Research Resource: Using Critical Content Analysis to Consider how the Construct of Family is Represented in Picturebooks

By Amy Burke & Melody Zoch

Picturebooks can help students construct their understanding of themselves and the world around them–sometimes offering new perspectives and other times affirming what they already know. In our work, we have been interested in examining how children who are adopted and their families are portrayed in picturebooks, an area of analysis that has received little attention. Using critical content analysis (Short, 2017) as our main method, we have identified which picturebooks address adoption and considered the ways in which adoption is portrayed within their pages.
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In this blogpost, we draw from our analysis of over 60 narrative picturebooks written primarily for grades K-6 as we sought to identify the larger themes and patterns across the books. Three main themes emerged, which we refer to as metanarratives about adoption: adoption is to be celebrated; adoption results in happiness for the adopted child and adoptive parents; and there are some challenges associated with adoption. Within these findings, we also noticed how the broader metanarrative of family was portrayed, namely that families should include a mother, a father, and at least one child. With this blog post, we hope to support teachers in using critical content analysis to examine their text selections and consider the underlying beliefs and assumptions about family students may glean whether explicitly or implicitly.

Instructional Implications 
In our work, critically analyzing picturebooks centered on adoption, larger questions were raised regarding how families more generally are portrayed. Whether or not these representations are overtly discussed or highlighted in a particular book, children may internalize metanarratives about family based on them. Therefore, an important implication is for educators to attune to how families are portrayed in books that will be shared with students. We suggest applying a critical lens to books that may potentially be shared/available to students and asking, How are families portrayed in this book? What larger metanarratives of families are communicated? Who or what is not represented? These questions allow educators to take a critical lens to representations that may be taken for granted or assumed to be “common sense” (e.g., families have two parents).

However, it is important not to stop there. Teachers need to go beyond just asking these questions as they make book selections or plan places to stop for discussion. Before doing those things, the next step is to then connect to the students in your classroom. How might they see themselves, or not, in the book? How might they be impacted (positively, negatively, both) by the portrayals in this book? To make those connections, teachers must know about their students’ families. Most educators would agree that family engagement is important, but sometimes we make assumptions about the family constructions of our students. While we certainly are not advocating for invading a student’s privacy or overstepping boundaries, we do encourage teachers to not start with the default assumption that everyone has two biological parents and lives with them, for example. There are so many complexities in the ways in which families are made up, and by asking the questions above and connecting to the students in the classroom, we hope that each child both can see themselves in some books and also see other ways in which families exist, thus expanding their conceptualization of what it means to be a family. ​

What This Looks Like

​Let us take a look now at what this might look like if we approach looking at books in this way.

One example is the picturebook Home at Last (Williams, 2016). This book is about a family newly formed through adoption. The child, Lester, who appears to be around four or five years old, has lived in an orphanage since his biological parents were killed in a car accident. For several months, Daddy Rich and Daddy Albert have been visiting him, part of the adoption process. Let’s apply the questions to this book.

• What do we know about the family portrayed in this book?
  • Lester’s biological family consisted of him and his mother and father, although they are deceased. His adoptive family is made up of Lester, Daddy Rich, Daddy Albert, and their dog, Wincka. We also see some extended family members that include cousins.

• What larger metanarratives of families are communicated? 
  • Families can be disrupted when family members die. Families can also be constructed when there is a need or desire. Families can be made up of children and two fathers. Families can have problems that are complicated, such as getting a child to sleep on their own, but can be addressed by talking through them. Sometimes it is hard to understand an experience that isn’t your own, but listening helps. Family is about caring and supporting one another. 
• Who or what is not represented?
  • Lester’s biological parents are only briefly mentioned when we learn they have died in a car accident. We also know Lester’s grandmother took care of him until she became too sick. Other than these explanations, we do not know anything else about them or if attempts are made to stay in contact with the grandmother if she is still alive. 

