-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Look's Alvlin Ho response (or lack of an
adequate one)
From: Uma <uma@gobrainstorm.net>
Date: Wed, February 05, 2014 3:10 pm
To: Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom@earthlink.net>,
dreese.nambe@gmail.com
Cc: CCBC-Net Network <ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu>

What an interesting discussion. I have been traveling and unable to comment until now so forgive me for chiming in late. 

To be fair, I have found nothing else in the other Alvin Ho books that would cause me to cringe—mostly, they’re playful, well-written. They put a funny spin on cultural elements in a genre that badly needs humor. But those "playing Indian” scenes taught me something:

1. I as a writer of color, have a particular responsibility to exercise sensitivity when I choose and craft characters to inhabit my fictional worlds. If I want others not to depict clownish, one-dimensional South Asian characters, I need to be mindful of how I myself cross cultural lines in my writing. 

2. It’s not enough to have specific intentions in framing the worlds of my fiction, however logical those might seem to me—I have to be aware of the effect of my choices on the page, being that my books must speak for themselves and I can’t go along with them to justify my words. 

I do think that it’s also a matter of where the writer chooses to cast the spotlight in a book. In Alvin Ho, Allergic to Birthday Parties…, the cowboys and Indians play is incidental to the story—other choices could have been made that would not have affected the main storyline, so I find it hard to accept an argument for this choice in the name of truth. The rest of the book is set in a gently idealized family context—that idealization is a perfect choice for the most part, but it’s also why this one plotting decision rings jarringly false in contrast. Accept the rest of Alvin Ho’s world, the entire series seems to be saying. Love this kid and all his trials. So far, so good. Very good, in fact. 

Then, when this is sprung on us, it’s a bit like having one of the violins in a string orchestra suddenly go wildly out of tune. 

Uma 

On Feb 5, 2014, at 12:27 PM, Christine Taylor-Butler <kansascitymom@earthlink.net> wrote:

I am now speechless, the author is now off my reading list and I'm particularly offended by  her defense of why she as an author had the right to reinforce an ethnic stereotype based on how she would imagine children playing. It isn't her story to tell and an apology would have been more appropriate.  Her response, in part, in the comment section:

"As for the stereotyped play and costumes . . . well, when kids play "cowboys and Indians" or "settlers and Indians" (being that this is colonial Massachusetts history), that's how i imagined they would play and dress, based on how it's been done in the past and as recently as the Disney Pocahontas craze in the mid-to-late 90s. Politically correct? No. But do kids play politically correctly? No. Should I perpetuate play that is not politically correct? No. But I would not be  TRUTHFUL if I were to fabricate a scenario for them that conforms to our current, enlightened-adult sense of how kids should play if that’s not the behavior that we’ve already passed to them. And good writing is about being honest, regardless of how discomforting it might be, especially when echoed in our children's play…"

Umm. No. And although my urban experience is limited, I can't think of ANY contemporary child I've met in my neighborhood or schools who plays cowboys and Indians.  That seems to be to be adult intrusion and a disconnect with the target audience.  What will she do next? Lynch Black people in her effort to highlight another historical fact?

Wondering what RH was thinking when they allowed that to go through unchallenged during editorial?…………..C

On Feb 5, 2014, at 1:39 PM, Debbie Reese wrote:

Christine--

A heads-up to you and others who like Alvin Ho books. In one, Alvin is playing Indian. 

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2011/06/alvin-ho-allergic-to-birthday-parties.html 

Debbie

__________________________________________________________

Debbie Reese, PhD

Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo

Website: American Indians in Children's Literature

_at_ http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net

You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: jane@kidslikeus.org.

To post to the list, send message to...

ccbc-net@lists.wisc.edu

To receive messages in digest format, send a message to...

ccbc-net-request@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 when prompted...

username: ccbc-net
password: Look4Posts