What is it about?
This article examines how cuteness affects the representation of animals in six picturebooks about penguins. Cuteness, while it engages audiences, often works against the aims of environmental education. To the extent that it objectifies and anthropomorphizes its subject, cuteness trivializes the animal other, propagates misinformation, and valorizes a model of wildlife recovery inconsistent with nature preservation.
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Why is it important?
This article is important because it shows that children's eco-literature not infrequently works against the aims of environmental education.
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This page is a summary of: The Cuteness Quotient: Penguins, Picturebooks, and Environmental Education, International Research in Children s Literature, February 2025, Edinburgh University Press,
DOI: 10.3366/ircl.2025.0600.
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