Vicious Infants: Dangerous Childhoods in Antebellum U.S. Literature by Laura Soderberg (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews areas or because the intended authors themselves dropped out of the project. As many of their countries did not approve of LGBTQ+ relationships, several intended authors decided that “there would be little that they could comfortably and safely write about” (4). The anonymous author who discusses the state of LGBTQ+ literature in the Arab-speaking world summarizes the difficulty, writing that “children’s books tend to reflect the lifestyles in the societies in which they are written, edited and published, and as long as these topics are not discussed, they will not be included in children’s books” (182). This collection therefore also serves as a stark reminder not only of the lengths that LGBTQ+ children’s literature has already moved forward, but also the very long way it still has to go. As an introductory overview, International LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adults brings together a diverse array of voices, perspectives, and writings to the field of LGBTQ+ children’s literature and provides a much-needed snapshot of the state of LGBTQ+ children’s literature around the globe. Hopefully, this will only be the first of many more works to address this topic.