From: Nina Lindsay <linds_na>
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 11:20:03 -0700 (PDT)

On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Ginny Moore Kruse wrote:


Certainly Madlenka's sense of nations and continents is limited; many chidlren's are. And why? Because, as in this book, stereotypical generalizations are made over and over in our culture in regards to the many different peoples from the continents of Asia, Africa, and South America. In such a straightforward and precise text as Sis', I can't understand why his characters couldn't all have been from specific countries. It would not have undermined the wonderful power of his story and pictures.

I also firmly believe that many children today --especially in a place like New York, I'd think-- are more aware of nationalities than some of us were as children. In Oakland, for instance, kids know Ethiopian more than African, and Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese, Chinese... Mexican and Salvadorean... just because it makes as much a difference as other similar distinctions.

Nina

Nina Lindsay, Librarian Children's Room Oakland Public Library 125 14th Street Oakland, CA 94612
(510)238615 linds_na at oaklandlibrary.org
Received on Mon 25 Jun 2001 01:20:03 PM CDT