Now that we have considered these questions, we want to consider the students in our classroom. Are any of them adopted? Do any have two fathers or two mothers? Have any of them lost a parent? What are those connections, and how would this book allow them to see themselves? Would it be supportive? How would the representations open up additional possibilities for students who don’t have a clear connection to Lester?

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Let’s take a look at one more book, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes (Lewis, 2002). 
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This book features one woman who travels to China to adopt a baby girl. The book begins by showing a room full of babies in an orphanage and ends with the mother bringing the baby back to her home with her while wondering about the Chinese mother who could not keep her baby. Now, let’s consider our questions with regard to this book:

• What do we know about the family portrayed in this book?
  • The newly formed family consists of the woman and the baby. We see references to extended family members that consist of the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.​

• What larger metanarratives or discourses about families are communicated? 
  • A family can consist of one parent, there do not have to be two parents. Sometimes mothers are not able to or choose not to keep their children. It is also implied that children need mothers. On the first page, the author says, “The girls had nannies to take care of them, but each was missing something–a mother.”
• Who or what is not represented?
  • The baby’s mother is not represented other than to be wondered about. Readers might also wonder why there are only baby girls who need mothers in the orphanage and no baby boys. There is also no mention of a partner that the woman might have or wish to have.

Now as we consider using this text in the classroom, you might consider if any of your students are not only adopted, but transnationally adopted? Are they of a different race than their adoptive parent/s? Do any of your students have a single parent with whom they live? What sort of themes might students connect with in the book, such as having empathy for the imagined Chinese mother or the agency the adoptive mother has in pursuing motherhood on her own?
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In these examples, we have used books that feature children who are adopted, but these questions can be asked of any texts featuring families. Taking time to ask yourself some of these questions as you consider books to read with your students can not only help you deepen your understanding of the text, it can also help with considering the interpretations your students might make and can help you anticipate the kinds of supports, questions, and follow-ups you may want to provide. Ready to try applying Critical Content Analysis to your own text selection and consider both the explicit and implicit messages students may receive about the construct of family? We offer five steps to begin.

Conclusion
How families are represented is an important, often neglected, feature to consider when we consider the books we choose to share with our students. While we rightfully often focus on intersectional representation in terms of gender, ethnicity, and language, sometimes we take for granted that students’ family constructions will be represented. Yet often they are not. There are so many different forms families can take: a heteronormative family with two parents and children (with adopted and/or biological children); foster families; families with more than one child; families with a single parent; families with multiple ethnicities; families with no children. Critical content analysis can be a helpful tool in widening the scope of representation so that all children come to see their experience and experiences different from their own as normal.

References
Burke, A., & Zoch, M. (2023). Adoption as liminal space: Representations in children's picturebooks. Journal of Children’s Literature, 49(2), 2-55.
Dahlen, S. P. (2024). Transracially adopted Korean children in youth literature. Adoption and Culture, 12(1), 37-54.
Lewis, R. A. (2000). I love you like crazy cakes. (J. Dyer, Illus.). Little Brown Books for Young Readers.
Meese,R.L.(2012). Modern family: Adoption and foster care in children’s literature. The Reading Teacher, 66(2), 129-137.
Sun, L.(2021). Children of “a dream come true”: A critical content analysis of the representations of transracial Chinese adoption in picturebooks. Children’s Literature in Education, 52(2), 231-252.
Williams, V. (2016). Home at last. (C. Raschka, Illus.). Greenwillow Books.
Yi, J. (2021). Memoirs or myths? Storying Asian American adoption in picturebooks. Journal of Children’s Literature, 47(2), 22-34.
Zoch, M., & Burke, A. (2025). Adoption representation in picturebooks: a critical content analysis. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 24(2), 111-123. https://doi.org/10.1108/etpc-03-2025-0052 ​

Amy Burke is a professor in the division of literacy and language at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX.

Melody Zoch is a professor in teacher education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.