'This is a job for Hazmat Guy!': global media cultures and children's everyday lives

This chapter considers media culture and spaces as important contexts for early literacy development. Focusing on the LEGO activities of young children reminds us that they build literate identities and early repertoires of practice in relation to valued artifacts and within the material culture of their everyday lives. The LEGO described here links these children to the texts created and disseminated by a global media corporation as they read, recreate, and reshape the narratives that accompany the various sets and characters; as they move into online games and communities to share their interest in all things LEGO; and as they engage in print based books, magazines, and activities that revolve around the world of LEGO. This object ethnography has allowed us to begin to map some of the complex intersections between global media franchises and the lived worlds of these young children. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd..