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I've just finished a month of teaching "Race, Culture, and Power in Children's and YA Books" during Jan Term at
Saint Mary's College of California. As the college-wide theme this year was
Inspired (see above), I asked students to create picture books by fulfilling two requirements: (1) they were required to write fiction featuring a "hero's journey," and (2) they needed to explore an aspect of race, culture, or power.
I was delighted by their books, as well as their ability to debate issues around authenticity, banning, bowdlerization, ethnic awards, and multicultural representation on book covers. We also enjoyed eye-opening skype visits from Yolanda Leroy Scott of
Charlesbridge, Renee Ting of
Shen's Books, Debbie Reese of
American Indians in Children's Literature, and Stacy L. Whitman of
Tu Books. Thanks to all of these experts for their time and thoughtful input.
When asked about their takeaways from the class, here are a few student responses:
"I've developed a keen eye for exclusion."
"Never thought about white default before."
"Children's stories are powerful."
"Kids notice race at an early age."
"Stories featuring multicultural kids doing 'regular stuff' are empowering."
"There's power in being bicultural."
"It's hard to write a children’s story!"
Amen, right? Enjoy these photos of my beautiful students showing off their picture books:
Most of you know I'm teaching a Jan Term course called "Race, Culture, and Power in Children's/YA Stories" at Saint Mary's College in California. In class today students researched and compiled statistics about 12 children's/YA book awards (13 books) NOT restricted by the race of the author or illustrator. We included the National Book Award, Newbery, Caldecott, Printz, and other major awards.
GENDER: In 2012, 10 protagonists were male, while 4 were female (one book had two main characters). Meanwhile, 6 authors/illustrators were women (about half). So, to generalize, last year's award-winning books were mostly about boys, but created almost equally by men and women.
RACE: In 2012, 9 protagonists were white, while 4 protagonists were not (2 African American, 1 Middle Eastern, 1 Japanese). Meanwhile 10 authors/illustrators were white, while 3 were not (2 African American, 1 Middle Eastern). So, to generalize, last year's award-winning books were mostly about white people and created by white people.
Still, remember that according to the 2010 census, 63% of the US population is non-Hispanic white, 16% Latino/Hispanic, 12% Black, 6% Asian, and 3% more than one race.
Once again, we find a dearth of Latino/Hispanic main characters. Other thoughts?
Ever wondered why Birmingham airport was
renamed the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth airport in 2008? BLACK AND WHITE (Calkins Creek) by
Larry Dane Brimner will have you cheering each time you hear the name. As Brimner notes: "Reverend Fred. L. Shuttlesworth never once thought about giving up the fight for human and civil rights. He was, after all, following the path God intended for him, and he'd answered that calling early in his life."
The best children's non-fiction history books chronicle events by combining arresting visuals with lucid prose. Thanks to Brimner's gifts of storytelling and research, a meticulous collection of photographs and letters, and a design that brilliantly pleads the case for the traditional codex, BLACK AND WHITE transports readers into the heart of the civil rights movement. The book brings two characters to life--Shuttlesworth and his nemesis, Eugene "Bull" Connor--as well as the town of Birmingham in the middle of the twentieth century, helping us remember the sacrifice and determination that secured changes we might start taking for granted.
A rousing portrayal of what faithful Christians can and have endured to bring about justice, BLACK AND WHITE singlehandedly makes me proud of our vocation to nourish the imaginations and intellect of the next generation.
Some of you may have already seen this, but this video is a classic example of how humor can be used effectively to discuss cultural stereotypes (as we're hoping to do in our forthcoming YA anthology from Candlewick, tentatively titled OPEN MIC).
TU Books, the fantasy, science fiction, and mystery imprint of
Lee and Low, recently announced their first annual
New Visions Award. "The New Visions Award will be given for a middle grade or young adult fantasy, science fiction, or mystery novel
by a writer of color," they say.
I wondered why the award was restricted to the race of the author rather than of the characters, and asked Stacy Whitman, editorial director of TU BOOKS, about her take on this sticky issue. Here's the email exchange between the two of us (shared with Stacy's permission):
Mitali: Hi Stacy. Just wondering why you decided to focus the award on "writers of color" rather than "main characters of color"?
Stacy: This is like the Lee and Low
New Voices Award, which is aimed at discovering new voices of color, given that so many writers are white. Everyone is still welcome to submit to our regular submissions. Hope that clears it up.
