CCBC-Net Archives
Muslims and Muslim cultures in children's/YA literature
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Elsa Marston <elsa.marston_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:22:58 -0400
For our discussion of literature about Muslims and Muslim-Americans—which I’m delighted to have a chance to help with—let me first mention how I, a New England Yankee living in Indiana, got involved.
As a grad student in international affairs, I focused on education in the Middle East; and a Rotary Foundation fellowship took me to the American University of Beirut, where I met my future husband (Lebanese). His career as a political scientist made it possible for me to live in such countries as Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia from time to time; and that, along with my own lifelong interest in “other places, other times,” is what steered me toward making the Middle East (ancient and modern) my main interest as a writer. (www.elsamarston.com)
Also, because there’s so much misunderstanding in this country about Islam and the Muslim world, I’ve made it something of a mission to try to do something about it. The Arab world and Arab-Americans are what I know best, but I also try to keep aware of literature about other Muslim societies of Asia and Africa, and immigrant communities.
KT, in her message of August 6, suggested that I make a few observations about possible trends regarding literature about the Muslim world. Actually, it’s quite a dramatic story, especially regarding the Arab world. Before the mid-1990’s there were very, very few books published with a positive focus on Arabs—real life, contemporary Arabs: you could count them on one hand. The same was true for other Muslim societies
(Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, etc,) I think a major reason was political, but there may have been other prejudices as well, such as the tendency to see “other” cultures only in a long-ago, “exotic” framework, because it’s easier to cope with cognitively and psychologically
The door started to open in the early-to-mid ‘90s with the publication of *The Day of Ahmed’s Secret *and *Sami and the Time of the Troubles *(Heide and Gilliland), and Naomi Shihab Nye’s two books set in Palestine, *Sitti’s Secrets *and *Habibi. *Not only did the sky not fall, but these books were all very successful. This, I believe, along with the calmer political situation in the Middle East at the time, encouraged other authors and publishers to undertake books with a sympathetic view of Arabs and other Muslims in the region. With slow but steady growth (there was not a hasty, “bandwagon” rush to produce books of questionable quality, as happened with some other aspects of multicultural publishing ), there are now an impressive number of really good books, with a variety of settings and themes.
Now, how about suggesting some good books about the Muslim world? Can you recommend a book that you feel gives a positive and accurate view of a Muslim society? Preferably contemporary, although books that present the past in a way that helps appreciation of another, perhaps traditional, culture *and*/*or* better understanding of the present, would also be valuable.
Thanks for reading this long message—which I hope has been helpful in providing some background basis for discussion.
Elsa
www.elsamarston.com
==== CCBC-Net Use ==== 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 blank message to...
digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to...
leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
==== 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
Received on Thu 07 Aug 2014 12:23:18 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:22:58 -0400
For our discussion of literature about Muslims and Muslim-Americans—which I’m delighted to have a chance to help with—let me first mention how I, a New England Yankee living in Indiana, got involved.
As a grad student in international affairs, I focused on education in the Middle East; and a Rotary Foundation fellowship took me to the American University of Beirut, where I met my future husband (Lebanese). His career as a political scientist made it possible for me to live in such countries as Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia from time to time; and that, along with my own lifelong interest in “other places, other times,” is what steered me toward making the Middle East (ancient and modern) my main interest as a writer. (www.elsamarston.com)
Also, because there’s so much misunderstanding in this country about Islam and the Muslim world, I’ve made it something of a mission to try to do something about it. The Arab world and Arab-Americans are what I know best, but I also try to keep aware of literature about other Muslim societies of Asia and Africa, and immigrant communities.
KT, in her message of August 6, suggested that I make a few observations about possible trends regarding literature about the Muslim world. Actually, it’s quite a dramatic story, especially regarding the Arab world. Before the mid-1990’s there were very, very few books published with a positive focus on Arabs—real life, contemporary Arabs: you could count them on one hand. The same was true for other Muslim societies
(Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, etc,) I think a major reason was political, but there may have been other prejudices as well, such as the tendency to see “other” cultures only in a long-ago, “exotic” framework, because it’s easier to cope with cognitively and psychologically
The door started to open in the early-to-mid ‘90s with the publication of *The Day of Ahmed’s Secret *and *Sami and the Time of the Troubles *(Heide and Gilliland), and Naomi Shihab Nye’s two books set in Palestine, *Sitti’s Secrets *and *Habibi. *Not only did the sky not fall, but these books were all very successful. This, I believe, along with the calmer political situation in the Middle East at the time, encouraged other authors and publishers to undertake books with a sympathetic view of Arabs and other Muslims in the region. With slow but steady growth (there was not a hasty, “bandwagon” rush to produce books of questionable quality, as happened with some other aspects of multicultural publishing ), there are now an impressive number of really good books, with a variety of settings and themes.
Now, how about suggesting some good books about the Muslim world? Can you recommend a book that you feel gives a positive and accurate view of a Muslim society? Preferably contemporary, although books that present the past in a way that helps appreciation of another, perhaps traditional, culture *and*/*or* better understanding of the present, would also be valuable.
Thanks for reading this long message—which I hope has been helpful in providing some background basis for discussion.
Elsa
www.elsamarston.com
==== CCBC-Net Use ==== 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 blank message to...
digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to...
leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu
==== 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
Received on Thu 07 Aug 2014 12:23:18 PM CDT
