Determining Interrelationality in Picture Books

Amanda Fisher-Katz-Keohane
5 min readOct 2, 2023
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How do we spot interrelationality in children’s books? Boykin et al. (1997) describe this Afrocultural concept of communalism as a “spirituality, which suggests a focus on the vitalistic, shared essence of all things” (p. 409). This shared essence might be recognized in a children’s book when a harm to one character is felt by many, or by whole communities.

Susan Verde’s I Am Human (2018) is an example of a very literal approach to human interrelationality. While it doesn’t emphasize the full reach of interrelationality, it does discuss in plain terms the way we (humans) are all connected–which holds significant restorative justice meaning as well.

Cover art by Manuela Adreani

Amanda Addison and Manuela Adreani’s picture book Boundless Sky (2020) tells the story of both a migrating bird and a young girl, Leila, who is forced from her home to seek refuge. It’s done gently and beautifully in a way that connects the lives, perseverance, and courage of both creatures in a way that is poetically interrelational.

Interrelationality is demonstrated when humans are not separate from other living things and landscapes. Christina Dendy and Katie Rewse’s the Wall and the Wild (2017)…

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