Mitali: Yes and no. I've always wondered how Lee and Low defined "of color."
Stacy: It's a good question. Here's the answer Louise usually gives writers who ask about it for New Voices, which I'll be adapting as people start to ask me:
While our company does acknowledge and actively work with Caucasian authors and illustrators, our New Voices contest specifically promotes the work of new writers who are not Caucasian. We use the term “color” in the commonly accepted way to refer to those writers and readers who might otherwise be referred to as members of minority populations (African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans), but who are fast becoming larger and larger percentages of the United States population. We apologize if you find this terminology exclusionary, but it is meant merely to be descriptive. For want of a better term, we use what is in common usage throughout the country.
As a company founded with the mission of creating books in which children of color can see themselves in the stories they read, we feel it is critical to acknowledge these unheard voices. In the mainstream world of children’s publishing—statistically dominated by works by and about Caucasians—writers of color and their stories for children have and continue to slip through the cracks, making up a small percentage of the children’s books published each year. Aside from our small efforts to promote new writers from diverse communities, you will find there are national children’s book awards that have similar focuses, for example the Coretta Scott King Award which acknowledges African American authors and illustrators, and the Pura Belpré Award which acknowledges Latino authors and illustrators.
It can be tricky—I personally prefer the author to define themselves, rather than for myself to define it. And for me it includes multiracial people (Tobias Buckell, an editor of Diverse Energies, for example, is half black and half white, even though many people just looking at him would assume he is "just" white, which is a complicated genetic thing that society oversimplifies). But what it comes down to is that we're trying to help discover new voices from underrepresented groups through this contest.
Me: Thanks, this is helpful. My opinion is that with all the mixing and melding going on, any authentic experience of a writer will ring through in the fiction if we focus on the culture/race of the character rather than of the author. If an upper middle class Bengali woman like me writes about a poor Bengali fisherman's son (as I'm doing right now), I'm crossing huge borders of class, gender, and caste, but not race ... may I write this story? I certainly hope so, because I am! Anyway, the goal is to widen the choices of fiction for readers so that we're not all rooting solely for educated upper class heroes with European roots ... the question is how to get there.
Stacy: Exactly, and this is pretty much a two-pronged approach for us--encouraging everyone to submit to the main submissions, but also doing the contest in a hunt for more diversity among writers as well as in the stories.
ABOUT THE AWARD
TU BOOKS, the fantasy, science fiction, and mystery imprint of
LEE and LOW BOOKS, announces their first annual
New Visions Award.
The New Visions Award will be given for a middle grade or young adult
fantasy, science fiction, or mystery novel by a writer of color. Authors
who have not previously had a middle grade or young adult novel
published are eligible.
The Award winner will receive a cash grant of $1000 and our standard
publication contract, including our basic advance and royalties for a
first time author. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash grant of
$500. Manuscripts will be accepted through October 30, 2012. See the full submissions guidelines
here.
The
New Visions Award was established to help more authors of color break
into publishing and begin long, successful careers, while also bringing
more diverse stories to speculative fiction. The award is modeled after
Lee and Low's successful
New Voices Award, which was established in 2000 and is given annually to a picture book written by an unpublished author of color.
I'm heading west to teach a Jan Term course at Saint Mary's College of California called "Race, Culture, and Power in Children's and Young Adult Books." Here's the first part of my syllabus:
Why are children’s stories so powerful? Who has the right to tell stories about marginalized communities? This course will explore the question of authenticity in storytelling and unmask explicit and implicit messages about race, power, and culture communicated through books for young readers. A secondary course goal is to help students improve their analytical writing.
- Part One: The Subversive Power of Children’s Stories
- Part Two: Race in Children’s Stories
- Part Three: Culture in Children’s Stories
- Part Four: Power in Children’s Books
Alison Lurie, author of D
on’t Tell The Grown-ups: The Subversive Power of Children’s Literature makes this argument about how children’s books can affect the common good:
The great subversive works of children's literature suggest that there are other views of human life besides those of the shopping mall and the corporation. They mock current assumptions and express the imaginative, unconventional, noncommercial view of the world in its simplest and purest form. They appeal to the imaginative, questioning, rebellious child within all of us, renew our instinctive energy, and act as a force for change. This is why such literature is worthy of our attention and will endure long after more conventional tales have been forgotten.
