From: Sally Miller <derbymiller_at_fuse.net>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:57:53 -0500

There's a child in that book (The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate) with mental challenges related to hydrocephalus, and he's described in degrading and cruel terms. For instance, he's described as "mooing". I would have thought we were past this kind of thing in publishing today.

I understand how someone could find this wording distressing. But in defense of Jacqueline Kelly, the book is told in the voice of a twelve year old at turn of the century. Unfortunately, you can't make the past politically correct or give people of another era a more modern sensibility. I am old enough to have been around when people (even some of whom I loved) fairly often spoke of people who were handicapped in any way in ways that I now realize were unfeeling and hurtful. The only way I think Kelly could have handled the situation otherwise would have been to leave out the whole passage. Maybe that's what she should have done. I don't know. Or could it be that she knew how the comments would be viewed today and hoped to bring about a situation in which an adult would use Callie's comments as a springboard for discussion with young people. I wonder if anyone who works with kids has called attention to the passage. It's disappointing that there wasn't a response when Wendy raised the point in another venue
.

Sally Derby "Kyle's Island"
Received on Wed 24 Feb 2010 09:57:53 PM CST