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Re: "Marginal" Awards
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From: Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 12:57:41 -0600
I've been at a child lit retreat all weekend and trying to follow the conversation between sessions. But thought I would respond to this issue of "marginalization." The original comment is accurate - and not in the way that other awards are "marginalized" but in the way many of the players involved speak of them.
I sat through several days of the Notables discussion in Boston several years ago and heard, with my own ears, the complaining and "whining" about having to include CSK award winners on the Notables list because it WAS NOT A MAJOR award. The comments were reinforced by the committee chair who added that CSK winners needed to be voted on separately because they are not grandfathered like other awards. At which point two librarians complained it would cut their yield re: the books they wanted to vote for. I then reviewed my notes and realized that all of the books (except one) written or illustrated by African Americans were criticized as substandard during the discussions. No people of color were present on the panel.
There is a sense that our books are considered "less than". And while I'm loathe to paint an entire organization for the attitudes of what may be a small percentage of members, but I'd been hearing for years from other ALA committee members that there is a pervasive attitude that books by African Americans can be dismissed for consideration for a Printz or Newbery because African Americans have "their own" category.
Likewise, the Amazon and Barnes and Noble email announcements don't include CSK. A recent search for American Library Awards on their site yielded Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Children's Choice Awards, but not the ethnic awards.
But looking at it from a consumer point of view - I would also task CSK to look more broadly at the books they choose. Part of the marginalization comes from the target consumer which may stem from the narrow range of topics. Even when you have a book such as P.S. Be Eleven, the audience is already trained to turn a deaf ear to the award winners because, in the past, the books have been so heavily skewed towards civil rights and slavery or are historical and set in the past. They've developed a reputation for being written by "those people" FOR "those people" and as such have little presence in a bookstore and garner little interest from independent readers who are kids of color exposed to and devouring a wider range of topics.
There is no simple solution. There are problems throughout the entire supply chain. And the problem rests squarely on the disconnect between the adults making those decisions and the end user which is a child hungering for both knowledge AND escape. Isn't time we stopped making every month "Black History Month" in terms of what we choose to offer?
But I felt comparing the strong internal and external bias surrounding CSK to the other awards seems a bit misplaced. So just wanted to throw it out there. There are "off-campus" conversations going on among authors of color (all ethnicities) and I'm finding there is a shared and common experience. That we often hear, "I don't see color" from those in the majority who want to believe there is no true specific bias as it relates to these issues.
Those of us who are raising children or working with students and teaching them how to navigate through the world don't get that luxury.
I think we get what we measure in terms of book sales and recognition. Maybe its time to rethink the entire issue and rebuild book acquisition and its subsequent celebration from the ground up.
Christine Taylor-Butler Curmudgeonly children's author Regional Chair, MIT Educational Council
>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 12:57:41 -0600
I've been at a child lit retreat all weekend and trying to follow the conversation between sessions. But thought I would respond to this issue of "marginalization." The original comment is accurate - and not in the way that other awards are "marginalized" but in the way many of the players involved speak of them.
I sat through several days of the Notables discussion in Boston several years ago and heard, with my own ears, the complaining and "whining" about having to include CSK award winners on the Notables list because it WAS NOT A MAJOR award. The comments were reinforced by the committee chair who added that CSK winners needed to be voted on separately because they are not grandfathered like other awards. At which point two librarians complained it would cut their yield re: the books they wanted to vote for. I then reviewed my notes and realized that all of the books (except one) written or illustrated by African Americans were criticized as substandard during the discussions. No people of color were present on the panel.
There is a sense that our books are considered "less than". And while I'm loathe to paint an entire organization for the attitudes of what may be a small percentage of members, but I'd been hearing for years from other ALA committee members that there is a pervasive attitude that books by African Americans can be dismissed for consideration for a Printz or Newbery because African Americans have "their own" category.
Likewise, the Amazon and Barnes and Noble email announcements don't include CSK. A recent search for American Library Awards on their site yielded Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, Children's Choice Awards, but not the ethnic awards.
But looking at it from a consumer point of view - I would also task CSK to look more broadly at the books they choose. Part of the marginalization comes from the target consumer which may stem from the narrow range of topics. Even when you have a book such as P.S. Be Eleven, the audience is already trained to turn a deaf ear to the award winners because, in the past, the books have been so heavily skewed towards civil rights and slavery or are historical and set in the past. They've developed a reputation for being written by "those people" FOR "those people" and as such have little presence in a bookstore and garner little interest from independent readers who are kids of color exposed to and devouring a wider range of topics.
There is no simple solution. There are problems throughout the entire supply chain. And the problem rests squarely on the disconnect between the adults making those decisions and the end user which is a child hungering for both knowledge AND escape. Isn't time we stopped making every month "Black History Month" in terms of what we choose to offer?
But I felt comparing the strong internal and external bias surrounding CSK to the other awards seems a bit misplaced. So just wanted to throw it out there. There are "off-campus" conversations going on among authors of color (all ethnicities) and I'm finding there is a shared and common experience. That we often hear, "I don't see color" from those in the majority who want to believe there is no true specific bias as it relates to these issues.
Those of us who are raising children or working with students and teaching them how to navigate through the world don't get that luxury.
I think we get what we measure in terms of book sales and recognition. Maybe its time to rethink the entire issue and rebuild book acquisition and its subsequent celebration from the ground up.
Christine Taylor-Butler Curmudgeonly children's author Regional Chair, MIT Educational Council
>
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Received on Tue 04 Feb 2014 12:58:08 PM CST
