Sunday, January 7, 2018
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Choosing Books for Change (or At Least Common Decency)
Today at work I had occasion to go through a box of picture books, sorting out what to keep for our church library and what to get rid of one way or another.
Now usually, when I do this sort of thing, the 'get rid of' books go to the thrift store.
Today I found one that is not, in fact, going to the thrift store. It's going in the trash, since it's a hardcover and I don't know that the binding would recycle particularly well. And it's not because it's moldy or water damaged. It's because it's horrifying.
Published in 1963, Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes, illustrated by Kazue Mizumura seems like a fun little old-fashioned book.
It has some neat factoids about fireflies. It also has this illustration:
That is a BIG NO. People in Africa (and their descendants in the diaspora) are not bug-eyed apes and it's not okay to depict them as such. I don't want anybody picking that book up to read at random and will certainly not be suggesting it for a story time about bugs, nature, or anything else.
Also going in the trash: Little Hiawatha from Wall Disney Productions from 1978.
This is full of fairly extreme and disrespectful stereotypes about Native Americans. Also not something I want other people to come across.
There are a few books that will be going to the thrift store. My criteria for keeping a book are:
Spot and his family and friends are a variety of colors, species, and have different abilities and interests.
In fact, this story is about diversity, feeling different, and feeling the same, but there are a lot of excellent books on lots of topics that set the norm that there are people of all sorts everywhere. See how much variety there is in Chrysanthemum's classmates in how they look (white, gray, and brown fur) and who they are (different approaches to posing for a picture!)? I have books that do a good job of this that are about construction and feelings and dance and all kinds of topics.
Now usually, when I do this sort of thing, the 'get rid of' books go to the thrift store.
Today I found one that is not, in fact, going to the thrift store. It's going in the trash, since it's a hardcover and I don't know that the binding would recycle particularly well. And it's not because it's moldy or water damaged. It's because it's horrifying.
Published in 1963, Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes, illustrated by Kazue Mizumura seems like a fun little old-fashioned book.
It has some neat factoids about fireflies. It also has this illustration:
That is a BIG NO. People in Africa (and their descendants in the diaspora) are not bug-eyed apes and it's not okay to depict them as such. I don't want anybody picking that book up to read at random and will certainly not be suggesting it for a story time about bugs, nature, or anything else.Also going in the trash: Little Hiawatha from Wall Disney Productions from 1978.
This is full of fairly extreme and disrespectful stereotypes about Native Americans. Also not something I want other people to come across.There are a few books that will be going to the thrift store. My criteria for keeping a book are:
- Must have something to do with a topic we might have a class or worship service about (that is a pretty broad range of topics.)
- If humans are shown, they must be a diverse range of humans (in terms of race, sex/gender, age, etc.) unless there is some actual reason connected to the story why not (for example, I don't demand that a story about a family necessarily include racial diversity within the family.)
- Language should be at least respectful of the people it is referring to - I don't necessarily require the most up-to-date terminology at all times.
Going to the thrift store today:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Other Favorite Bedtime Rhymes by Sanja Rescek, 2006: 
This one has an all-White cast, for no apparent reason. And I'm sure we have/there are much better, more reflective of human diversity, illustrated versions of nursery rhymes.
This one has an all-White cast, for no apparent reason. And I'm sure we have/there are much better, more reflective of human diversity, illustrated versions of nursery rhymes.
Spot Goes to the Beach by Eric Hill, 1985, is going to the thrift store because it's not terribly topical. These books are fun, though, and they do make some attempt at artistic inclusion:
Spot and his family and friends are a variety of colors, species, and have different abilities and interests.
All this made me think about really GOOD picture books and what I look for in them.
There are some books that are going all out for diversity and affirming each person for who they are, no matter what. That's great! An example I walked into my office and pulled off my shelf is It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr, 2001.
That's not the only kind of book we want to have, though, because there are many stories in life and they are not all about being different. Or even if they are, they don't all need to slam you upside the head with it.
There are lots of books that do a good job of showing diversity as something that just is, including Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, 1991:
In fact, this story is about diversity, feeling different, and feeling the same, but there are a lot of excellent books on lots of topics that set the norm that there are people of all sorts everywhere. See how much variety there is in Chrysanthemum's classmates in how they look (white, gray, and brown fur) and who they are (different approaches to posing for a picture!)? I have books that do a good job of this that are about construction and feelings and dance and all kinds of topics.
Finally, there are books that show one kind of person but they do that for a good reason, because the story is naturally about one type of person. There are books about being deaf that show mostly deaf people using sign and hearing aids etc. There are books about mommies that show mostly women (I'd love one that shows trans women as on the spectrum of normalcy, although I don't know that I have one ...). And there are books that show people mostly or entirely of one race or ethnicity. A good example is The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry, 1990. Since the vast majority of people who live in the Amazon Rain Forest have darker skin and many have mixed Native and European ancestry, I think this guy looks just right for this story:
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