ABSTRACT
This chapter is focused on African American boy's responses to illustrations and text involving black inmates and gangsters in multicultural children's literature. We sat at a small, square table, which aided in building rapport and enabling each boy to have access to the text and its illustrations. The boys used their visual literacy skills to examine the illustrations for emotional understanding. By focusing on the illustrations of the stories, the boys showed their awareness of visual literacy and, in certain cases, their own emotional maturity. By finding something humorous in the illustration and laughing at the Snakes, Trishawn and JJ seem to show that they know the levels of gangsters. Maria José Botelho and Masha Kabakow Rudman write that multicultural children's literature has the power to provide a door for students. The chapter focuses on their responses to illustrations and the ways they used those illustrations to show what they know about criminal justice issues.
