A Question of Criteria

Evaluates multiculturalism in children’s literature, focusing on the style of author Anne Cameron.

An evaluation of children’s literature is made more difficult by the misconception that there exists a difference between good multicultural literature for children and good literature for children or, in other words, between those books that promote interracial respect and lack racial bias and those children’s books which possess superior literary qualities. However, this paper will argue that this view of children’s literature is a myth. It will be seen, through an examination of the literature of Anne Cameron, that quality multicultural books for children are also, almost always, works of exceptional literary quality as well.