Resisting English as the Norm: Moving between Languages in Translingual Picturebooks

Translingual picturebooks that move between languages have the potential to more authentically represent the multilingualism of many communities. Recent English-dominant translingual picturebooks use a range of strategies to resist the message that English is the norm by integrating non-English words into the flow of the text without any special markings. In this chapter, five recent translingual picturebooks are examined through a postcolonial lens, using critical content analysis to identify their messages about multilingualism and language positioning, hybridity of identities, and the positioning of narrators and authorship. The findings reveal the ways in which authors and illustrators resist the message of English as the norm, signal that multilingualism is natural to a community, and create texts that respect children as capable readers.