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[CCBC-Net] Asian/Pacific Children's and Y.A. Literature
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman>
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:28:57 -0500
Sarah writes:
"It's exciting that the numbers of books has been increasing over the years, but I want to point out that there are sub-areas that merit closer attention. For example, there are more and more books about transracially adopted Asian children, yet in my research I've found that very few of these books are written by Asian adoptees themselves."
A number if things started flashing through my mind as I read this and the rest of her post. First, I thought of Yumi Heo's new picture book,
"Ten Day and Nine Nights." Granted it's not from an adoptee's perspective, but it IS an exceptionally child-centered look at the adoption experience (in this case, from a sibling's perspective). Andrea Warren's "Escape from Saigon" is a non-fiction book that profiles Hoang-V Long--now Matt Steiner--a Vietnamese boy who was part of the Operation Babylift airlift near the end of the Vietnam war.
I know neither of these fits the need for the kind of stories Sarah has noted aren't being told: stories about adoption written by adoptees. It's hard to say if the reason we don't see books from the adoptee's experience is in part because there is not an intersection between someone who can bring that perspective and someone who writes books for children. In other words, are there adult adoptees from Korea or China or other Asian Pacific nations (or elsehwere?) who are interested in and talented at writing for children? I don't know the answer. If nothing else, perhaps this discussion and Sarah's research will raise an awareness of this absence.
Sarah also wrote: "So when we celebrate that there are many insider authors of Asian American children's literature (thanks to the CCBC for compiling those statistics), I just want to point out that there are sub-topics for which this is not true, and this has implications for the types of stories being told and circulated, and whose voices and perspectives are being left out."
Not only are there voices and perspectives that haven't been heard from, not only is the need for stories never-ending because there are so many stories to tell, but stories need to be able to be themselves: representative of a particular experience or perspective rather than an entire cultural experience or perspective, even as they may illuminate aspects of that culture. (In fact, first and foremost, I'd say--at least in the case of picture books and fiction--they need to be about a child, and child-centered in the telling.)
Collectively, I want children's and young adult literature to speak to the diversity within a culture as well as diversity across cultures. So yes, there is much to celebrate, and yet I long for a day when I feel overwhelmed by choices. It's exciting, for example, to see increased visibility of children and teens of South Asian heritage in books in the past few years, and if I'm looking for a young adult book or a children's book to fit that bill (e.g., "something about a child of Indian or Pakistani heritage") I'll be able to find terrific titles to suggest. But what I'm more typyically looking for when someone contacts us here at the CCBC looking for book ideas are titles s on a particular theme or topic or representing a particular genre--school or family, mystery or adventure--and I want to--I should--be able to respond to those questions with a range of titles that meet the specific need while reflecting many and varied dimensions of cultural experience.
Megan
Sarah Park wrote:
> Hello everyone! I'm really excited about this topic because my
> research area is Asian American children's literature and I'm serving
> on the Asian Pacific American Librarian Association's awards
> committee, so this topic is near and dear to my heart :)
>
> It's exciting that the numbers of books has been increasing over the
> years, but I want to point out that there are sub-areas that merit
> closer attention. For example, there are more and more books about
> transracially adopted Asian children, yet in my research I've found
> that very few of these books are written by Asian adoptees themselves.
> For the Chinese adoptees this is more likely because it is a
> relatively recent phenomenon so the girls are just now entering
> college, but Korean adoption has been going on since the 1950s and in
> my dissertation research I found that only 1 of 51 children's and
> young adult books was authored by an adoptee. Mind you, this book was
> self-published by a 9-year old whose therapist and adoptive parents
> were clearly heavily involved in the writing process. On the other
> hand, most books I've read about being an Asian immigrant, the Korean
> War, Japanese colonization, etc., were written by people who either
> directly experienced that situation (for example, Sook Nyul Choi's
> *Year of Impossible Goodbyes*) or is the child of someone who did (for
> example, Linda Sue Park's *When My Name Was Keoko*). So when we
> celebrate that there are many insider authors of Asian American
> children's literature (thanks to the CCBC for compiling those
> statistics), I just want to point out that there are sub-topics for
> which this is not true, and this has implications for the types of
> stories being told and circulated, and whose voices and perspectives
> are being left out.
>
> You can read a bit more about my dissertation work (and other thoughts
> on Asian American children's literature) here:
> http://readingspark.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/dissertation-abstract/
>
> Warmly,
> Sarah
>
> Sarah Park, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of LIS
> St. Catherine University
> sparkLA79 at gmail.com <mailto:sparkLA79 at gmail.com>
> http://sarahpark.com
> 310-922-5979
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Megan Schliesman
> <schliesman at education.wisc.edu <mailto:schliesman at education.wisc.edu>>
> wrote:
>
> Here's what we'll be talking about this month on CCBC-Net. We
> invite you
> to continue to share announcments for the next day or so.