On the flip side, children’s literature has also been a key part of state propaganda used by totalitarian and oppressive governments to impose certain social and moral codes on child readers. As Bruno Bettelheim argued in
The Uses of Enchantment, stories told to children powerfully shape their moral world. Children with a well-developed sense of justice and compassionate hearts widened by stories can significantly serve the common good. Storytelling is a powerful act, especially when it involves young hearts and minds. From
Uncle Tom's Cabin to
Harry Potter, books can either repudiate or encourage stereotypes and injustice.
Students will explore and debate five questions:
(1)
BOOK COVERS: Should young adult and middle grade novels depict faces on covers?
(2)
BOOK AWARDS: Should ethnic book awards be based on the race/ethnicity of the author/illustrator?
(3)
BANNING: Should certain children’s books be banned in homes and classrooms because of racism or cultural stereotyping?
(4)
BOWDLERIZATION: Should we “bowdlerize” children’s classics that—seen with today’s eyes—are racist, or let them stand and be read as is?
(5)
AUTHENTICITY: Should a story be told only by a cultural “insider” to guarantee authenticity?
This year I'm privileged to introduce my 26 students to Debbie Reese, who blogs at
American Indians in Children's Literature, and Yolanda Leroy, editorial director of
Charlesbridge, via Skype. Renee Ting, publisher of
Shen's Books, will visit us in person. Since the theme of Jan Term 2013 is "inspiration," students will also be writing and creating picture books that explore a theme related to race, culture, or power.
If you're a writer of children's and YA books and a "person of color" (Gosh, how I hate race-related jargon ... nothing seems just right, ever) looking to improve your craft and learn more about the children's publishing industry, you may apply to be mentored for free by established writers through the newly-launched Patchwork Collective. This brilliant effort is spearheaded by my dear friend Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, author of 8th GRADE SUPERZERO, one of my favorite new books.
Is my protagonist a ...
- Person of color?
- Asian-American?
- Asian (no hyphen) American?
- Brown?
- South Asian American?
- Bengali-American?
- Desi?
- Non-white?
- A minority?
- Multicultural?
WHAT THE HECK IS SHE?
(WHAT THE HECK AM I? Who cares? Most of North America.)
Please help: How do
you define yourself by race in America today and why?
No, this is not oxymoronic: I recently enjoyed a humorous contemporary YA novel that adeptly handles race.
Latte Rebellion (Flux, January 2011) by
Sara Jamila Stevenson is a funny, poignant debut novel narrated by a protagonist you'd love to meet for coffee and conversation in real life. I loved the window this novel gives into growing up "latte" amidst the craziness of racial politics in America. But thanks to witty dialog, vivid characters, and a spot-on depiction of bittersweet endings and beginnings,
Latte Rebellion is also a mirror for anyone who remembers or anticipates the roller coaster ride of senior year.
Don't miss this brilliant post by YA author Nicola K. Richardson in which she eloquently addresses some commonly held misconceptions about race in young adult literature. For example, when it comes to the claim that young white readers won't cross borders of race to read, Ms. Richardson has this to say:
Kids of color give white writers a chance all the time. But white kids won't do the same for a writer of color? The same kids that buy a CD cover with a black artist with no problems would hesitate over a book cover? The same kids that go to school with and have friends of all races would refuse to be diverse when it comes to reading? I firmly believe that this is just as wrong as the assumption that blacks only read urban fiction. Again, MANY believe this and it shows in the heinous whitewashing of book covers. It shows when bookstores won't carry books with characters of color on the cover. It shows when salespeople swear they can't sell these books. The problem with this is that it assumes an entire group will respond the way that a few do.
Read the rest over at
YA Highway, including some world-changing advice for all of us in the industry. Writers, apparently we have to "go hard for our books." Ready for the challenge? I am. Thanks, Nicola.
Crossing boundaries of culture, race, and class to create characters can be tricky, but as fantasy/romance author Mary Anne Mohanraj thoughtfully points out, "You will get it wrong. This is what you should do."
Children's book author A.C.E. Bauer makes the case that we can't include a character of a different race without seeing that "it's not like choosing the color of her hair."
It always helps to learn from one another's mistakes and processes, so I'm seeking input from my fellow writers. Here are my questions, and they apply to historical, contemporary, dystopian, and fantasy novels:
- When you crossed boundaries of power (cultural, racial, economic) to create characters, what behind-the-scenes homework did you do (research, interviews, etc.)?
