex issues. These issues are often perceived more clearly and comprehensively through artistic means. Such opportunities afford students a greater understanding of themselves and their position in a global society as they consider issues from multimodal perspectives using multiple sign systems to interpret cultural and historical events. The inquiry in this chapter, while keeping with a critical content analysis frame that utilizes questions of authenticity, power, voice, and perspective, is offered from an intuitively positive perspective on the role of literature in the lives of readers. Another important implication of this content analysis is the relationship of the arts and culture in relating and positioning historical events. Hybridity is referred to as a place in which cultures, eras, genre, and other socio-cultural elements merge to create a new space for negotiation and insights regarding culture.
