Health Care in Children's Literature
Edited by Naomi Lesley, Sarah Hardstaff, and Abbye E. Meyer
Recently, issues of health insurance access and cost have been a dominant political
issue in the United States. However, questions about health care (beyond insurance) have
surfaced in children’s literature from many nations, for many decades. This edited collection will
consider how children’s literature and media can enrich our understanding about health care
from many perspectives, through consideration of international comparisons; historical change;
disparities based on gender, race, disability, class, and age; and attention to informal as well as
formal systems of care.
Essays for this volume might address a variety of topics. The following is a partial list of
pertinent topics, but proposals are welcomed on other issues of health care not mentioned
below:
- How children’s literature addresses (or does not address) the cost of care
- Barriers to health care in children’s books, including barriers based on race, sexuality, class, gender, or disability
- Differences in care based on visible vs. invisible disabilities
- Questions of who gets sick and who stays healthy in literature
- Health care broadly defined as access to food, shelter, and security, as well as care for acute sickness, chronic illness, mental health, and disability
- How issues of health access are addressed in books pre-WWII (before health insurance in many nations), as well as in historical fiction written since
- How children’s literature portrays children growing into caring professions (aspiring to be nurses, doctors, etc)
- Child characters as caretakers and healers for family and community members
Scholars interested in contributing to this volume should submit a 300-500 word proposal
by January 30, 2019. Please email proposals, and any questions, to Naomi Lesley
( naomi.lesley@hcc.edu ), Sarah Hardstaff ( sflh2@cam.ac.uk ) , or Abbye Meyer
( abbyemeyer@gmail.com ).
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