>
> *First Half September: New Asian/Pacific and Asian/Pacific American
> Children?s and Young Adult Literature. *In the past few years there?s
> been a welcome increase in the number of books reflecting
> Asian/Pacific
> and Asian/Pacific American experiences published for children and
> teens.
> (You can see the CCBC?s annual statistics on this and other dimensions
> of multicultural publishing at
> http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.asp ). As with all
> multicultural publishing, the numbers are always relative?it?s still a
> shockingly small percentage of publishing overall-- but it?s
> exciting to
> see newer writers and artists for children and teens, such as Naomi
> Hirahara, Cynthia Kadohata, Suzy Lee, Moying Li, Kashmira Sheth, Gene
> Luen Yang, Paula Yoo, and others joining veterans such as Sheila
> Hamanaka, Yumi Heo, Mitali Perkins, Allen Say, Laurence Yep. . . (the
> list goes on), in creating books that speak to some of the many and
> varied dimensions of Asian/Pacific heritage in our nation and the
> world.
> During the first half of September on CCBC-Net, we?ll talk about
> Asian/Pacific literature for children and teens, from individual
> books,
> authors and artists to the importance of having an ever-growing
> body of
> engaging, culturally authentic books available for children and teens.
>
> *Second Half of September: Crossover Books, Part II. *We first visited
> the topic of crossover books?titles that are marketed to both children
> and adult audiences, in June 1999. That discussion was inspired in
> part
> by the ever-growing popularity of ?Harry Potter ,? which was already
> having noticeable crossover appeal. Today, it seems we think about
> crossover less in terms of marketing and more in terms of how the
> lines
> between children?s/young adult and adult literature are not always
> easily defined, at least when it comes to appeal. From ?The Book
> Thief?
> to ?American Born Chinese? to ?Twilight? and beyond, we?ll revisit the
> topic of ?crossover books? in light of the past ten years of
> publishing
> during the second half of September.
>
>
> Megan
>
>
> --
> Megan Schliesman, Librarian
> Cooperative Children's Book Center
> School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
> 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290
> Madison, WI 53706
>
> 608/262-9503
> schliesman at education.wisc.edu <mailto:schliesman at education.wisc.edu>
>
> www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ <http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
> <mailto:CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu>
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
>
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:28:57 -0500
Sarah writes:
"It's exciting that the numbers of books has been increasing over the years, but I want to point out that there are sub-areas that merit closer attention. For example, there are more and more books about transracially adopted Asian children, yet in my research I've found that very few of these books are written by Asian adoptees themselves."
A number if things started flashing through my mind as I read this and the rest of her post. First, I thought of Yumi Heo's new picture book,
"Ten Day and Nine Nights." Granted it's not from an adoptee's perspective, but it IS an exceptionally child-centered look at the adoption experience (in this case, from a sibling's perspective). Andrea Warren's "Escape from Saigon" is a non-fiction book that profiles Hoang-V Long--now Matt Steiner--a Vietnamese boy who was part of the Operation Babylift airlift near the end of the Vietnam war.
I know neither of these fits the need for the kind of stories Sarah has noted aren't being told: stories about adoption written by adoptees. It's hard to say if the reason we don't see books from the adoptee's experience is in part because there is not an intersection between someone who can bring that perspective and someone who writes books for children. In other words, are there adult adoptees from Korea or China or other Asian Pacific nations (or elsehwere?) who are interested in and talented at writing for children? I don't know the answer. If nothing else, perhaps this discussion and Sarah's research will raise an awareness of this absence.
Sarah also wrote: "So when we celebrate that there are many insider authors of Asian American children's literature (thanks to the CCBC for compiling those statistics), I just want to point out that there are sub-topics for which this is not true, and this has implications for the types of stories being told and circulated, and whose voices and perspectives are being left out."
Not only are there voices and perspectives that haven't been heard from, not only is the need for stories never-ending because there are so many stories to tell, but stories need to be able to be themselves: representative of a particular experience or perspective rather than an entire cultural experience or perspective, even as they may illuminate aspects of that culture. (In fact, first and foremost, I'd say--at least in the case of picture books and fiction--they need to be about a child, and child-centered in the telling.)
Collectively, I want children's and young adult literature to speak to the diversity within a culture as well as diversity across cultures. So yes, there is much to celebrate, and yet I long for a day when I feel overwhelmed by choices. It's exciting, for example, to see increased visibility of children and teens of South Asian heritage in books in the past few years, and if I'm looking for a young adult book or a children's book to fit that bill (e.g., "something about a child of Indian or Pakistani heritage") I'll be able to find terrific titles to suggest. But what I'm more typyically looking for when someone contacts us here at the CCBC looking for book ideas are titles s on a particular theme or topic or representing a particular genre--school or family, mystery or adventure--and I want to--I should--be able to respond to those questions with a range of titles that meet the specific need while reflecting many and varied dimensions of cultural experience.
