Child Activist Literature at the Turn of the 2020s

Book excerpt: Child Activist Literature at the Turn of the 2020s: From Kids You Read About to Kids You Read looks at how today’s child activists are not just followers in their forekids’ footsteps, but blazers of new pathways, employing sophisticated rhetorical strategies that invert and subvert conventional thinking on the roles of children in politics. These young activists situate their work within a dense web of texts—the ones they read, the ones they write, and the ones that they expect adults to deploy to dismiss them. Nance-Carroll analyzes texts authored by child activists alongside narratives of youth activism in literature and media and the stories activists tell about themselves and their work, exploring issues of influence, inspiration, and authorship in child activist literature, as a growing body of work challenges not just adults’ assumptions about children and politics, but also some fundamental disciplinary tenets of children’s and young adult literature.