Meaning Making with Picture Books: World War I and Other Contested Spaces

This book examines well-known poetry, picture books, and multimodal texts to explore how visual and literary texts shape collective memory and historical understanding with an initial focus on World War I before expanding to include more current contested issues topics such as colonialism, immigration, and First Nations’ experiences.

Organized into three sections, the book discusses the role of picture books in teaching difficult histories, analyses postmodern picture books addressing controversial topics, and provides a framework for classroom pedagogy. This approach highlights the importance of empathy, ethics, and creative expression in history education, showcasing how storytelling through multimodal texts bridges the past to the present.

Heather Sharp is Associate Professor of History curriculum at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her current research investigates the teaching of difficult and controversial pasts, the influence of public history in teaching, and historical representations in school curriculum, particularly textbooks, and also examines the written and visual texts in picture books that deal with conflict.

Debra Donnelly is an Associate Professor of History curriculum at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Debra’s research interests centre on the role of the visual and media in the development of historical and global consciousness. Her research explores, and seeks to clarify, the relationship between public pedagogies, conceptual frameworks of historical understanding and problematic knowledge, and multi-modality in historical representation.