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Abstract: Neurodiverse representation in the state book award nominees, 2014-2024
Librarians, scholars, and educators are increasingly aware of the need to provide more representation in their collections for a wide-range of diversity, including types of neurodiversity such as autism. Research about autism in literature typically covers a narrow range of concepts such as: explorations of autism in specific types of literature or media such as picture books, nonfiction, genre novels, etc (Jones, 2023; Kelley et al., 2018; Nankervis, 2022; Ucar, 2021); explorations of how autism is described or portrayed (Jin, 2022; Venker & Lorang, 2024); representations that seem targeted to teach others about autism (Azano et al., 2017; Lancrenon, 2021, Sigmon, Tackett, Azano, 2016); strengths-based representations of autism (Hayden & Prince, 2023); and bibliotherapy for those with neurodiversity (Piltch-Loeb, 2022). This study uses a selection of books nominated on the children’s choice state book awards (2014-2024) around the United States and uses freely available tagging features to identify what percentage of those books have characters with neurodiversity and changes in that percentage over the decade. In addition, content analysis will be utilized to look at the nominated books that include major and secondary characters with autism. Children’s choice state book awards are often those that are heavily promoted in school and public libraries to children and each year state book award lists seek to promote the best in literature to students in their state. This study uses a framework of critical autism studies to look at how autism is portrayed in these books to see if a nuanced and intersectional view of people with neurodiversity is evident. This critical view examines how libraries and librarians are promoting a positive, negative, or neutral view of autism through these award lists. Initial results show that books about characters with autism remain a small part of the award lists and hover at less than one percent of the books nominated for all years except 2016-2017, primarily due to the popularity of Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin. However, in more recent years there is an increase in content that shows a more nuanced view of autism through more well-rounded characters.