For the Guardian, Julia Eccleshare explores why homelessness is rarely represented in children’s literature. What she finds is that novels for young readers tend to capitalize on the idea of “home” as a place of “fundamental security,” a theme that young readers can easily comprehend:
But perhaps the specifics of homelessness in terms of either time or place is not the most significant feature. What matters is that the reader can get some sense of the enormous, often terrifying emotions that typically accompany being without a fixed home and, in contrast, understand the resourceful ways in which children can create “home-like” environments for themselves even in the most dangerous of times and places.
