CCBC-Net Archives
Re: Social Justice in Books for Children and Teens
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From: AAngel_at_aol.com
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:43:51 -0400 (EDT)
Hi All, I'm also a blogger with The Pirate Tree where I focus mostly on young adult fiction and nonfiction that reflects marginalized youth. Lately, it
seems I'm reading a lot about teens raised in homes in which they were unwanted. This strikes me as a truly serious issue these days as teens are coming into adulthood in a world in which they feel they were mistakes and burden s. Jo Knowles' beautiful novel, Pearl, reflects the story of a teen girl whose mother admits openly that Pearl was nothing more than a rough piece o f sand initially. A grandfather who grudgingly keeps the family together acknowledges that he loves Pearl but he wishes his own life had been differ ent. This past week I also came across Wisconsin author Pat Schmatz's Blue Fish,
another novel of a boy who struggles in school and at home with acceptance . I think it helps adolescents and teens to explore their own fears of belonging/not belonging and my next post on Pirate Tree is going to be abo ut this. As I write it, I'd love to hear from all of you about books that exp lore this theme. What books do you find explore this sense of being an Outsider, a sense that seems to pervade teen lives today. What stands out in these books? What world views do they offer adolescents?
All best, Ann Angel
In a message dated 11/1/2011 4:31:48 P.M. Central Daylight Time, lynml _at_me.com writes:
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 visito r 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 m e 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 se rious social issues when I was a child, I was certainly surrounded by them in ev ery day life. Because I grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, many of my classmates were the children of immigrants, both documented and undocument ed. 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 sala ry 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 famili es 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 wo rds 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 realities 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 homele ssness has been explored in picture books in order to show four methods writers c an use to explore dark and serious issues for a very young audience....
Received on Thu 03 Nov 2011 02:43:51 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:43:51 -0400 (EDT)
Hi All, I'm also a blogger with The Pirate Tree where I focus mostly on young adult fiction and nonfiction that reflects marginalized youth. Lately, it
seems I'm reading a lot about teens raised in homes in which they were unwanted. This strikes me as a truly serious issue these days as teens are coming into adulthood in a world in which they feel they were mistakes and burden s. Jo Knowles' beautiful novel, Pearl, reflects the story of a teen girl whose mother admits openly that Pearl was nothing more than a rough piece o f sand initially. A grandfather who grudgingly keeps the family together acknowledges that he loves Pearl but he wishes his own life had been differ ent. This past week I also came across Wisconsin author Pat Schmatz's Blue Fish,
another novel of a boy who struggles in school and at home with acceptance . I think it helps adolescents and teens to explore their own fears of belonging/not belonging and my next post on Pirate Tree is going to be abo ut this. As I write it, I'd love to hear from all of you about books that exp lore this theme. What books do you find explore this sense of being an Outsider, a sense that seems to pervade teen lives today. What stands out in these books? What world views do they offer adolescents?
All best, Ann Angel
In a message dated 11/1/2011 4:31:48 P.M. Central Daylight Time, lynml _at_me.com writes:
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 visito r 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 m e 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 se rious social issues when I was a child, I was certainly surrounded by them in ev ery day life. Because I grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, many of my classmates were the children of immigrants, both documented and undocument ed. 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 sala ry 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 famili es 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 wo rds 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 realities 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 homele ssness has been explored in picture books in order to show four methods writers c an use to explore dark and serious issues for a very young audience....
Received on Thu 03 Nov 2011 02:43:51 PM CDT
