Nursery World - Picturebooks

The good, the bad and the ugly: what picturebooks teach children about beauty and self-worth. By Andy McCormack

In her cultural history of ugliness, Gretchen Henderson describes how, in fairy tales, ugliness is often ‘counterpointed with beauty, to delineate good from evil’. Thankfully, the children we teach are growing up in a post-Shrek world – in which the equation between good and bad and beautiful and ugly isn’t as clear-cut as once it might have been. However, we still have a long way to go in challenging the prevalence of this idea in children’s culture.

So many of our fairytales still adhere to only one vision of beauty: drawings of Cinderella I observed, in picturebooks and in children’s artwork, when I was teaching in nursery and Reception, were still overwhelmingly thin, white and blonde.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included