Animals Are Us: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature; Celebrating the Peter J. Solomon Collection

talking inanimate objects that white authors are given. . . .
But change will only happen when publishing recognizes
that equity is crucial, that the world is rapidly changing,
and that creators of color deserve the chance to have their
voices heard too. 15
Slowly, a more diverse body of work is developing, including
picture books such as Bowwow Powwow: Bagosenjige-niimi’idim
(cat. no. 66), included in the exhibition, as well as other recent
works beyond those in the exhibition, such as No Kimchi for
Me! and Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale. 16
Animals as Proxy for Humans
Criticism has also been applied to the substitution of animal
characters for human characters in order to facilitate social
dialogue. Talking, thinking, and acting animals have been
used to soften socially controversial topics and invite children
into dialogue around social issues and the dynamics of power,
identity formation, and difference. Indeed, initiatives for crosscultural
understandings and interracial relationships, along
with other cultural shifts in the United States during the 1960s
and 1970s, gave rise to narratives featuring the interactions
of racialized animal characters of different species. 17 The
intent was constructive; the didactic stories illustrated how
different humans could cooperate, intermingle, and learn to
appreciate one another. Substituting animals for humans can
provide children the emotional distance to join complicated
conversations.
However, anthropomorphized animals in stories run
the risk of presenting “difference as superficial, racism as an
irrational response to superficial difference, and tolerance and
integration as solutions to racism.” 18 As an example, in The
Berenstain Bears: New Neighbors, 19 Papa Bear confronts and
overcomes his own prejudices when a family of panda bears
moves in next door. Problematizing the use of animals as
stand-ins for human characters, Bow states:
Such narratives offer thinly veiled social parables about
overcoming species bias. Yet these visualizations are often
at odds with their didactic intent, asking viewers to take
pleasure in biological differences paradoxically in service
to the message that such differences do not matter. 20
The trouble with using racialized animals to teach social lessons
is that the markers ascribed to the animals to make them
recognizable as a certain race consequently reinforce artificial
distinctions. While using animals as a proxy for humans
may offer children the comfort of distance from emotionally
challenging subjects, it can also promote the separation of
issues such as racism, classism, sexism, and ableism from
temporal and spatial realities. 21
Issues of Representation
Another problem in using anthropomorphized animals in
children’s literature is the sheer abundance of animal stories
at the expense of a broader representation of humanity. In
1985, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education
began compiling data on children’s books by and about Black
authors published in the United States. Eventually, their efforts
expanded to include other identity groups. The penchant for
children’s publishers, authors, and illustrators to use a variety
of animals rather than a diverse array of humans extends
beyond issues of race and ethnicity to any identity trait that
21