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Re: pause -- another crucial issue in this discussion
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From: meg7543_at_gmail.com <bookmarch_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2014 13:20:11 -0500 (EST)
I've been following the posts on this thread and see the strongly held views many of you have expressed. But I believe that you are missing a crucial issue. So far the weight of your criticism has been directed at the following
Book Publishers Book sellers -- especially B&N and Amazon Agents Award Committees
In so doing you are, I believe, missing a central point: who writes books for younger readers? What is the pool of potential authors/illustrators? To answer that, look at the world most of you work in :K-12 librarianship. There could not be a more homogeneous profession -- the field is overwhelmingly female and white. Pre-school and elementary school teaching is similar. Why is that?
The answer is obvious. To be a librarian you must be a skilled reader and researcher with at least a BA and most often an MLIS. Who can afford to devote the time to obtain those degrees and accept salaries that are below what they could earn in other fields? The devotion to young people that the profession both rewards and requires of course exists in every possible kind of person or group. But who can make the sacrifice? Very often people coming from a middle class background, or who have a second source of family income from a partner. That means that people from under-represented groups who might well make great librarians or teachers -- or, I would add, author/illustrators -- often may decide to pursue other careers.
I suspect that this limitation of the pool of potential authors shows up in ways that the CCBC numbers disguise. For example, an individual determined to write a wonderful novel or nonfiction book adds one book to the numbers. But a person who writes work-for-hire series books adds 13-20 at a shot. How many of those easy readers, or heavily photo illustrated NF books, are written by people of color? I suspect very few. That is entirely a function of the pool of potential authors. Want to change the numbers? Don't look to awards, look to series.
I do not doubt that there are many authors who are not published, stories not told, histories not recorded. But before extending blame, look at the constraints of authorship in a field where effort outweighs reward -- and, as an aid to your own thinking, look at librarianship. A more diverse pool of gate-keepers would select and promote a more diverse set of books.
Marc Aronson
-----Original Message----- From: Killeen3 <killeen3_at_aol.com> To: ccbc-net <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> Sent: Wed, Feb 5, 2014 12:16 pm Subject: Re:[ccbc-net] ccbc-net digest: February 04, 2014
Wow -- lots of ideas and info. on this topic. You have inspired me for my next column in Teacher-Librarian. I am reading in a Read Your Heart Out Day at Hawthorne Elementary in Madison on Friday. I borrowed books from my former library (Fox Prairie Elem. in Stoughton) that were on the recommended list on the RYHO website for the school. Most of them are at Fox because I bought them (just retired this summer) and I knew them. Some I had used in lessons, orientation, or storytime.
I don't know how qualified I am to go into Hawthorne to read to a mainly AA student body but I am friends with their principal and she asked so I said yes! Happy to be connecting kids and books.
The reasons for CSK and AILA awards to not be on the ALSC/YALSA lists is obvious. We, as librarians, teachers and book lovers must be on the look out for all types of lists for all types of books. I always liked the Social Studies and Science lists put out by those associations too --- great for building the non-fiction collection. The National Book Award, Children's Choices, and the list can go on.
As a Wisconsin librarian, of course, the best list is our own CCBC Choices List - over the years I have marveled at the number of titles that were listed there to meet all sorts of needs. Thanks to Ginny, KT, Megan, and all the other librarians who have built that source to the stature it has!!! We are so lucky!
Thank you for putting the challenge to give multi-cultural books as gifts to the white kids as well. That is a terrific push and I intend to make sure I do it. As for gift giving I offer a family antidote as an example. For my daughter's first birthday a friend of mine asked for one of her sleepers, took it and sewed a wonderful African-American stuffed baby into it. It was so soft and cuddly --- we all loved it. (We are WASP but my AA friend knew we would like it.) Years later, as my daughter got caught up in the American Girl dolls, she received a blond Kristen (looked like her) for Christmas. She went on to save her money for two more dolls -- Molly (one with glasses) and Addy (the African American). She loved them all equally and stil has them as a mother herself. She also has the stuffed baby and her son has played with it. Be the change you want to see in the world!!! Erlene
Erlene Bishop Killeen killeen3_at_aol.com
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Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2014 13:20:11 -0500 (EST)
I've been following the posts on this thread and see the strongly held views many of you have expressed. But I believe that you are missing a crucial issue. So far the weight of your criticism has been directed at the following
Book Publishers Book sellers -- especially B&N and Amazon Agents Award Committees
In so doing you are, I believe, missing a central point: who writes books for younger readers? What is the pool of potential authors/illustrators? To answer that, look at the world most of you work in :K-12 librarianship. There could not be a more homogeneous profession -- the field is overwhelmingly female and white. Pre-school and elementary school teaching is similar. Why is that?