Megan
Sarah Park wrote:
> Hello everyone! I'm really excited about this topic because my
> research area is Asian American children's literature and I'm serving
> on the Asian Pacific American Librarian Association's awards
> committee, so this topic is near and dear to my heart :)
>
> It's exciting that the numbers of books has been increasing over the
> years, but I want to point out that there are sub-areas that merit
> closer attention. For example, there are more and more books about
> transracially adopted Asian children, yet in my research I've found
> that very few of these books are written by Asian adoptees themselves.
> For the Chinese adoptees this is more likely because it is a
> relatively recent phenomenon so the girls are just now entering
> college, but Korean adoption has been going on since the 1950s and in
> my dissertation research I found that only 1 of 51 children's and
> young adult books was authored by an adoptee. Mind you, this book was
> self-published by a 9-year old whose therapist and adoptive parents
> were clearly heavily involved in the writing process. On the other
> hand, most books I've read about being an Asian immigrant, the Korean
> War, Japanese colonization, etc., were written by people who either
> directly experienced that situation (for example, Sook Nyul Choi's
> *Year of Impossible Goodbyes*) or is the child of someone who did (for
> example, Linda Sue Park's *When My Name Was Keoko*). So when we
> celebrate that there are many insider authors of Asian American
> children's literature (thanks to the CCBC for compiling those
> statistics), I just want to point out that there are sub-topics for
> which this is not true, and this has implications for the types of
> stories being told and circulated, and whose voices and perspectives
> are being left out.
>
> You can read a bit more about my dissertation work (and other thoughts
> on Asian American children's literature) here:
> http://readingspark.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/dissertation-abstract/
>
> Warmly,
> Sarah
>
> Sarah Park, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor of LIS
> St. Catherine University
> sparkLA79 at gmail.com <mailto:sparkLA79 at gmail.com>
> http://sarahpark.com
> 310-922-5979
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Megan Schliesman
> <schliesman at education.wisc.edu <mailto:schliesman at education.wisc.edu>>
> wrote:
>
> Here's what we'll be talking about this month on CCBC-Net. We
> invite you
> to continue to share announcments for the next day or so.
>
> *First Half September: New Asian/Pacific and Asian/Pacific American
> Children?s and Young Adult Literature. *In the past few years there?s
> been a welcome increase in the number of books reflecting
> Asian/Pacific
> and Asian/Pacific American experiences published for children and
> teens.
> (You can see the CCBC?s annual statistics on this and other dimensions
> of multicultural publishing at
> http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.asp ). As with all
> multicultural publishing, the numbers are always relative?it?s still a
> shockingly small percentage of publishing overall-- but it?s
> exciting to
> see newer writers and artists for children and teens, such as Naomi
> Hirahara, Cynthia Kadohata, Suzy Lee, Moying Li, Kashmira Sheth, Gene
> Luen Yang, Paula Yoo, and others joining veterans such as Sheila
> Hamanaka, Yumi Heo, Mitali Perkins, Allen Say, Laurence Yep. . . (the
> list goes on), in creating books that speak to some of the many and
> varied dimensions of Asian/Pacific heritage in our nation and the
> world.
> During the first half of September on CCBC-Net, we?ll talk about
> Asian/Pacific literature for children and teens, from individual
> books,
> authors and artists to the importance of having an ever-growing
> body of
> engaging, culturally authentic books available for children and teens.
>
> *Second Half of September: Crossover Books, Part II. *We first visited
> the topic of crossover books?titles that are marketed to both children
> and adult audiences, in June 1999. That discussion was inspired in
> part
> by the ever-growing popularity of ?Harry Potter ,? which was already
> having noticeable crossover appeal. Today, it seems we think about
> crossover less in terms of marketing and more in terms of how the
> lines
> between children?s/young adult and adult literature are not always
> easily defined, at least when it comes to appeal. From ?The Book
> Thief?
> to ?American Born Chinese? to ?Twilight? and beyond, we?ll revisit the
> topic of ?crossover books? in light of the past ten years of
> publishing
> during the second half of September.
>
>
> Megan
>
>
> --
> Megan Schliesman, Librarian
> Cooperative Children's Book Center
> School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
> 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290
> Madison, WI 53706
>
> 608/262-9503
> schliesman at education.wisc.edu <mailto:schliesman at education.wisc.edu>
>
> www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ <http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CCBC-Net mailing list
> CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu
> <mailto:CCBC-Net at lists.education.wisc.edu>
> Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> http://lists.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
>
>
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706 608/262-9503 schliesman at education.wisc.edu www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/Received on Fri 04 Sep 2009 10:28:57 AM CDT
