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Re: Publishers of Social Justice Books
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From: AAngel_at_aol.com
Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:25:51 -0500 (EST)
To ride on the heels of Lyn's thoughtful comments on publishers, I also feel it's important to recognize that many well-written children's books -- from large and small publishers -- contain social justice premises but the most compelling aspect of books is the story each tells, and the experience in the lives the narrator allows us to view. The social justice issue is simply an aspect of the life and story. The Pirate Tree blog's intent isn't to categorize these books as a social justice genre but to explore the elements of social justice that come through in these rich and gratifying stories. Ann Angel
In a message dated 11/7/2011 9:16:35 A.M. Central Standard Time, lynml_at_me.com writes:
I think we should also think about why mainstream publishers in Canada and the U.K. such as Groundwood, Annick, and Frances Lincoln have a strong social justice component to their publishing mission, while large publishers in the U.S. do not. And I will not deny that some large publishers in the U.S. including Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Scholastic do publish books of this type, and each one publishes more than all of the small presses combined, but that's a function of their enormous size compared to the small presses that may bring out fewer than four children's books in an entire year.
In recent months, I have seen more medium-sized publishers in the U.S. taking on books with social justice themes, including ones that ran into censorship issues. For instance, the Carolrhoda Lab imprint of Lerner brought out Ellen Levine's In Trouble, a YA novel about abortion in the 1950s that experienced its own well-documented "trouble" on the way to publication: e/_ (http://www.hungermtn.org/when-along-with-her-characters-an-author-gets-in-trouble/) . And Albert Whitman has inaugurated its YA line with fiction by the successful British author Anna Perera whose social-justice-oriented titles include Guantanamo Boy, about a British-Pakistani teen falsely imprisoned and tortured by the U.S. at the Guantanamo Bay facility. As Elsa knows, another successful British author, Elizabeth Laird, was shunned by U.S. and Canadian publishers back in the mid-2000s for the pro-Palestinian leanings of one of her acclaimed novels published in the U.K., A LIttle Piece of Ground. It ended up coming out in the U.S. with ope nly left-wing indie publisher Haymarket Books.
If we want to see more social justice themed books published in the U.S., the simple answer is that we have to support these books, regardless of who their publishers are. We have to seek out those books published by small presses and give them a fair shake in terms of reviews, award consideration, library purchase, and classroom use. I am grateful to reviewers, including many of the people on this list, for giving my own social-justice-themed novel an open-minded and respectful welcome despite it being published by a dying small press. And one of my aims as a reviewer for The Pirate Tree is to seek out and highlight books that not only address topics out of the mainstream but are also published outside of the mainstream.
Lyn
On Nov 6, 2011, at 7:41 PM, _sully_at_sully-writer.com_ (mailto:sully@sully-writer.com) wrote:
Something I've noticed over the last few years is that Canadian and U.K. publishers seem to have an especially strong commitment to publishing children's and YA titles addressing social justice themes. Annick (Canada), Groundwood (Canada), and Frances Lincoln (U.K.) immediately come to mind. As far as U.S. publishers go, it seems to be the smaller, independent presses that are most committed to social justice books. Children's Book Press, Cinco Puntos, and Eeerdmans are among those. Is it just me or does anyone else notice this trend? What accounts for it?
Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:25:51 -0500 (EST)
To ride on the heels of Lyn's thoughtful comments on publishers, I also feel it's important to recognize that many well-written children's books -- from large and small publishers -- contain social justice premises but the most compelling aspect of books is the story each tells, and the experience in the lives the narrator allows us to view. The social justice issue is simply an aspect of the life and story. The Pirate Tree blog's intent isn't to categorize these books as a social justice genre but to explore the elements of social justice that come through in these rich and gratifying stories. Ann Angel
In a message dated 11/7/2011 9:16:35 A.M. Central Standard Time, lynml_at_me.com writes:
I think we should also think about why mainstream publishers in Canada and the U.K. such as Groundwood, Annick, and Frances Lincoln have a strong social justice component to their publishing mission, while large publishers in the U.S. do not. And I will not deny that some large publishers in the U.S. including Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Scholastic do publish books of this type, and each one publishes more than all of the small presses combined, but that's a function of their enormous size compared to the small presses that may bring out fewer than four children's books in an entire year.
In recent months, I have seen more medium-sized publishers in the U.S. taking on books with social justice themes, including ones that ran into censorship issues. For instance, the Carolrhoda Lab imprint of Lerner brought out Ellen Levine's In Trouble, a YA novel about abortion in the 1950s that experienced its own well-documented "trouble" on the way to publication: e/_ (http://www.hungermtn.org/when-along-with-her-characters-an-author-gets-in-trouble/) . And Albert Whitman has inaugurated its YA line with fiction by the successful British author Anna Perera whose social-justice-oriented titles include Guantanamo Boy, about a British-Pakistani teen falsely imprisoned and tortured by the U.S. at the Guantanamo Bay facility. As Elsa knows, another successful British author, Elizabeth Laird, was shunned by U.S. and Canadian publishers back in the mid-2000s for the pro-Palestinian leanings of one of her acclaimed novels published in the U.K., A LIttle Piece of Ground. It ended up coming out in the U.S. with ope nly left-wing indie publisher Haymarket Books.
If we want to see more social justice themed books published in the U.S., the simple answer is that we have to support these books, regardless of who their publishers are. We have to seek out those books published by small presses and give them a fair shake in terms of reviews, award consideration, library purchase, and classroom use. I am grateful to reviewers, including many of the people on this list, for giving my own social-justice-themed novel an open-minded and respectful welcome despite it being published by a dying small press. And one of my aims as a reviewer for The Pirate Tree is to seek out and highlight books that not only address topics out of the mainstream but are also published outside of the mainstream.
Lyn
On Nov 6, 2011, at 7:41 PM, _sully_at_sully-writer.com_ (mailto:sully@sully-writer.com) wrote:
Something I've noticed over the last few years is that Canadian and U.K. publishers seem to have an especially strong commitment to publishing children's and YA titles addressing social justice themes. Annick (Canada), Groundwood (Canada), and Frances Lincoln (U.K.) immediately come to mind. As far as U.S. publishers go, it seems to be the smaller, independent presses that are most committed to social justice books. Children's Book Press, Cinco Puntos, and Eeerdmans are among those. Is it just me or does anyone else notice this trend? What accounts for it?
---Received on Mon 07 Nov 2011 10:25:51 AM CST
