Slippery Slope or Solid Ground?

After reading Marc Aronson’s “Slippery Slopes and Proliferating Prizes” and Andrea Davis Pinkney’s “Awards That Stand on Solid Ground”, both published in The Horn Book Magazine, I felt compelled to response to these readings.

In his piece, Aronson questions what these “proliferating” awards will mean for the readers of these texts. He poses an important question, “If you have to be black to win the award, do you have to be black to appreciate the award winning book?” I would argue that the answer to this question is, absolutely not. We shouldn’t be confined to reading to reading about people “just like us”.

I was astonished at how few awards were presented to black authors, 3 Newberys in a 97 year period. When thinking about the “ratio of black to white winners” it is hard for me not to see merit in awards that recognize marginalized populations. Although I agree with Pinkney’s assertion that “these awards are a gateway to progress”, they are not an absolute solution that will help incorporate underrepresented populations into children’s literature.

In my opinion, as long as the work that is being honored is a quality piece of literature, there is no harm in branching out our recognition.

Jigsaw Assignment- Lambda Literacy Award

The Lambda Literacy Foundation Award’s website can be found at: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/index.html. The purpose of this award is to celebrate GLBTQ literature. This award does not take the orientation of the author into consideration; it is secondary to the quality of the writing and the LBGTQ content of the work. There are twenty one categories in which books can be nominated by their author or publisher. The books are judged by various members of the literary community, but judges are not announced until the winners are made public.

In 2004, there was a book (The Man Who Would Be Queen) which was nominated, announced as a finalist, and then removed from the list due to an outcry of the LGBTQ population. More information about this at http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/lambda-literary.html.

We found it quite interesting that we could not find a “seal” to acknowledge books which won this award. Our group questioned whether this is due to the political climate of our country and the connotations that this award might have toward these books. Does not having an award allow for this book to be read by children and young adults without being "flagged"?

In searching for books which have won this award, we could only find two of the books in the young adult/children’s lit categories: Luna (which was found at the library) and Boy Meets Boy (which is actually a book we’re reading in class).

The Insider/Outsider Debate:

There has been discussion among the experts as to whether or not a an “outsider” is capable of writing an authentic piece of literature about a group to which he/she does not belong. I must agree with Rudine Sims Bishop in her assertion that “you have to know a culture intimately if you’re going to reflect it accurately in your fiction”. However, I also believe that it would be unfair to make a blanket statement saying that only group insiders have the ability to create quality children’s literature. I believe Debbie Reese’s discussion of outside authorship in Native American children’s literature can be extended to other subsets of diverse literature. In her discussion, Reese claims that “non-Native people have demonstrated that careful research and sensitive writing can result in a quality children’s book that should be part of the classroom library”. Just as not every book penned by a group insider promises to be exceptional, not every book authored by an outsider is doomed to be disastrous.

What is Multicultural Literature?

Although I am still in the early stages of my experience with multi-cultural literature, I have noticed topics of debate seem to have weaved their way through this area of study. The first topic: how exactly do we define multicultural literature?

In his piece Multiple Definitions of Multicultural Literature: Is the Debate Really Just “Ivory Tower” Bickering?, Mingshui Cai presents the range of existing definitions on a sliding scale. He explains that at one end of the spectrum, multicultural literature is defined as “books by and about people of color”. On the other end of that spectrum, people believe that “all literature is multicultural literature”. Is it too confining to believe that diverse literature should only be defined by the issues surrounding race and ethnicity? After all, there are many other aspects of diversity (e.g.: gender, religion, socio-economic status, sexuality, language, etcetera). It may also be impractical, however, to leave the definition completely open ended. If this were to be the case I’d have to agree with Rudine Sims Bishop’s claim that “if the set of ‘multicultural children’s literature’ is that same as the set of ‘children’s literature’ then the risk is that we will simply maintain the status quo”.

I believe that the function of this type of literature is far more important the definition. It is unlikely that we will come to see one clear cut definition of multi-cultural literature, however it is important to discuss what this type of literature should do for the reader. It is my hope that “good” multi-cultural children’s literature will serve two distinct purposes. First, it should allow a traditionally disenfranchised group of people a voice. They deserve to have their stories heard. Secondly, it should allow the reader possible ways to, as Patrick Shannon puts it, “recognize themselves (or part of themselves) in stories that seem on the surface so far apart from their daily lives”. Hopefully discussing our similarities as well as our differences will allow readers to connect with the diverse cultures represented in this literature on an entirely new level.

Welcome to My Blog!

Hi, my name is Lisa Patterson and I am currently in my senior year at Michigan State University. I am majoring in Elementary Education with a specialization in Language Arts. I look forward to “blogging” my way through TE 448, a course focused on issues of diversity in children's literature. This course initially piqued my interest after I completed TE 348, a more general course about children’s literature. I look forward to building upon my previous experiences with this topic and learning how to create an inclusive and diverse library for my future classroom.