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Re: Latino Publishing
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From: Nell Fleming <nell.fleming_at_wsd.k12.wi.us>
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:34:33 -0600
All,
There are so many great points in this email and I am so happy to read it. Yes, yes and yes. I'm going to only address this one point right now with the time but I hope we all find time to address them all. Christine Taylor-Butler writes: One year, I took off my "author" badge at ALA New Orleans and put on an MIT badge - then proceeded to go from booth to booth asking for non-stereotypical books featuring children of color. I specifically said I did not want books with stereotypes, poverty, gangs, teen pregnancies. Almost every major publisher told me "We don't publish books like that." One of the largest NY children's publishers went further and said "I can't afford to publish those kinds of books if I'm only going to sell a few." Note that sitting behind the person was a copy of Alvin Ho. I didn't ask for African American books - I asked for mainstream books about people of color. There was no attempt to show me that series, or any other. But more appalling were the other publishers who had no offerings at
all.
Yes, this is what I see when I go into any library that is full of "good multi-cultural literature". I have written about this before, but even when I purchased as many books as I could find that I felt would balance the collection in the way that you are talking about, fiction and non-fiction choices, for all children in every category, I get the same response from library staff and teachers. "Why are we getting so many books for the small black population we have here" and I keep asking, "why do you assume that only children of color can read these books and identify with them?" and also the perception of "so many" is strikingly disproportionate. I counted, and did percentages, proving that there was no imbalance, even from the perspective that these books for only for "those kids". The problem is that people are used to seeing only certain topics, and "sections" for "those books".
We have students now, white students, who check out books like Ann Cameron's Julian series, and like it, and identify with Julian and we have students who are Native American, White and/or Asian reading Bluford High, and many students interested in a biography of Solidad O'Brien or Mariah Carey. I call it the bandaid syndrome. We expected people with darker skin to wear peach colored bandaids for years but would we have worn a dark brown bandaid to work if it's all that we could find in the store? Why or Why not? Could we even buy one if we were not in a "black neighborhood" We expect people of color to identify with Encyclopedia brown and Junie B Jones but we don't expect white children to enjoy a Rapunzel story with an African American Rapunzel.
Our perception of who books are written for, published for, sold to, and acquired in libraries for needs to change.
Nell Fleming Librarian WSD Library 309 Walworth Ave Delavan, WI 53115 (262) 728-7133 v/tty 262-394-1216
Received on Thu 07 Feb 2013 12:34:33 PM CST
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:34:33 -0600
All,
There are so many great points in this email and I am so happy to read it. Yes, yes and yes. I'm going to only address this one point right now with the time but I hope we all find time to address them all. Christine Taylor-Butler writes: One year, I took off my "author" badge at ALA New Orleans and put on an MIT badge - then proceeded to go from booth to booth asking for non-stereotypical books featuring children of color. I specifically said I did not want books with stereotypes, poverty, gangs, teen pregnancies. Almost every major publisher told me "We don't publish books like that." One of the largest NY children's publishers went further and said "I can't afford to publish those kinds of books if I'm only going to sell a few." Note that sitting behind the person was a copy of Alvin Ho. I didn't ask for African American books - I asked for mainstream books about people of color. There was no attempt to show me that series, or any other. But more appalling were the other publishers who had no offerings at
all.
Yes, this is what I see when I go into any library that is full of "good multi-cultural literature". I have written about this before, but even when I purchased as many books as I could find that I felt would balance the collection in the way that you are talking about, fiction and non-fiction choices, for all children in every category, I get the same response from library staff and teachers. "Why are we getting so many books for the small black population we have here" and I keep asking, "why do you assume that only children of color can read these books and identify with them?" and also the perception of "so many" is strikingly disproportionate. I counted, and did percentages, proving that there was no imbalance, even from the perspective that these books for only for "those kids". The problem is that people are used to seeing only certain topics, and "sections" for "those books".
We have students now, white students, who check out books like Ann Cameron's Julian series, and like it, and identify with Julian and we have students who are Native American, White and/or Asian reading Bluford High, and many students interested in a biography of Solidad O'Brien or Mariah Carey. I call it the bandaid syndrome. We expected people with darker skin to wear peach colored bandaids for years but would we have worn a dark brown bandaid to work if it's all that we could find in the store? Why or Why not? Could we even buy one if we were not in a "black neighborhood" We expect people of color to identify with Encyclopedia brown and Junie B Jones but we don't expect white children to enjoy a Rapunzel story with an African American Rapunzel.
Our perception of who books are written for, published for, sold to, and acquired in libraries for needs to change.
Nell Fleming Librarian WSD Library 309 Walworth Ave Delavan, WI 53115 (262) 728-7133 v/tty 262-394-1216
Received on Thu 07 Feb 2013 12:34:33 PM CST
