The struggle between homogeneity and difference that is so characteristic of European communal identity is expressed in the five European picturebooks analyzed here, as a negotiation of identity. Identity, or the self, is not taken for granted by the anthropomorphic animal protagonists. In this sense, all five heroes are to an extent actively and diversely constructed social selves: they view the self not just as something we are, but as an object we actively construct and live by, taking up or resisting the varied ways in which others perceive their identity.