Despite the growing recognition of children as active social agents, their roles as contributors to literary creation remain largely unexplored and unacknowledged in scholarly discourse, and their active participation in literary production within grassroots movements is notably absent from scholarship to date. This dissertation addresses this significant gap through the lens of contemporary Latin American cultural production, offering the first comprehensive study of children's multifaceted roles within cartonera publishers.

Cartonera publishers, originating in Argentina in 2003, are grassroots initiatives characterised by their use of recovered cardboard to hand-make books, their collaborative artistic practices and their commitment to community-based, socially inclusive book production. The study examines three cartonera publishers in Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, employing an interdisciplinary framework that threads together participatory ethnographic methodologies, decolonial and intersectional feminist theoretical frameworks, and the analysis of child-authored texts. This research spans diverse contexts, including community initiatives, schools, and prisons, and explores diverse child-led and intergenerational projects, offering a broad perspective on children's active engagement in the production literature and culture.

Through these place-based studies, the research demonstrates how children's involvement as authors, editors, and creators in these highly localised projects expands our understanding not only of children's literature, but also of the broader concepts of literature and childhood. Children's involvement in cartonera communities not only demonstrates their sociocultural agency but also provides invaluable insights into their lived experiences. The thesis demonstrates how collaborative, intergenerational cartonera projects, while revealing and critiquing the coloniality of power that shapes children's lives, can also challenge colonial social constructions and propose alternative ways of being together.

Ultimately, the study reveals how cartonera projects can transform children's roles within families and communities, nurture intergenerational relationships, and destabilise age-based hierarchies, demonstrating their potential to combat different aspects of children's oppression and exclusion. Through an approach that combines literary studies and activism, the author advocates for a broader understanding of children's literature that acknowledges children's varied contributions to literary production and its potential to cultivate more just intergenerational relations, opening new avenues for exploring the transformative power of children’s literatures.