CCBC-Net Archives
Social Justice in Books for Children and Teens
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Lyn Miller-Lachmann <lynml_at_me.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:30:51 -0400
Hi, all, Thank you for welcoming me to CCBC-net and for highlighting The Pirate Tree as your November blog of the month. I am especially honored, as I graduated from UW-Madison's SLIS some 20 years ago and was a regular visitor to the CCBC at the time.
The Pirate Tree is the brainchild of Jessica Powers, who I met in my first semester at the MFA program at Vermont College. Several of us bloggers are students in or graduates of the VCFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and we wanted to give attention to books that focused on such topics as the environment, economic justice, immigration, gender, ethnicity, disability, war & peace, and refugees. In the four months that The Pirate Tree has existed, we've reviewed new books and highlighted important older ones, interviewed authors, and published bibliographic essays on specific topics, such as Jessica's recent essay on the portrayal of homelessness in picture books.
I suggested that Jessica post part of her essay here because it contains a powerful rationale for writing and publishing books for readers of all ages on this difficult subject. Due to technical difficulties, she asked me to post the introduction and a link to the rest of the piece on The Pirate Tree. Please feel free to comment here or on the blog.
I look forward to this month's discussion and thank you again for the invitation to participate.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann Former editor-in-chief, MultiCultural Review MFA student, Vermont College of Fine Arts Editor, Once Upon a Cuento (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2003) Author, Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009)
Although I can’t recall reading any picture books that explored serious social issues when I was a child, I was certainly surrounded by them in every day life. Because I grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, many of my classmates were the children of immigrants, both documented and undocumented. My classmates all received free breakfasts and lunches becausetheir families were so poor. Two of my friends at one point lived in a chicken coop, literally, and their mother—an undocumented immigrant who had fled an abusive husband in Mexico—supported six children on her maid’s salary of less than $25 a day. Another friend lived with her parents on the grounds of an immigration detention center, and I remember visiting her mother at work, who had to unlock a set of three doors before we could enter the building where they had locked up refugees fleeing the violence of U.S.-supported wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
I grew up seeing extreme poverty—and the damage that does to families and children—as well as the resilience of the human spirit; I grew up observing U.S. laws that sent refugees back to their war-torn countries to die, and watching as hard-working folks broke those U.S. laws for the good of their families. I never saw my world represented in children’s literature—not in picture books or, as I got older, in middle-grade or young adult fiction. In fact, I spent most of my childhood believing that the place I lived and the people who were my friends and family were inferior because our lives were nothing like the lives of people I read about in books. Although many more writers are exploring social issues in children’s literature, and “diversity” and “multicultural” have become buzz words in the industry, there is still a dearth of serious, artistic picture books that delve into the darker and more complicated sides of human experience. Out of a desire to protect some children from the realit ies of racism, poverty, and violence, we’ve neglected a very broad and deep swath of children whose experiences and lives are rarely portrayed in picture books.
In this blog post, I’m going to focus on how the concept of homelessness has been explored in picture books in order to show four methods writers can use to explore dark and serious issues for a very young audience....
Received on Tue 01 Nov 2011 05:30:51 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:30:51 -0400
Hi, all, Thank you for welcoming me to CCBC-net and for highlighting The Pirate Tree as your November blog of the month. I am especially honored, as I graduated from UW-Madison's SLIS some 20 years ago and was a regular visitor to the CCBC at the time.
The Pirate Tree is the brainchild of Jessica Powers, who I met in my first semester at the MFA program at Vermont College. Several of us bloggers are students in or graduates of the VCFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and we wanted to give attention to books that focused on such topics as the environment, economic justice, immigration, gender, ethnicity, disability, war & peace, and refugees. In the four months that The Pirate Tree has existed, we've reviewed new books and highlighted important older ones, interviewed authors, and published bibliographic essays on specific topics, such as Jessica's recent essay on the portrayal of homelessness in picture books.
I suggested that Jessica post part of her essay here because it contains a powerful rationale for writing and publishing books for readers of all ages on this difficult subject. Due to technical difficulties, she asked me to post the introduction and a link to the rest of the piece on The Pirate Tree. Please feel free to comment here or on the blog.
I look forward to this month's discussion and thank you again for the invitation to participate.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann Former editor-in-chief, MultiCultural Review MFA student, Vermont College of Fine Arts Editor, Once Upon a Cuento (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2003) Author, Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009)
Although I can’t recall reading any picture books that explored serious social issues when I was a child, I was certainly surrounded by them in every day life. Because I grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, many of my classmates were the children of immigrants, both documented and undocumented. My classmates all received free breakfasts and lunches becausetheir families were so poor. Two of my friends at one point lived in a chicken coop, literally, and their mother—an undocumented immigrant who had fled an abusive husband in Mexico—supported six children on her maid’s salary of less than $25 a day. Another friend lived with her parents on the grounds of an immigration detention center, and I remember visiting her mother at work, who had to unlock a set of three doors before we could enter the building where they had locked up refugees fleeing the violence of U.S.-supported wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
I grew up seeing extreme poverty—and the damage that does to families and children—as well as the resilience of the human spirit; I grew up observing U.S. laws that sent refugees back to their war-torn countries to die, and watching as hard-working folks broke those U.S. laws for the good of their families. I never saw my world represented in children’s literature—not in picture books or, as I got older, in middle-grade or young adult fiction. In fact, I spent most of my childhood believing that the place I lived and the people who were my friends and family were inferior because our lives were nothing like the lives of people I read about in books. Although many more writers are exploring social issues in children’s literature, and “diversity” and “multicultural” have become buzz words in the industry, there is still a dearth of serious, artistic picture books that delve into the darker and more complicated sides of human experience. Out of a desire to protect some children from the realit ies of racism, poverty, and violence, we’ve neglected a very broad and deep swath of children whose experiences and lives are rarely portrayed in picture books.
In this blog post, I’m going to focus on how the concept of homelessness has been explored in picture books in order to show four methods writers can use to explore dark and serious issues for a very young audience....
Received on Tue 01 Nov 2011 05:30:51 PM CDT
