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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 09:01:16 -0600
Roxanne, absolutely! They are easy to sell because the books are so good. But I think adults often think the race of the reader and book has to "match," particularly of they are buying a gift for a child.
In terms of physical descriptions, I look forward to your report back on 2014 books. Remember how upset people got when the first Hunger Games movie came out because Roo was cast as with an African-American actor? I had assumed from Suzanne Collins' description of her that she was African-American. I think some people even went back and quoted the description to show this, and even then, people didn't believe it. I never understood why so many got so upset about it in the first place.
--KT
On 2/4/2014 8:49 AM, Roxanne Feldman wrote:
> To answer K.T.'s question about giving books featuring non-white
> characters to white kids -- I do that usually not because I have a
> point to make, but because the books are fantastic
> I am hyper aware of physical descriptions these days as I read. I
> started taking notes/documenting the 2014 YA titles as an exercise.
> The seven 2014 YA titles I've read so far have significant or
> supporting non-white characters in five of them -- and one of them,
> Dangerous, a new sci-fi by Shannon Hale, has a Latina protagonist. I
> intend to document all the 2014 YA in such a way so at the end of the
> year, I can report back to the world.
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 09:01:16 -0600
Roxanne, absolutely! They are easy to sell because the books are so good. But I think adults often think the race of the reader and book has to "match," particularly of they are buying a gift for a child.
In terms of physical descriptions, I look forward to your report back on 2014 books. Remember how upset people got when the first Hunger Games movie came out because Roo was cast as with an African-American actor? I had assumed from Suzanne Collins' description of her that she was African-American. I think some people even went back and quoted the description to show this, and even then, people didn't believe it. I never understood why so many got so upset about it in the first place.
--KT
On 2/4/2014 8:49 AM, Roxanne Feldman wrote:
> To answer K.T.'s question about giving books featuring non-white
> characters to white kids -- I do that usually not because I have a
> point to make, but because the books are fantastic
> I am hyper aware of physical descriptions these days as I read. I
> started taking notes/documenting the 2014 YA titles as an exercise.
> The seven 2014 YA titles I've read so far have significant or
> supporting non-white characters in five of them -- and one of them,
> Dangerous, a new sci-fi by Shannon Hale, has a Latina protagonist. I
> intend to document all the 2014 YA in such a way so at the end of the
> year, I can report back to the world.
-- 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 09:01:36 AM CST
