Walter Fisher argued, in his 1984 work on narrative that "humans are essentially storytellers." Everything we do involves a narration; the stories we tell ourselves and those we use to communicate to others. The version of such narration found in Juvenile collections could be considered a distillation of sorts. A capsule of communication of what may be vital at any given time and place.
The titles included in this Guide are those recognized for tackling complicated topics like grief and cancer. They represent the stories of difficult and confusing events like the death of Emmett Till and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. These titles carry on narrative traditions about exploration and discovery, friendships and foes, and tricksters and heroes. And as windows and mirrors, they serve the very human struggle of identity, how to resolve the conflict between who we are on the inside and who we are on the outside.
At first glance, it can be easy to discount collections comprised of pictures books, children's literature, and young adult literature as having little to no academic significance. But if we are all indeed storytellers, then given any research topic, there are pieces to the story that may be found here.
The design of this page was partly adapted from Research: By Course, Subject, or Topic, by University of Arizona Libraries, © 2020 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.