The Importance of Social Stories: How Museums Are Portrayed in Children’s Literature

Abstract

A class walks into a museum—they are shushed, corralled, and chastised, and then a statue comes to life, or the class clown wanders off on their own. This could be the beginning of any number of children’s books set in museums.

When the reader of that book goes on their first field trip to a museum, what do they expect? Do they enter worried that they’re going to trip the alarm and go to jail? Do they leave disappointed that the pictures don’t talk? The use of children’s literature as social story provides unique opportunities for readers and educators of all types to set up cultural experiences, but a survey of museum representation in children’s picture books found that set up to be lacking when it comes to what modern museum experiences are being curated for children.