Weekly Roundup: June 2 - June 8, 2013

•  Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman: 'I'm Looking Forward to Redressing the Balance for Teenagers' at The Guardian

• New Book Details How to Teach Yoga to Autistic and Special-Needs Kids at SunSentinel

• The Worry-Free Vacation at Rich in Color

• A Short List of Great Resources for Racial Diversity in Young Adult Sci-Fi  at bitchmedia

•  Black Characters Put Parents Off Books, New Children's Laureate Says at the Telegraph

• What Is Authentic, And What Is Offensive?  at CBC Diversity

• Mermaids in America  at Diversity in YA

Weekly Roundup: May 5 - May 11, 2013

• The Gender Coverup at the HuffPost

• YA Books Need to Reflect Our Diverse Society at The Telegraph

• Fredrick McKissack, Half of Award-Winning Writing Team, Dies at 73  at SLJ

•  Judging Covers at CBC Diversity

Read What 6th Graders Think of Books and Marketing in a Chain Store

We've been following a series about a group of 6th grade students in NYC that studied book covers and various diversity issues including race and gender. As a part of their study, the students visited a big local bookstore chain (that remains nameless) and commented on what they saw. Among the insightful thoughts the 6th graders shared are these:

“I think that once the people who buy books realize that boys can bake and girls can fight dragons, authors will start making more books like that.”

“In the chapter book section, I saw that most of the books that had non-Caucasian characters didn’t have that character on the cover.”

“On the covers, I saw thin, pretty girls. I didn’t see any overweight girls or anyone with acne. I think that these covers shape an idea of perfect in a girls mind, and makes them want to be like that, even though everyone was born perfect.”

“I was disgusted that the authors didn’t seem to realize that not every girl is having problems that she needs her boyfriend to solve.”

We're really impressed with what these students observed, as well as their thoughtful responses, which highlight the importance of educating children about diversity issues.  Click here to read more about what these intelligent 6th graders had to say. All quotes and pictures come from the site.

Five Diverse Middle Grade Novels in Verse

Continuing our celebration of National Poetry Month in the U.S., here are five middle grade novels in verse. Enjoy and Happy Poetry Month!

Planet Middle School
written by Nikki Grimes

You can read a great review of Planet Middle School at Coastline Books.

Inside Out & Back Again
written by Thanhha Lai

This book was showered with praise when it was published, winning the National Book Award, as well a Newbery Honor, and garnering multiple starred reviews. All the praise was well-earned. This semi-autobiographical story follows ten-year old Hà and her family from war-ravaged Saigon to the United States. Though times were hard in Vietnam, Hà was happy with her family, growing her papaya tree, and excelling in her studies. Hà struggles with the harsh realities of life aboard the rescue boat that eventually takes her family to a refugee camp, and with adjusting to her new home in Alabama. Life in the United States is very different than Saigon, and Hà is ostracized, cruelly mocked, and teased in her new school. She struggles to understand not only a new language, but a new culture, foods, and landscapes. The sense of place that Lai evokes in this book is exquisite, making her readers feel they are with Hà on every step of her journey. The poetic form helps readers grasp at least a fraction of the depth and intensity of Hà's emotions as she makes her way through the incredibly tumultuous year chronicled in this book. You can read more about Inside Out & Back Again at Goodreads. 

Book Review: Not a Chance

Not a Chance

written by Michelle Mulder

Dian has been traveling from her home in Canada to the Dominican Republic with her doctor parents every summer since she was five-years old. This year she's thirteen and ready to stay at home, but her parents drag her along anyway. The only bright spot in her summer is seeing her best friend, Aracely, who is fourteen and lives in the small town where Dian's parents set up their clinic. Even this small happiness soon fades though when Aracely tells Dian she is engaged to be married. Dian is flabbergasted--Aracely had planned to move to Canada with Dian's family in a few years, later study to become a doctor, and ultimately return to help the people in her rural village. Learning that her friend has never really wanted to do any of these things is a further blow to Dian, who cannot understand why Aracely would choose what Dian views as a typical village life over the opportunity to study in Canada. She is further concerned by Aracely's fear that she'll never get another chance at marriage, due to the scar she bears on her cheek, relic of an accident when she was four.

