‘Stop Banning Books’: A Multimodal Analysis of Two Fifth‐Grade Students' Co‐Authored Protest Comic

Abstract

This study draws from qualitative multimodal content analysis and interpretive research methods to examine how two elementary students in the midwestern United States co‐authored an anti‐censorship comic during a summer literacy programme focused on social justice and civic engagement. This study is rooted in critical and multimodal approaches to literacy education and draws upon recent scholarship responding to the current increase in censorship and book banning across the United States. The findings share a panel‐by‐panel analysis, demonstrating how the two students constructed a sophisticated comic that engages reader‐viewers in meaningful socio‐political critique. Students used a variety of multimodal resources as meaning‐making tools to represent the significance of both individual and collective social action. Thus, the comics medium's sequential design gave these young composers room to ask not only what is wrong, but what might be, narrating a pathway from individual grievance through collective action to reconciliation. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that young students are capable of engaging with justice issues and offering hopeful visions for unity and resolution through images and words. This analysis of two students' protest comic testifies to what becomes possible when children are trusted as capable thinkers, multimodal composers and civic participants.