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[CCBC-Net] Publishing for Children and Teens in a Post-9/11 World
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From: BudNotBuddy at aol.com <BudNotBuddy>
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 19:21:07 EDT
[Richie] So what are we going to be commemorating the fifth anniversary of this month?
[An eighth grader raises hand and simultaneously calls out] 9/11!
[Richie] And what happened on 9/11?
[A different eighth grader calls out] Planes crashed into the Towers.
[Richie] Okay. And who was responsible for making the planes crash into the Twin Towers?
[Various students calling out] Iraq! Muslims! Terrorists!
So repeatedly goes the portion of my recent back-to-school booktalk presentations at middle schools around Sonoma County where I preface my booktalk of UNDER THE PERSIMMON TREE with that series of questions.
Inevitably, some student does come up with the name Al Qadea. But, of course, the students are consistent in their beliefs and misunderstanding. When asked about the immediate U.S. military response to 9/11, the first student response is always, "We went to war with Iraq."
I still think my first impulse five years ago was the right one. The week after 9/11 I began reading James Howe's THE MISFITS aloud to all of Shari's eighth grade English classes. As someone who wanted to make a real contribution to interrupting that circle of hatred and violence at a time that it was in every American's living room (if not closer), my assumption was that you cannot be trying to teach the intricacies of Middle East politics to Middle School students. if you want to be teaching tolerance in middle school, it has to be done, instead, on a level at which young teens have a concrete understanding.
And I believe that many in children's publishing consciously or subconsciously came to the same realization. While there was already a good outpouring of children's and YA literature in which characters bridged prejudices, hatreds, or hasty assumptions, I believe that there has been a continuation and strengthening of this trend in the wake of, and because of, 9/11.
As far as exceptional children's literature specifically relating to the events of 9/11, UNDER THE PERSIMMON TREE by Suzanne Fisher Staples
_http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/under_the_persimmon_tree.html_
(http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/under_the_persimmon_tree.html) and ASK ME NO QUESTIONS by Marina Budhos
_http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/ask_me_no_questions.html_
(http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/ask_me_no_questions.html) are at the top of my list.
Richie Partington
_http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks) BudNotBuddy at aol.com
Received on Tue 05 Sep 2006 06:21:07 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 19:21:07 EDT
[Richie] So what are we going to be commemorating the fifth anniversary of this month?
[An eighth grader raises hand and simultaneously calls out] 9/11!
[Richie] And what happened on 9/11?
[A different eighth grader calls out] Planes crashed into the Towers.
[Richie] Okay. And who was responsible for making the planes crash into the Twin Towers?
[Various students calling out] Iraq! Muslims! Terrorists!
So repeatedly goes the portion of my recent back-to-school booktalk presentations at middle schools around Sonoma County where I preface my booktalk of UNDER THE PERSIMMON TREE with that series of questions.
Inevitably, some student does come up with the name Al Qadea. But, of course, the students are consistent in their beliefs and misunderstanding. When asked about the immediate U.S. military response to 9/11, the first student response is always, "We went to war with Iraq."
I still think my first impulse five years ago was the right one. The week after 9/11 I began reading James Howe's THE MISFITS aloud to all of Shari's eighth grade English classes. As someone who wanted to make a real contribution to interrupting that circle of hatred and violence at a time that it was in every American's living room (if not closer), my assumption was that you cannot be trying to teach the intricacies of Middle East politics to Middle School students. if you want to be teaching tolerance in middle school, it has to be done, instead, on a level at which young teens have a concrete understanding.
And I believe that many in children's publishing consciously or subconsciously came to the same realization. While there was already a good outpouring of children's and YA literature in which characters bridged prejudices, hatreds, or hasty assumptions, I believe that there has been a continuation and strengthening of this trend in the wake of, and because of, 9/11.
As far as exceptional children's literature specifically relating to the events of 9/11, UNDER THE PERSIMMON TREE by Suzanne Fisher Staples
_http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/under_the_persimmon_tree.html_
(http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/under_the_persimmon_tree.html) and ASK ME NO QUESTIONS by Marina Budhos
_http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/ask_me_no_questions.html_
(http://www.richiespicks.com/users/stories/picks/ask_me_no_questions.html) are at the top of my list.
Richie Partington
_http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks) BudNotBuddy at aol.com
Received on Tue 05 Sep 2006 06:21:07 PM CDT
