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Re: Multicultural Statistics for 2013
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From: K.T. Horning <horning_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 08:51:53 -0600
Stacy asks some key questions, because her questions require us to dig deeper and go beyond the statistics. What we put out there is quantity alone. There is nothing about quality or type. We do, however, keep lists of authors and titles each year, and we make these available to anyone who requests them. And, yes, it is usually scholars who are researching some aspect of multicultural literature. Sometimes, requests for our lists come from chairs of committees such as the Americas Award or the Southeast Asian Book Award, who just want to make sure they are seeing everything.
We haven't taken the time to analyze the lists ourselves, but we can make some broad generalizations just through casual observation that would make for some interesting studies. For example:
1) The majority of African-American picture books are about historical figures or events, usually related to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Picture books about contemporary African-American children are few and far between.
2) Most picture books and middle grade fiction by African-American authors about contemporary African-American children are written by celebrities (especially sports figures) or relatives of celebrities. In other words, if you are Black and you want to publish a children's book, it would help to be Tony Dungy or Tiki Barber.
3) Asian and Asian-American authors/illustrators are more likely to write or illustrate books about non-Asians. This statistic from 2013 might have jumped out at you:
.*58 *books had significant Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content
.*85*books were by authors and/or illustrators of Asian/Pacific heritage
4) Publishers seem to have gotten much more sensitive in the past 10 years or so to the idea of tribal affiliation in books about Native Americans. We used to see so many books about American Indians that didn't specify nation, and seemed mostly based on the Hollywood Indian imagery. Those sorts of books are a rarity today.
These are just a few observations we can make. I'm sure others looking at the lists might be struck by other things. So Stacy, please feel free to send scholars our way. We have the lists going back many years so it would be possible for someone to do a longitudinal study.
--KT
On 2/3/2014 4:03 PM, Stacy Whitman wrote:
>
> For example, I wonder what percentage of the fiction the CCBC receives
> is realistic historical fiction that covers the same old topics (civil
> rights, slavery, contemporary poverty in an urban center--usually
> including gangs) and how many cover fictional topics we don't see as
> much, including genre fiction but also time periods that aren't as
> well known, or settings we never see. While those are all important
> topics, other topics are of interest to teens when it comes to reading
> about characters of color, and I'm curious how it all breaks down. ...
>
> Related, is there a list available somewhere of the books that come
> into the CCBC that others can study for such purposes? I know in
> talking to scholars about it before, that's been their biggest hurdle,
> finding a reliable list of all the books published in a year.
>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 08:51:53 -0600
Stacy asks some key questions, because her questions require us to dig deeper and go beyond the statistics. What we put out there is quantity alone. There is nothing about quality or type. We do, however, keep lists of authors and titles each year, and we make these available to anyone who requests them. And, yes, it is usually scholars who are researching some aspect of multicultural literature. Sometimes, requests for our lists come from chairs of committees such as the Americas Award or the Southeast Asian Book Award, who just want to make sure they are seeing everything.
We haven't taken the time to analyze the lists ourselves, but we can make some broad generalizations just through casual observation that would make for some interesting studies. For example:
1) The majority of African-American picture books are about historical figures or events, usually related to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. Picture books about contemporary African-American children are few and far between.
2) Most picture books and middle grade fiction by African-American authors about contemporary African-American children are written by celebrities (especially sports figures) or relatives of celebrities. In other words, if you are Black and you want to publish a children's book, it would help to be Tony Dungy or Tiki Barber.
3) Asian and Asian-American authors/illustrators are more likely to write or illustrate books about non-Asians. This statistic from 2013 might have jumped out at you:
.*58 *books had significant Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content
.*85*books were by authors and/or illustrators of Asian/Pacific heritage
4) Publishers seem to have gotten much more sensitive in the past 10 years or so to the idea of tribal affiliation in books about Native Americans. We used to see so many books about American Indians that didn't specify nation, and seemed mostly based on the Hollywood Indian imagery. Those sorts of books are a rarity today.
These are just a few observations we can make. I'm sure others looking at the lists might be struck by other things. So Stacy, please feel free to send scholars our way. We have the lists going back many years so it would be possible for someone to do a longitudinal study.
--KT
On 2/3/2014 4:03 PM, Stacy Whitman wrote:
>
> For example, I wonder what percentage of the fiction the CCBC receives
> is realistic historical fiction that covers the same old topics (civil
> rights, slavery, contemporary poverty in an urban center--usually
> including gangs) and how many cover fictional topics we don't see as
> much, including genre fiction but also time periods that aren't as
> well known, or settings we never see. While those are all important
> topics, other topics are of interest to teens when it comes to reading
> about characters of color, and I'm curious how it all breaks down. ...
>
> Related, is there a list available somewhere of the books that come
> into the CCBC that others can study for such purposes? I know in
> talking to scholars about it before, that's been their biggest hurdle,
> finding a reliable list of all the books published in a year.
>
-- Kathleen T. Horning Director Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St Madison, WI 53706 http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc horning_at_education.wisc.edu 608-263-3721 (phone) 608-262-4933 (fax) --- You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a message to... ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu ...and include only this command in the body of the message: set ccbc-net digest CCBC-Net Archives The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net and enter the following: username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Tue 04 Feb 2014 08:52:17 AM CST