- Did your editor ask for more research or tweaks when it came to issues of race, culture, or class? If so, when and why?
There are no right or wrong answers — basically, I'm looking for tips that we might all find useful. I'd love to compile comments, so share titles, release dates, and publishers of published works, and working titles of books-in-progress. Thanks!
 |
| photo via p.a.h. and creative commons |
I'm privileged to be editing an anthology published by Candlewick Press tentatively called OPEN MIC, a compilation of funny short pieces written by some of today's best YA authors, people who grew up along the margins of race and culture in North America. One of my dreams has been to introduce one or two fresh, relatively unknown voices in this anthology, so I'm excited to announce that
I'm calling for submissions.
WHY HUMOR AND RACE?
It’s easy to see teens exploring boundaries, definitions, and trends in ethnicity and race in standup comedy, sitcoms, and funny short and long films. Meanwhile, many teen novels confronting these topics tend to be serious, reverential, or sad.
Humor crosses borders like no other literary device, right? Shared laughter fosters community and provides the freedom to talk about issues that might otherwise cause division or discomfort.
It also gets teens reading, and that's what we're aiming for in this book. Our authenticity and humor, hopefully, will inspire teens to talk about their own experiences as they share the book in classrooms, families, and through social media.
THE DETAILS
Your OPEN MIC contribution could include poignant, deep content as well as laugh-out loud hilarious scenes. You don’t have to focus specifically on racism, but
your piece will explore or illuminate coming of age and/or growing up along the margins of race and culture in North America. Hopefully, it will also be funny.
Your target audience is
middle school to early high school, grades 7-9, so keep your protagonists at that age level or above. If your piece is chosen, you'll receive an advance against a small royalty percentage on the sale of the book across formats. As for promotion, along with Candlewick’s usual stellar marketing efforts, we’re going to spread the news like crazy through social media to publicize you and your other work as well.
HOW TO SUBMIT
I'm considering submissions to this open call on a rolling basis until January 15, 2012.
Maximum word count is 2500. Send your story or essay (noting word count on the first page) along with a brief introductory cover letter to OPEN MIC, Attn: Mitali Perkins, Candlewick Press, 99 Dover Street, Somerville, MA 02144. Manuscripts will not be returned.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Do not put your name on the manuscript itself, only on the cover letter. Candlewick will keep the cover letters and number manuscripts to track them. I'm hoping to consider submissions without knowing the identities of the contributors—and I can't wait to read your piece!
***
With Steven Spielberg's adaptation of THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, the classic graphic novel written and illustrated by George Remi (
Hergé), Egmont UK is releasing
TINTIN IN THE CONGO for a new audience. This time, instead of letting "colonial" content stand as is or bowdlerizing it, they've
decided to pursue a new strategy:
“We took the unusual step of placing a protective band around the book with a warning about the content and also included an introduction inside the book by the original translators explaining the historical context."
Already, UK booksellers typically move the novels out of children's areas into the adult graphic novel sections of their stores.
We've
discussed the option of bowdlerizing content on the Fire Escape before, and I took a poll,
asking
visitors to the Fire Escape when, if ever, it would be okay to update a
classic children's book to reflect changing mores about race. The
results (152 votes) were almost
equally split between those who thought some changes might be in order, while the rest arguing that a book must stand as is.
Slightly more than half of you (83 votes, or 54%) said never.
Among those who felt it might be worth it to change a classic book, we
see a strong belief that an author alone retains the right to change
the story. Fifty-nine voters (38%) thought it would be appropriate to update if the author were still alive and wanted the changes.
Twenty-eight (18%) thought it would be permissible to revise a classic children's book if the publisher included a note in the re-issue explaining the reasoning behind the change.
Fifteen of you (9%) thought it would be okay to update if the changes made were incidental rather than integral to the plot, and fifteen (9%) more were amenable if the copyright holder (a descendant) were still alive and authorized the changes.
What do you think about Egmont UK's belly-banding move? And if you're interested,
here's how I weighed in on the issue. Enjoy the trailer for the film, scheduled for release December 21st:
2 Comments on Belly-Banding TINTIN IN THE CONGO with a Warning, last added: 11/3/2011
I admire certain publishing houses because of their history of championing voices from the margins. Recently I was surprised to discover that Amazon Encore (yes, that Amazon) makes a similar claim as a publisher. Here's the program's mission statement:
Even great books can be overlooked. And authors with great potential often struggle to connect with the larger audience they deserve to reach ... AmazonEncore is a new program whereby Amazon will use information such as customer reviews on Amazon.com to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors with more potential than their sales may indicate.
