How to Read Like an Anti-Fascist: Storytelling and Narrative Literacy for Young People

by Annette Wannamaker

On the urgent need to promote critical reading skills amidst rising authoritarianism

Children’s author Philip Pullman famously said that “There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children’s book.” While the recent rise of fascist ideology in the United States might seem a subject too large and adult to be dealt with in literature for children or teens, Annette Wannamaker proposes in How to Read Like an Anti-Fascist that there are books aimed at future generations which critique and counter fascist propaganda and mythmaking.

Works of literature can reflect fascist ideology and promote it as well, but Wannamaker proposes that some books also offer tools for understanding it. Books written for beginners can introduce readers to complex concepts, break big ideas into manageable parts, and teach readers how to read the world outside of the book. Antifascist books are ones that analyze fascistic rhetoric and storytelling, educate about America’s long history of authoritarianism, and highlight various facets of fascism such as scapegoating others and reasserting patriarchal power.

From “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and the tales of Superman to Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the 1619 Project and contemporary works such as All Boys Aren’t Blue and Donald Builds the Wall, Wannamaker shows how the ethos of authoritarianism is characterized by a strict hierarchy that places children at its very bottom. In doing so, she argues convincingly that books written for young people can provide a particular view from the bottom, a perspective well-suited to interrogating systems of power.

199 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 3, 2025

About the author

Annette Wannamaker is a professor in the English Department at Eastern Michigan University where she teaches courses in children’s and adolescent literature and media. Her most recent book, How to Read Like an Anti-Fascist, focuses on how the American Right uses stories to spread fascist propaganda across our media ecosystem and how some works of literature written for young people can help to reveal and counter fascist storytelling.

Reviews

[Andre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic overview of the rise of far-right policies and tactics over the last fifteen years, and a great example of how we can both use children's literature to counter this rise. Wannamaker also approaches these issues from the other side as well, discussing how we must use the tools in our fight against neofascism as a lens for our readings of children's literature in particular, but also in our readings of literature in general and, by extension, in how we interpret society as a whole.