An analysis of the portrayals of Arabs and/or Muslims in America or in the Middle East in juvenile fiction and fictionalized non-fiction picture books published in English since the onset of the first Gulf War and their accessibility through American pubic libraries

America’s military involvement in the Middle East along with globalization, Islamophobia, and the increase in the Arab and Muslim population in the United States render our children’s ability to understand the region’s people and cultures of vital importance. Such understanding is vital given the frequent vilification of Arabs, Muslims, and residents of Middle Eastern countries in general in our mass media and pop culture. Fortunately, narratives can be effective tools in helping to prevent or reverse the development of stereotypical views of others and can contribute to the formation of positive self-images in minority youngsters. Numerous books and articles have been published which discuss the depiction of Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, Jews, and Hispanics/Latinos/as in juvenile literature. Relatively few studies, however, have included discussions of the portrayal of Arabs, Muslims, and Middle Eastern peoples and culture. The few studies which do focus on these subjects generally evaluate young adult literature or the content of textbooks. This research project rectifies these omissions by using predominantly qualitative grounded research techniques influenced by a social constructivist paradigm to analyze the content of approximately 200 children’s picture storybooks to determine their authenticity. Quantitative techniques are used to evaluate the availability of books on the target subjects through public libraries in the capital cities of each of the 50 United States and to form conclusions based upon the qualitative results, and a mixed methods approach is used to unify the conclusions. With a few notable exceptions, only texts published in America since the onset of the First Gulf War in the early 1990’s have been included, for that event ushered in our increased national awareness of Arabs, Muslims, and the Middle East as sources of varied challenges and concerns for United States’ residents