I definitely had my questions, so I invited
Zetta Elliot, author of the award-winning picture book
Bird, to share about how Amazon Encore published her novel
A Wish After Midnight. Zetta calls this program "part of the 'next wave' in publishing," and provides a compelling argument about why it worked for her. (
Note: the emphasis in bold in some of her answers comes from me, not Zetta.)
Could you tell us more about why you self-published this novel first and then how Amazon Encore decided to pick A Wish After Midnight?
I think my experience was the same as most aspiring authors—I finished the manuscript in 2003 and began querying dozens of editors and agents. No one was interested! One white male agent said it was “cliché,” yet when I asked him to name another time-travel novel featuring an Afro-Latina protagonist he couldn’t, of course. So after five years of rejection I opted to self-publish.
My first picture book,
Bird, was coming out in the fall of ’08, so I made sure I had copies of
A Wish After Midnight to share with educators and librarians whenever I did a public presentation. I don’t know just what it was that caught AmazonEncore’s attention—likely a combination of my credentials, the success of
Bird, and the quality of the book itself. I got an email from an acquisitions editor last summer saying he’d read my book, loved it, and felt we could partner to reach a wider audience.
I know AmazonEncore looks at reader reviews, and
I was fortunate to have many book bloggers who raved about my novel. I had already made a book trailer and study guide for the book, it had been adopted by local schools and public library systems…in a way, it was a no-brainer, altho
Here's a great mission statement:
Imagine. Envision. Write. Revise. Submit. YARN publishes outstanding original short fiction, poetry, and essays for Young Adult readers, written by the writers you know and love, as well as fresh new voices ... including teens.
That's the purpose of
Young Adult Review Network, also known as YARN. The site
editors recently asked me to contribute an original short story and also posed three interesting questions during a brief Q and A. Here's one of them, along with my answer:
YARN: What advice might you give young people who are considering writing across the lines of culture?
MP: If you’re an “outsider” to the culture, do your homework. Listen, do research, love someone deeply who belongs to that culture. Let it be read by people of a different class and/or culture than yours and receive their critique. Consider whether the story wouldn’t be better served if written by an “insider,” and have the grace to let it go. Or to wait on it.
The other part of the equation is power. If you’re perceived as a powerful outsider thanks to race and/or class and/or gender, your story is going to be told and heard differently. Are you going to commandeer space on the shelves and displace a story that could be told by a less powerful “insider"? Or is there room in the global library both for your version and hers?
On the other hand, I don’t believe in setting up some kind of “right-ethnic-credentials” apartheid in stories. Who gets to decide who writes for whom, anyway? We’re all essentially outsiders when we write fiction, right? Otherwise, we’d be writing memoir. Let’s represent lots of races and cultures in our stories as the setting and plot demand.
Bottom line—cross cultures boldly, but humbly.
YARN also asked two other thoughtful questions:
- How do you point out the importance of quiet reflective time for young aspiring writers to whom being alone is almost a foreign concept?
- How do you encourage young people to ignore the faces on the book covers and the television screen long enough to believe that the stories they have to tell are valid and important?
If you're interested, you may go
there and scroll down past my short story to read my answers. And leave a comment on their site, would you? Because here's the rest of YARN's mission statement:
We also believe in feedback, which is why we encourage readers to post comments on pieces that inspire thought, emotion, laughter ... or whatever.
Random House has kindly arranged a brainstorm meeting tomorrow by phone for some of their staff, several great independent booksellers who want to sell "multicultural" children's and YA titles, and me.
I'm excited and a bit nervous. Seven or eight years ago, I couldn't have imagined being a part of such a conversation. In anticipation, I tweeted this yesterday:
"Chatting this Thursday with some great indies about how to sell books like mine—i.e., lacking paranormality, cleavage, white people. Ideas?"
@dosankodebbie said, "Target international school libraries. There are countless international schools all over the world with non-white and mixed-race kids."
@LisaLOwens tweeted, "You could mention little things like relatable characters, absorbing drama, exciting/fresh settings. Readers like all that!"
@PaulWHankins, a teacher, suggested this: "The stores can show content and curricular connections."
