EXPLORING THE SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD, 2004-2018: A CASE STUDY HISTORY AND CONTENT ANALYSIS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION STUDIES COLLEGE OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION BY SARAH DORNBACK B.A., M.L.S. DENTON, TEXAS AUGUST 2019 Copyright © 2019 by Sarah Dornback DEDICATION For my husband, Dan, and our children, Aiden, Kellan, and Azure. Your love and support have meant everything. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As I accepted my Master of Library Science diploma from Texas Woman’s University in 2002, one of the attending professors at the graduation ceremony said to me “Now it’s time for your Ph.D.!” I replied that I planned on it, and I had known for some time that I did not want my formal library education to end with a master’s degree. Seventeen years later, this next step is finally a reality. A degree is ultimately bestowed on a single person, but the journey is only successful with the support, encouragement, and assistance of many people. I extend my thanks to the librarians and staff of the Carrollton Public Libraries, and the TWU Denton and Dallas campus libraries. A library can only provide the resources it does with the commitment of the many people who work there. I always had a nice place to concentrate and write. Dr. Paul Yeatts in the Center for Research Design and Analysis at Texas Woman’s University has my gratitude for assistance in conducting the quantitative analyses for this study. The thorough, detailed, meticulous recommendations and suggestions from Dr. Sylvia Vardell, Dr. Lynn Akin, and Dr. Jennifer Moore have been incalculably helpful. I am indebted to my advisor and dissertation committee chair, Dr. Sylvia Vardell, for many years of guidance, dating back to my master’s degree and extending all the way through my doctorate degree. Thank you all for serving on my dissertation committee. iii For a delicious lunch, an immeasurably informative and pleasant interview, and the very existence of the Schneider Family Book Award, my appreciation and thanks go to Dr. Katherine Schneider. Her generosity appears to know no bounds. My family has been an endless source of support. Thank you to my three sisters- in-law for paving the way in the earning of doctorate degrees, and for cheering me on. I am enormously thankful for the many hours of childcare provided by my mother-in-law. My parents have always made it clear they are proud of me and my accomplishments, something that not every daughter (adult or no) is lucky enough to have and for which I am grateful. Thank you to my mom for many phone calls and much encouragement through the years! I would like to thank my wonderful children, Aiden, Kellan, and Azure, who were just starting kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade when I began the PhD program. As I complete my doctorate degree, you are now teenagers. Your willingness to accept more responsibilities and carry the load, around the house and in school, has been more helpful than you know. I am so very proud of each one of you. The next graduations we celebrate will be your own! Finally, thank you to my husband Dan, without whom this would not have been possible. Words cannot adequately express my appreciation for the many ways you have supported and encouraged me. I look forward to our next adventures, together! iv ABSTRACT SARAH DORNBACK EXPLORING THE SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD, 2004-2018: A CASE STUDY HISTORY AND CONTENT ANALYSIS AUGUST 2019 The purpose of this case study was to examine the history of the Schneider Family Book Award and analyze the forty-six award-winning titles from 2004-2018 using a content analysis methodology. The Schneider Family Book Award honors literature written for a youth audience that portrays a disability experience and has been presented annually since 2004 by the American Library Association. Titles are selected in categories encompassing the intended age of the book’s audience: Young Children’s (ages 0-8), Middle Grades (ages 9-13), and Teen (ages 14-18). This award was started at the behest of Dr. Katherine Schneider, with the hope that it would encourage the writing and publication of more books for young people about disability. For the award as a whole, results indicate that the gender of the protagonists was evenly balanced between male (49%) and female (49%). A majority of protagonists are white or Caucasian in ethnicity (67.3%). Most protagonists have a disability (83.7%). Realistic fiction is the most common genre (63%). A low percentage of authors and illustrators who have won this award appear to have relevant life experience to the disability about which they write (19.6%). Few of the winning titles could be considered v works of Own Voices (10.9%) – writing by persons with a disability about a character with the same disability. Descriptive statistics indicate differences between the three age categories for several variables. The gender of protagonists is split nearly evenly in the teen category (47.1% male, 52.9% female), but in the young children’s category, protagonists are overwhelmingly male (85.7%), and in the middle grades category the majority of protagonists are female (77.8%). The ethnicity of protagonists is predominantly white or Caucasian in the middle grades (83.3%) and teen (76.5%) categories, however in the young children’s category, only 35.7% of the protagonists are white or Caucasian. Realistic fiction is the most common genre found in the winning titles from the middle grades (76.5%) and teen categories (80%), but biography is the most frequently occurring genre in the young children’s category (42.9%). Chi-square analysis confirmed that the differences were statistically significant for the ethnicity and genre variables. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ............................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... xi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Purpose and Significance ........................................................................................ 3 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 6 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................... 6 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 11 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE............................................................................... 13 Schneider Family Book Award ............................................................................. 14 Disability and Literature for Children and Young Adults .................................... 22 Education for All Handicapped Children Act .................................................. 23 Accuracy of Disability Portrayal and Literary Quality .................................... 26 The 1990s ......................................................................................................... 30 Vocabulary of Disability .................................................................................. 34 The Year 2000 and Beyond ............................................................................. 38 International Literature .................................................................................... 41 Race and Ethnicity and the Portrayal of Disability .......................................... 46 What’s Missing in the Portrayal of Disability Experience .............................. 47 Expanding Analyses of Disability ................................................................... 48 Portrayal of Deaf or Hearing-Impaired Characters .......................................... 50 Portrayal of Blind or Visually Impaired Characters ........................................ 53 Authors Weigh In ............................................................................................. 55 Genre and Format in the Portrayal of Disability .............................................. 56 Historical Perspectives and Analysis of Disability Portrayal .......................... 58 Reader Responses to Disability Portrayal ........................................................ 61 vii Criteria for Analyzing Portrayal of Disability ................................................. 61 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 62 III. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................. 64 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 64 Data Collection and Analysis................................................................................ 65 Data Collection Methods – First Research Question ....................................... 65