The answer is obvious. To be a librarian you must be a skilled reader and researcher with at least a BA and most often an MLIS. Who can afford to devote the time to obtain those degrees and accept salaries that are below what they could earn in other fields? The devotion to young people that the profession both rewards and requires of course exists in every possible kind of person or group. But who can make the sacrifice? Very often people coming from a middle class background, or who have a second source of family income from a partner. That means that people from under-represented groups who might well make great librarians or teachers -- or, I would add, author/illustrators -- often may decide to pursue other careers.
I suspect that this limitation of the pool of potential authors shows up in ways that the CCBC numbers disguise. For example, an individual determined to write a wonderful novel or nonfiction book adds one book to the numbers. But a person who writes work-for-hire series books adds 13-20 at a shot. How many of those easy readers, or heavily photo illustrated NF books, are written by people of color? I suspect very few. That is entirely a function of the pool of potential authors. Want to change the numbers? Don't look to awards, look to series.
I do not doubt that there are many authors who are not published, stories not told, histories not recorded. But before extending blame, look at the constraints of authorship in a field where effort outweighs reward -- and, as an aid to your own thinking, look at librarianship. A more diverse pool of gate-keepers would select and promote a more diverse set of books.
Marc Aronson
-----Original Message----- From: Killeen3 <killeen3_at_aol.com> To: ccbc-net <ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> Sent: Wed, Feb 5, 2014 12:16 pm Subject: Re:[ccbc-net] ccbc-net digest: February 04, 2014
Wow -- lots of ideas and info. on this topic. You have inspired me for my next column in Teacher-Librarian. I am reading in a Read Your Heart Out Day at Hawthorne Elementary in Madison on Friday. I borrowed books from my former library (Fox Prairie Elem. in Stoughton) that were on the recommended list on the RYHO website for the school. Most of them are at Fox because I bought them (just retired this summer) and I knew them. Some I had used in lessons, orientation, or storytime.
I don't know how qualified I am to go into Hawthorne to read to a mainly AA student body but I am friends with their principal and she asked so I said yes! Happy to be connecting kids and books.
The reasons for CSK and AILA awards to not be on the ALSC/YALSA lists is obvious. We, as librarians, teachers and book lovers must be on the look out for all types of lists for all types of books. I always liked the Social Studies and Science lists put out by those associations too --- great for building the non-fiction collection. The National Book Award, Children's Choices, and the list can go on.
As a Wisconsin librarian, of course, the best list is our own CCBC Choices List - over the years I have marveled at the number of titles that were listed there to meet all sorts of needs. Thanks to Ginny, KT, Megan, and all the other librarians who have built that source to the stature it has!!! We are so lucky!
Thank you for putting the challenge to give multi-cultural books as gifts to the white kids as well. That is a terrific push and I intend to make sure I do it. As for gift giving I offer a family antidote as an example. For my daughter's first birthday a friend of mine asked for one of her sleepers, took it and sewed a wonderful African-American stuffed baby into it. It was so soft and cuddly --- we all loved it. (We are WASP but my AA friend knew we would like it.) Years later, as my daughter got caught up in the American Girl dolls, she received a blond Kristen (looked like her) for Christmas. She went on to save her money for two more dolls -- Molly (one with glasses) and Addy (the African American). She loved them all equally and stil has them as a mother herself. She also has the stuffed baby and her son has played with it. Be the change you want to see in the world!!! Erlene
Erlene Bishop Killeen killeen3_at_aol.com
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Received on Wed 05 Feb 2014 12:21:24 PM CST