Is This Disney Book Racist?

In my internet perusals, I recently came across the video below. In it, a woman named Angela examines a book published by Disney called Furry Friends! which is a part of their "It's a Small World" series.

With such a series title, one might think Disney is attempting to introduce young readers to diversity--a good thing. However, as Angela points out, there is something very wrong with this offering. Please take a few minutes to listen to Angela's observations.

Resources for Talking to Children About Race Article at the Huffington Post

Over at the HuffPost, they've posted an article on Resources for Talking to Your Children About Race. Though I disagree with the authors contention that at some point all children begin to exclude others based on outside differences (pretty sure this never happened to me), I agree with her assertion that race and racism needs to be discussed with children intentionally. I thought her suggestions for opening dialogue about race, exposing children to racial diversity, and her book recommendations were worth passing along--you can read the article in its entirety here.

Do you agree or disagree with the article? Do you have any favorite books you use for discussing race with children? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

To Censor or Not to Censor: Does Racist Language Have a Place in Children's Books?

A huge row recently erupted in Germany over racist language in a children's book. I won't take too much time to recap the situation here (you can follow the link), suffice to say it began when a German father wrote to the publisher of Die Kleine Hexe, a classic German children's book, about how he could not continue reading the story to his seven-year old daughter after encountering the word "neger" (from what I gather, it is the German equivalent of both the word "negro" and the "n-word," now considered offensive). He requested the publisher revise the text. The publisher, after reviewing the book, said they would edit future printings—and all hell broke loose.

This conversation is one in which I am well-versed. I have debated with fellow children's literature scholars and enthusiasts about whether antiquated racist language should be purged from children's books. The arguments I hear most often in favor of keeping the racist language (and that has been cited in this most recent resurgence of the debate) is that by removing racial slurs from texts we are rewriting the past, denying history, and even that we are "whitewashing" the literature in question (though clearly this definition of whitewashing must be very different than the one discussed in a previous post). While I understand where those who hold these beliefs are coming from, I always come back to the question, "Yes, but what about the reader?"

Book Recommendation: Happy Birthday, Rosa Parks!

Today would have been Rosa Parks' 100th birthday (she lived to be 92-years old). If you're interested in a beautifully illustrated picture book about her part in the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa, illustrated by Bryan Collier and written by Nikki Giovanni is a good choice. 

 

Whitewashing YA Covers and the Problems with Thinking You Can Solve the Problem

In December 2012, YALSA published an article about the whitewashing of YA book covers. While the article didn't cover anything new (for me, at least), it was heartening to see the conversation about racism in YA lit continue--the dialogue on which is clearly nowhere near being over as the problem is still, unfortunately, very much alive.

There were many responses to the article in the comments and some even posted links to responses on their blogs. And while I appreciated reading others' reactions to the piece, I found some of the responses more than a little disturbing. As a person of color (POC), I wanted to discuss the reasons for my disturbance, and since we (the Ink & Penners) have long been looking to get this blog started, I thought this would serve as a great flagship post!
 
When discussing such a hot button issue like racism, many people are often deeply bothered by the problems it produces and immediately want to “solve” said problems. This impulse is well-intentioned, but can be predicated on problematic thinking. First, the belief that problems like racism, or the many issues that stem from it, can be solved quickly and by one person. Once the fundamental basics of racism, why it exists, and how it operates, are understood it quickly becomes apparent that it is a problem that will not be solved quickly or by a single individual. Second, if you are not a member of the oppressed people group in question (in this case POC) then thinking you can solve this problem alone is problematic for a variety of reasons. Let me try to explain.