Family portrait

by Karina Moreschi

Children’s literature can be considered a powerful tool to communicate important values and beliefs to a society. But what is it communicating? Let’s think about a relevant issue as family.

I have taken into account two stories to check this out: “Eat up Gemma” and “The Doorbell Rang”. In both stories a family is shown with some features in common. In the two stories, the women’s role is a traditional one. Mothers devoted to their children, cooking and doing the housework. In “Eat up Gemma”, the father takes care of children in his free day .

An extended family is rendered with the inclusion, in both stories, of the grandmothers. They have an active role within the family helping with the housekeeping and children’s care.

It is well known that this kind of extended family is becoming hard to find in everyday life. Even the stereotype of the nuclear one has changed. Most children, who are the audience of these stories, live immersed in a new model of family different from the ones presented in the mentioned stories.  In real life situations, some of them may coexist with monoparental, interracial or even homosexual families.

Consequently, the recognition of diversity in family types would be outside children’s literature. In spite of the changes operated in the construction of the family, children’s literature remains surprisingly conservative in its aspiration of supporting the archetype of family in its young readers.

It would be a great step foward, just for the sake of inclusion, to leave behind conservatism in children’s literature and accept the diversity of family’s types to promote an open-minded and healthier society.