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This article examines the reconstruction of human foibles in picturebook adaptations of three popular Aesop's fables: "The Ants and the Grasshopper", "The Lion and the Mouse", and "The Hare and the Tortoise". Adopting adaptation and globalectics perspectives, the author illustrates how social hierarchy is deconstructed in these fables where the authors use anthropomorphic animals to moralize about the human condition. Thus, although the adaptations reiterate lessons from the original source material, they deliberately undermine and/or expand the lessons by integrating sociocultural signifiers that situate Black aesthetics at the core of the narratives. The article examines six picturebook adaptations by award-winning artists, Toni and Slade Morrison, and Jerry Pinkney.

This study examines the cultural contents in one textbook series, which is currently in use for English as a foreign language (EFL) education among ethnic Mongol junior high students in Inner Mongolia, China, to understand the representations of multiculturalism and underlying power relations that appear in them. Applying Kachru and Nelson's model of English spread and their categorisation into Inner, Outer and Expanding circles, this critical content analysis investigates which countries are introduced and how multicultural variables including race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities are represented. The results show that representations of cultures of three circle countries and multicultural variables are shown in an unbalanced, stereotypical way and lack diversity. Additionally, we present the tensions within power relations among different countries, race/ethnicity, social classes, and gender/sexuality. The findings suggest that a critical multicultural perspective not only helps students and educators recognise both the international and internal diversity, but also urges educators and textbook writers to emphasise the importance of cultural knowledge of EFL textbooks to better serve ethnic Mongol students.

Online teaching, a new phenomenon in literary studies has elicited strong emotions among scholars of children's literature, some of whom are noted for their progressive beliefs. Like most of my colleagues in the academy, I was skeptical about teaching a graduate children's literature course online initially because I thought it would not only compromise the overall quality of the experience, but would also interfere with critical discussions that are usually associated with literature. However, now I realize that e-learning has its strengths and challenges just like residential teaching/learning. But for the virtual classroom community to function at its optimum the rules have to be clear. (Contains 1 note.)