In her lifetime, Lois Lenski wrote, illustrated, and otherwise contributed to more than one hundred books for children and preteens. This study focuses on Lenski’s regional books for preteens, novels that Lenski claimed were written from real life. Using interpretive narrative analysis, this study evaluates two of Lenski’s regional novels: Strawberry Girl (1945), the 1946 Newbery award-winner and second installment in the American Regional series, and High-Rise Secret (1966), the eleventh installment in the Roundabout America series, focusing specifically on Lenski’s creative process. The analysis of Lenski’s works was contextualized using literature focusing on the concepts of character representation, authority, power, and agency. As such, this study also addresses children’s books as cultural artifacts alongside issues of socialization and identity creation. Historically, the focus of the period in which Lenski was writing her regional novels is on the creation of a national unity and identity following such events as World War II. However, this national identity is inherently biased in favor of the ethnically White considering its development prior to the period of social change inspired by the Civil Rights movement. While the study found that there was little to no difference between character and environment representation when comparing the real-life situations and the novels, the narrative structure, content construction, and predominance of ethnically White characters demonstrate that both the books and their author were products of their time.
","abstract_html":"<p>In her lifetime, Lois Lenski wrote, illustrated, and otherwise contributed to more than one hundred books for children and preteens. This study focuses on Lenski’s regional books for preteens, novels that Lenski claimed were written from real life. Using interpretive narrative analysis, this study evaluates two of Lenski’s regional novels: <em>Strawberry Girl</em> (1945), the 1946 Newbery award-winner and second installment in the American Regional series, and <em>High-Rise Secret</em> (1966), the eleventh installment in the Roundabout America series, focusing specifically on Lenski’s creative process. The analysis of Lenski’s works was contextualized using literature focusing on the concepts of character representation, authority, power, and agency. As such, this study also addresses children’s books as cultural artifacts alongside issues of socialization and identity creation. Historically, the focus of the period in which Lenski was writing her regional novels is on the creation of a national unity and identity following such events as World War II. However, this national identity is inherently biased in favor of the ethnically White considering its development prior to the period of social change inspired by the Civil Rights movement. While the study found that there was little to no difference between character and environment representation when comparing the real-life situations and the novels, the narrative structure, content construction, and predominance of ethnically White characters demonstrate that both the books and their author were products of their time.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Thomas, Stephanie Evans"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":"Anthropology and Sociology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Bridget Hayden","Teresa S. Welsh","Stacy Creel"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-12-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-12-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:50Z","subjects":["Lois Lenski","interpretive narrative analysis","character representation","children's literature","cultural artifacts","Archival Science","Library and Information Science","Social and Cultural Anthropology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/335","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Bridget Hayden","Teresa S. Welsh","Stacy Creel"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Thomas, Stephanie Evans"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-10-17T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Anthropology and Sociology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Lois Lenski","interpretive narrative analysis","character representation","children's literature","cultural artifacts","Archival Science","Library and Information Science","Social and Cultural Anthropology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/335"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In her lifetime, Lois Lenski wrote, illustrated, and otherwise contributed to more than one hundred books for children and preteens. This study focuses on Lenski’s regional books for preteens, novels that Lenski claimed were written from real life. Using interpretive narrative analysis, this study evaluates two of Lenski’s regional novels: Strawberry Girl (1945), the 1946 Newbery award-winner and second installment in the American Regional series, and High-Rise Secret (1966), the eleventh installment in the Roundabout America series, focusing specifically on Lenski’s creative process. The analysis of Lenski’s works was contextualized using literature focusing on the concepts of character representation, authority, power, and agency. As such, this study also addresses children’s books as cultural artifacts alongside issues of socialization and identity creation. Historically, the focus of the period in which Lenski was writing her regional novels is on the creation of a national unity and identity following such events as World War II. However, this national identity is inherently biased in favor of the ethnically White considering its development prior to the period of social change inspired by the Civil Rights movement. While the study found that there was little to no difference between character and environment representation when comparing the real-life situations and the novels, the narrative structure, content construction, and predominance of ethnically White characters demonstrate that both the books and their author were products of their time.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Lois Lenski, A Friend to Children: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of a Children's Book Author"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Bridget Hayden","Teresa S. Welsh","Stacy Creel"],"dc:creator":["Thomas, Stephanie Evans"],"dc:date.available":["2017-10-17T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["In her lifetime, Lois Lenski wrote, illustrated, and otherwise contributed to more than one hundred books for children and preteens. This study focuses on Lenski’s regional books for preteens, novels that Lenski claimed were written from real life. Using interpretive narrative analysis, this study evaluates two of Lenski’s regional novels: Strawberry Girl (1945), the 1946 Newbery award-winner and second installment in the American Regional series, and High-Rise Secret (1966), the eleventh installment in the Roundabout America series, focusing specifically on Lenski’s creative process. The analysis of Lenski’s works was contextualized using literature focusing on the concepts of character representation, authority, power, and agency. As such, this study also addresses children’s books as cultural artifacts alongside issues of socialization and identity creation. Historically, the focus of the period in which Lenski was writing her regional novels is on the creation of a national unity and identity following such events as World War II. However, this national identity is inherently biased in favor of the ethnically White considering its development prior to the period of social change inspired by the Civil Rights movement. While the study found that there was little to no difference between character and environment representation when comparing the real-life situations and the novels, the narrative structure, content construction, and predominance of ethnically White characters demonstrate that both the books and their author were products of their time.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/335"],"dc:subject":["Lois Lenski","interpretive narrative analysis","character representation","children's literature","cultural artifacts","Archival Science","Library and Information Science","Social and Cultural Anthropology"],"dc:title":["Lois Lenski, A Friend to Children: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of a Children's Book Author"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Anthropology and Sociology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:44:50Z"}