Multicultural Books 1

Michelle Martin, in her book Brown Gold, Milestones of African American Children’s Books, , claims that we are in a golden age for multicultural children’s literature, especially for picture books. This was not always the case…. 2

Multicultural books didn’t exist prior to the 20 th century. Prior to the 1970’s, very few books had people of African-American descent, or any other non-Caucasian culture, either. Brown vs. Board of Education struck down segregation and began the civil rights movement. In 1965, the Council on Interracial Books is formed. 3

Nancy Larrick writes an article in the Saturday review entitled “The All White World of Children’s Books. She surveyed 5000 children’s books and found that only 40 books included a mention of African- Americans in either text or pictures. 4

P resident Lyndon Johnson enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 which was part of his war on poverty. 5

In 1967, Virginia Hamilton wrote and published the book “Zeely ” and in 1969 John Steptoe wrote & published “Stevie ”. 6

In 1969, the Coretta Scott King Award was established and given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions. The Pura Belpre Award for Latino books and the Asian Pacific Award soon followed. 7

By 1998, a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center said that 6% of the children’s books published were written or illustrated by a person of color or had themes representing minority cultures. By 2004, the Center did a follow up study that showed that the percentage of multicultural titles had increased to 11%. 8

What accounted for this change? 1. Cultural expectations : as people ask booksellers and librarians for books about people like themselves, demand grows. 2. Business and profit : As the need and demand for multicultural books increase, more money is set aside by publishing houses for these books. 3. School curricula changed, promoting more publishers to include multicultural titles. 9

What is multicultural literature? Yakota states that it “ represents any distince cultural group through accurate portrayal an rich detail ”. Lindgren and Rochman say it’s “ used to describe groups of people from a nonwhite background, people of color, or people of all cultures regardless of race.” 10

Our textbook defines them as people of color, especially within the United States and in cultures and Canada. Other experts include people with disabilities, Italians, Irish, Appalachians, even Swedish Americans. Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Islams and Amish all have their own cultures and have sacrificed for their beliefs. Xenophobia is the mistrust or fear of people who are strangers or foreigners. 11

What have the new multicultural titles shown us? 1. They foster an awareness, understanding and appreciation of people who seem at first glance to be different than ourselves. 2. They present a positive and reassuring representation of a reader’s own cultural group. 3. They introduce readers to the literary traditions of different world cultures or groups within specific nations. 12

How can you tell if a multicultural book is well written? 1.It must have all the regular ingredients of a well written book. 2.It should have diversity and range of representation. 3.There should be avoidance of stereotyping. 4. Derogatory language should be avoided. 13

5. There should be no distortions or omissions of history. 6. The perspective of the book has to represent the character’s experience. 7. Lifestyles of the character should be genuine and complex. 8. Dialogue should be representative of the characters. 9.The characters should be strong and independent. 14

10. The roles of the females and the elders should be portrayed accurately for their culture. 11. There should be nothing to embarrass or offend a child’s self-esteem. 12. The author and illustrator should be qualified to write a multicultural book. 13. Heroes and heroines should be accurately defined according to their struggles. 14. Copyright dates should be checked – the most recently written books may be more accurate and better written. 15

Who are some the best multicultural authors? 16

Joseph Bruchac Born 1942 Member of the Abenaki Tribe. Has written over 120 books and has won numerous awards. 17

Allen Say Born in Yokohama, Japan in Moved to American when he was 16. Was drafted into the army in Became a photographer before becoming an illustrator/author. 18

Jerry Pinkney Born in Was dyslexic as a child Met wife Gloria in college & had four children Illustrated over 100 children’s books & been cited by the Caldecott committee & the Coretta Scott King Award five times. 19

Patricia Polacco Born in Lansing, Mich. in 1944 Lived with her grandparents, which influenced her whole life. Didn’t learn to read until she was 14. Didn’t start writing children’s books until she was 41 years old. 20

Tomie DePaola Born in Meriden, CT. in Has been both a Caldecott and Newbery honoree. Has written over 100 books and illustrated over 200 books. Works in a renovated 200 year old barn in New London, New Hampshire. 21