A growing body of scholarship examines representations of climate change and other environmental issues in children’s literature, comics, and graphic novels. To learn more, check out these additional resources about environmental imagetexts.
Academic Books
Apocalyptic Ecology in the Graphic Novel: Life and the Environment After Societal Collapse. By Clint Jones. McFarland, 2020.
Beasts at Bedtime: Revealing the Environmental Wisdom in Children’s Literature. Liam Heneghan. The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
EcoComix: Essays on the Environment in Comics and Graphic Novels. Edited by Sidney I. Dobrin. McFarland, 2020.
Ecocritical Perspectives on Children’s Texts and Cultures: Nordic Dialogues. Edited by Nina Goga, Lykke Guanio-Uluru, Björg Oddrun Hallas, and Aslaug Nyrnes. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Environmental Crisis in Young Adult Fiction: A Poetics of Earth. By Alice Curry. Palgrave MacMillan, 2013.
Posthumanist Readings in Dystopian Young Adult Fiction: Negotiating the Nature/Culture Divide. By Jennifer Harrison. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
Wild Things: Children’s Culture and Ecocriticism. Edited by Sidney I. Dobrin and Kenneth Kidd. Wayne State University Press, 2004.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles
Bradford, Clare. “The Sky is Falling: Children as Environmental Subjects in Contemporary Picture Books.” Children’s Literature and the Fin de Siècle, edited by Roderick McGillis, Praeger Publishers, 2003, pp. 111-120.
Echterling, Clare. “How to Save the World and Other Lessons from Children’s Environmental Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 47, no. 4, December 2016, pp. 283-299.
Gaard, Greta. “Children’s Environmental Literature: From Ecocriticism to Ecopedagogy.” Neohelicon, vol. 36, no. 321, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-009-0003-7.
Massey, Geraldine, and Clare Bradford. “Children as Ecocitizens: Ecocriticism and Environmental Texts.” Contemporary Children’s Literature and Film: Engaging with Theory, edited by Kerry Mallan and Clare Bradford, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 109-126.
op de Beeck, Nathalie. “Children’s Ecoliterature and the New Nature Study.” Children’s Literature in Education, vol. 49, no. 1, 2018, pp. 73-85.
op de Beeck, Nathalie. “Speaking for the Trees: Environmental Ethics in the Rhetoric and Production of Picture Books.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, Fall 2005, pp. 265-287.
Perry, Laura. “Anthroposcenes: Towards an Environmental Graphic Novel.” C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings, vol. 6, no. 1, 2018, p. 5.
Online Resources
Climate Lit – A newly launched, peer-reviewed, open access online database of environmental literature, ecofiction, ecoliterature, cli-fi, and other literatures and media for young audiences that help nourish climate literacy through creative engagement with and critical discussions among young people.
Think Earth – This organization helps communities create and maintain a sustainable environment through education. The website includes environmental comics and lesson plans for educators.