Getting What We Want: The Politics of Identity in Three Vigils

This article uses Chris Raschka’s picture book, Arlene Sardine (1998), as a focus for a discussion of the homogenizing forces of the market economy. The young person’s struggle for ‘identity’ must deal with the powerful and coercive forces of the marketplace. Children’s literature and other productions of child culture can aid in such a struggle by prompting critical reflection and critical reading