Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s10583-026-09675-w

Publication Title

Children's Literature in Education

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

17 pp.

Abstract

This study examines the graphic novel The Wild Ones through a critical posthumanist lens and multimodal content analysis (MMCA) to explore its portrayal of youth activism, cultural diversity, and interconnectedness. The story follows four children who summon monsters from their cultural folklore to resist capitalist developers’ demolition of their apartment building. The analysis identifies three key themes: wildness as a source of constructive power, the challenge to anthropocentric narratives, and intersectional youth empowerment. The book subverts traditional hierarchies by blending human and nonhuman agency and emphasizing relational networks among humans, nonhumans, and the environment. The monsters serve as symbols of cultural identity and collective action, fostering empathy and ethical coexistence. Through its multimodal storytelling, The Wild Ones inspires young readers to embrace inclusivity, activism, and ecological awareness, offering a transformative lens for understanding identity, agency, and coexistence in a more-than-human world.

Rights

© The Authors 2026

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

ORCID

0000-0002-7603-6021 (Dunkerly)

Original Publication Citation

Dunkerly-Boulanger, J. (2026). (Re)making our own monsters: Critical posthumanism and youth activism in The Wild Ones. Children's Literature in Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-026-09675-w

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