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The Picture Book Diet
Led by Dr Laurel Cohn
(Status : Public)
Coordinated by Picture Book Diet
  • Image credits, clockwise from top left: Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, illus. Bruce Whatley (Angus & Robertson 2002); Sunday Chutney by Alan Blabey (Penguin, 2008); A Year on Our Farm by Penny Matthews, illus. Andrew McLean (Scholastic Australia, 2002); Seven More Sleeps by Margaret Wild, illus. Donna Rawlins (Working Title Press 2004); The Very Hungry Bear by Nick Bland (Scholastic 2012); The Terrible Plop by Ursula Dubosarsky, illus. Andrew Joyner (Viking 2009); Old Tom's Holiday by Leigh Hobbs (ABC Books 2002); and Don't Let a Spoonbill in the Kitchen by Narelle Oliver (Omnibus Books 2013),

  • What are we feeding children when we read them a book?

    The Picture Book Diet is a research project identifying representations of food and food practices in contemporary Australian picture books. What we eat is a topic of robust discussion across the country, yet little attention has been given to the ideas and values concerning food embedded in texts for young children, despite such texts being created with the specific intention not only of entertaining but also of enculturating their audiences, therefore having the potential to influence readers' relationships with food.

    This dataset aggregates shortlisted, award-winning and bestselling picture books for 3–8 year-olds published 2000–2013, noting not only food type, but associated depictions of food practices connected with gender, identity and place – such as growing food, shopping, cooking, serving – as well as food-related language use.

  • The dataset

    This dataset contains 170 shortlisted, award-winning and bestselling picture books published in Australia, 2000–2013, that contain food-related references. These books are in wide circulation and readily available to young children through the public and school library systems. Covering literary awards, publishing industry awards, popularity awards voted by child readers (children's choice awards), and bestseller lists, the survey includes books endorsed by industry professionals, child readers and book-buyers.

    The dataset has been compiled with the aim of capturing what young children are likely to be exposed to when they read a recently published picture book, produced by the culture in which they are growing up, at a particular moment in time.

    The survey of the dataset notes not only food type, but associated depictions of food practices connected with gender, identity and place – such as food production, shopping, preparation, serving and eating – as well as food-related language use. Food is noisy, speaking to us not only about what we eat, but about how we define ourselves and others, and how we relate to each other and our physical and social environments.

    Explore the works in the dataset here.

  • Key findings from the survey

    The key findings of the survey include:

    • Sugar-rich foods are standard fare in food events involving characters of non-marked ethnicity (white Australians) as well as anthropomorphised animals and other fantastical characters such as fairies.
    • Sugar-rich foods are rarely present in stories featuring non-Anglo characters, which reference savoury foods aligned with wholesomeness.
    • Urban environments are places marked by the availability of take-away food, although in the picture book world this food type is not normally consumed by families with children; families who eat out in picture book worlds favour picnics.
    • Mother-figures are seen as the “normal” providers of food in the domestic space – often offering sweet foods to children – whereas the standard outdoor cooks are male, as are those who both prepare and serve food as a paid job.
    • Fruit is frequently found in picture book worlds, but not often as an item of consumption; vegetables are okay to like if you are an animal; and sweet foods are desirable for all.

    The survey was conducted as part of a PhD research project: The Picture Book Diet – Representations of food and food practices in contemporary Australian picture books, completed in 2017.

  • Project Leader

    Dr Laurel Cohn is a developmental book editor who has been working in the publishing industry since the late 1980s. This project is based on research for her PhD dissertation: The Picture Book Diet – Representations of food and food practices in contemporary Australian picture books (2017).

    Research assistance by Mehitabel Douglas-Drysdale,Sophi Hohn, Callum McDonald and Acacia Pohlner.

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