A Study of Critical Reading Strategies in Iranian Picture Books

Power inequality between creators and readers of literary books for teenagers and youth on the one hand, and inevitability of ideology impregnating such literary works on the other hand, hasled critics and theorists of children literature to come to the conclusion that young readers should know about presence and quality of ideology in the text. Thus, instead of accepting one sided strategy, readers can become active and actor of a text to release themselves from the pressure of ideology. The guidelines of Nodelman (2000) about the impact of distancing on reader, McGillis' (2009) views on the importance and functions of polyphony and Stephens' (2011) ideas on the role of dialogism support such claims. Alongside the role of parents and teachers, it can be expected that authors openly choose critical reading. Some picture books recently published in Iran show that some authors pay attention to such critical reading. This paper seeks to find authors' strategies for widening the critical reading ability in picture books. This research uses qualitative method, documentary data mining, and inductive content analysis. The research analysis shows that selected samples try to follow this idea; however they have not fully embraced the critical reading possibilities.