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RE: Multicultural publishing
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From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:10:18 -0500
Norma Jean,
As you might have guessed by now, I always like to link narrative to empirical evidence. I was not in doubt about your description, but I wondered if there were a way to measure it.
Google has NGRAM Viewer which allows you to easily chart the occurrence of words or phrases in several million books over the past couple of centuries. This tool allows you track the cycle of popularity (as revealed in books) over time. I ran a check on "multicultural," "People of color" as well as
"multicultural children's literature" in the American Corpus from 1945 to 2008 (latest date available). Because there is no data for post 2008, i.e. the Great Recession, the continued decline or resurrection are as yet unrevealed in the data set.
The charts that Ngram Viewer generated matches your description allowing a three-five year lag for transition from something that is occurring in popular culture to the time it turns up in published books.
Basically the terms mentioned above come into play in the late seventies or so with high growth rates in the early eighties, peaking in 2001 and declining by 40% since then to 2008.
This doesn't say anything about the underlying realities, it is just a measure of the zeitgeist. However, it is interesting that what people are talking about in books, broadly tracks to the underlying events that you describe.
Charles
-----Original Message----- From: Norma Jean Sawicki [mailto:nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com] Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 9:58 PM To: CCBC-Net Network Subject: [ccbc-net] Multicultural publishing
In the 80s, there was an abundance of children's bookstores only throughout the country. Some owners were former teachers,or librarians.most were passionate, and knowledgeable about children's books. They were vocal, they had power..Articles were published in newspapers about parents who were suddenly walking into bookstores and buying hardcover books for their kids..hardcover sales of children's books dramatically increased.life was good.for writers, for illustrators, whose books sold wonderfully well, for publishers, etc. CHILDREN'S BOOKS HAD ARRIVED!!!
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 12:10:18 -0500
Norma Jean,
As you might have guessed by now, I always like to link narrative to empirical evidence. I was not in doubt about your description, but I wondered if there were a way to measure it.
Google has NGRAM Viewer which allows you to easily chart the occurrence of words or phrases in several million books over the past couple of centuries. This tool allows you track the cycle of popularity (as revealed in books) over time. I ran a check on "multicultural," "People of color" as well as
"multicultural children's literature" in the American Corpus from 1945 to 2008 (latest date available). Because there is no data for post 2008, i.e. the Great Recession, the continued decline or resurrection are as yet unrevealed in the data set.
The charts that Ngram Viewer generated matches your description allowing a three-five year lag for transition from something that is occurring in popular culture to the time it turns up in published books.
Basically the terms mentioned above come into play in the late seventies or so with high growth rates in the early eighties, peaking in 2001 and declining by 40% since then to 2008.
This doesn't say anything about the underlying realities, it is just a measure of the zeitgeist. However, it is interesting that what people are talking about in books, broadly tracks to the underlying events that you describe.
Charles
-----Original Message----- From: Norma Jean Sawicki [mailto:nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com] Sent: Monday, February 24, 2014 9:58 PM To: CCBC-Net Network Subject: [ccbc-net] Multicultural publishing
In the 80s, there was an abundance of children's bookstores only throughout the country. Some owners were former teachers,or librarians.most were passionate, and knowledgeable about children's books. They were vocal, they had power..Articles were published in newspapers about parents who were suddenly walking into bookstores and buying hardcover books for their kids..hardcover sales of children's books dramatically increased.life was good.for writers, for illustrators, whose books sold wonderfully well, for publishers, etc. CHILDREN'S BOOKS HAD ARRIVED!!!
---
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Received on Wed 26 Feb 2014 11:12:09 AM CST
