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Presentation short abstract

Is there a problem of environmental racism in children's literature? This poster examines this question with respect to the way in which wildlife conservation is conveyed to different audiences. It considers what demand their might be for alternatives and who might provide it.

Presentation long abstract

Some of the greatest heroes in English literature, and English children's fiction have been poachers who are white. One of the greatest stories ever told in English, indeed told since before English was English, provides the archetype: Robin Hood. And one of Roald Dahl's classics - Danny the Champion of the World - also centres on a white poacher. And so where are the stories of heroic poachers who are also people of colour? Their absence reflects the fact that children's literature tends to convey the worldviews of the communities of authors who write it. In this poster I examine the nature of this problem, and how it might be addressed among countries, with their different political economies of fiction writing. I do so partly as a researcher interested in how environmental prejudices are created and sustained and partly as an author of children's literature wanting to understand what demand their might be for alternative stories.