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READING IN COLOR:
SELECTING DIVERSE BOOKS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM OR
LIBRARY
LAURA SIMEON, MA, MLISALPHA DELAP, PHD
WINDOWS & MIRRORSBooks are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience.
- Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita, Department of Education, Ohio State University
MAPSThe children I know, the ones I meet in school visits, these children are much more outward looking. They see books less as mirrors and more as maps. They create, through the stories they’re given, an atlas of their world, of their relationships to others, of their possible destinations. Children of color remain outside the boundaries of imagination. The cartography we create with this literature is flawed.
- Christopher Myers, author & illustrator
TYPES OF DIVERSE MATERIALS
Educating children outside a group/culture
Generally addressed at the majority, the language often creates a sense of “otherness.”
These books offer windows.
TYPES OF DIVERSE MATERIALS
Speaking to children within a group/culture
Written from an insider’s perspective, they are both culturally rich and more opaque.
These books are the mirrors.
TYPES OF DIVERSE MATERIALS
Portraying incidental diversity
Frequently nonfiction or genre books that are primarily about something else, they include diverse individuals and send a strong message about what is “normal.”
These books can be the maps.
GROUP EXERCISE
In your group, examine the stack of “books” and discuss how you would classify them and why, according to the criteria of windows, mirrors, and maps
DISCUSSION IN PAIRSListen to the descriptions of these popular, award-winning books and discuss with a neighbor:
What they have in common beyond the fact that they feature diversity
What message they send to the young reader when viewed through the lens of windows, mirrors and maps
THE SWEDISH APPROACH
“It’s better to make the conflict about something else - not about a boy playing with a doll, but something emerging from the play itself.”
- Marie Tomicic, co-founder OLIKA publishing house
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM SWEDEN?
We need to use books in which diversity doesn’t exist simply to be “the problem.”
Expecting children of color (or other minority groups) to always serve as the lesson to others further marginalizes them.
EXERCISEBriefly reflect on your own about:
Who is present in your school community (student demographics) and who is not
Who is present in the books you present to your classes and who is not
Next, discuss in your group: How these presences and absences
intersect, and what changes you would like to make
ASSESSMENT OF BOOKS
Language and images: Are they stereotypical or loaded?
(Consider both positive and negative stereotypes.)
Who is the hero and who the helpless victim?
ASSESSMENT OF BOOKSAccuracy:
Investigate the author’s and illustrator’s expertise (biographical notes in the book or online).
Are there source notes (especially crucial for folktales)?
Is this one of the few portrayals of a person from this group that children will be exposed to? Will the impact be diluted by other impressions?
ASSESSMENT OF BOOKSExplicit or implicit values:
What are the standards for success in the book? Do they only reflect white, American, middle class values?
It’s not a matter of some values being “better” or “worse,” but of balance and education: helping majority children become consciously aware of values they may not even be able to articulate, and offering minority children validation as well as an understanding of what the mainstream expects.
UNSURE? A problem may be relatively minor as
compared to the overall value of the book especially when students are made aware of this context.
Discussing questionable features in a book enhances learning and develops critical thinking skills.
If you use a variety of diverse materials on an ongoing basis, the impact of each title is lessened.
RESOURCES: BOOK LISTSAmerican Library Association
AILAEMIERTGLBTRTPura Belpré Award
The Center for Children’s BooksLee & LowReaders to EatersSLJ Resources for Diversity in Kid and
YA Lit
RESOURCES: GENERAL The Apartheid of Children’s Literature by Christopher
Myers Children’s Book Council: Diversity The Color
of Authenticity in Multicultural Children’s Literature by Rebecca A. Hill
Gender Matters? Swedish Picture Books and Gender Ambiguity by Laura Simeon
Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors by Rudine Sims Bishop
Reading While White School Library Journal: The Diversity Issue Tearing
Down Walls: The Integrated World of Swedish Picture Books by Laura Simeon
We Need Diverse Books
OUR CONTACT INFO & SLIDES Laura Simeon, Open Window School,
[email protected] Alpha DeLap, St. Thomas School,
Slideshow: http://tinyurl.com/readingincolor