When it comes to a book like Bamboo People, for example, @emilytastic said, "I'd pitch it at teachers and librarians, and at boys reading war and political books."
How would you answer my question?
I posed this question last week here on the Fire Escape before enjoying a long conversation about the topic with Delacorte editors, Random House sales reps, and several stellar indie booksellers.
Based on that chat and some great comments, here are some practical ideas and encouragement for and from booksellers eager to sell books featuring non-white characters. Thanks to everybody who chimed in, and if you leave other helpful suggestions in the comments, I'll add them to the list.
A younger “global story section” has worked well, calling out titles to people who don’t normally see them.
An around the world display of YA/MG titles, not focused on one particular ethnicity, was popular in our store.
Point: Connecting an in-store display into a nationwide promotion like African American history month helped draw attention to certain books.
Counterpoint: Our display of African American books during that month never sold well. The books compete against each other, and if they were spread out throughout the store might each get more attention.
English-reading kids and adults are stuck all over the world on military bases that are technically U.S. land. Indies can make a point of promoting books and deals to military bases. Make it clear on your store's front page that you will ship to APO/AE, to embassies, etc. — anything that is technically U.S. soil. It costs the same to ship to a U.S. military base in Germany as it does to ship to, say, Kansas. And military kids are as diverse as diverse gets.
Indies can add categories that make it easy to do searches for diversity. Let readers be able to browse "Lead Characters—Hispanic or African-American or etc." and "Culture— Cherokee Nation or New Orleans or etc." and "Religious Lead Characters—Muslim or Amish or Mormon or Shinto." It's about organizing data so they can find it easily. Create standards and have an intern tag every book with categories according to those standards so readers can find it—online or off.
When doing a display of "good summer reads" or "great books about friendship" or whatever the display is, make sure each display has multicultural titles in it.
What about a book club that focuses on books by authors of color? Or books that take place in other countries?
It's very important that the books be on display. And not in their own section. If they are treated differently that's how customers will see them. An "If you like this, try this" display usually works. Customers are more inclined to stop if they see a book they like. And the books should be blurbed if possible.
For sellers to make a deliberate effort to see that their displays are as diverse as possible is important and crucial.
List such titles in your store's databases or online under not just their genre, but under the race/religion/nationality of characters. There are times when a reader wants to explore the whole world, and times when they need characters they can identify with very closely. I don't like the idea of making all *displays* this way, or even shelving books this way, but I think it's really important for readers to be able to sort through books this way on their own or with the help of a store employee.
If they feel the book is a disguised sociology lesson they will flee from it. Don't sell it as "multicultural"sell it as a darn good book about people facing problems on their journey to adulthood, just like the reader.
Send announcements/lists of available multicultural titles to schools in the area suggesting ways for their use in the classroom. Also send to organizations and clubs associat
When classic children's books strike us as racist today, Philip Nel raises an interesting question. Even if we amend them to tone down the racism, do we "simply dress up racial and colonial ideologies in different costumes?"
Nel says that if we answer affirmatively, we face a choice:
(1) Discourage children from reading them.
(2) Permit children to read only the bowdlerized versions.
(3) Allow children to read any version, original or bowdlerized.
I took a
poll about this issue last summer, so I thought I'd re-post my
findings given the resurgence of this issue, raised today by Nel and by
Monica Edinger.
I
asked visitors to the Fire Escape when, if ever, it would be okay to update a classic children's book to reflect changing mores about race. The results (152 votes) were almost
equally split between those who thought some changes might be in order, while the rest arguing that a book must stand as is.
Slightly more than half of you (83 votes, or 54%) said never.
Among those who felt it might be worth it to change a classic book, we see a strong belief that an author alone retains the right to change the story. Fifty-nine voters (38%) thought it would be appropriate to update if the author were still alive and wanted the changes.
Twenty-eight (18%) thought it would be permissible to revise a classic children's book if the publisher included a note in the re-issue explaining the reasoning behind the change.
Fifteen of you (9%) thought it would be okay to update if the changes made were incidental rather than integral to the plot, and fifteen (9%) more were amenable if the copyright holder (a descendant) were still alive and authorized the changes.
Where do I weigh in? I was in the "let the author do it" camp until this discussion, because I
made changes to one of my own books. But I'm surprised to find myself shifting into the "never" camp, albeit cautiously.
It's worth a
read through the comments to understand the "never" camp's arguments. Part is aimed at those of us who write, because all authorial cheeks burn while re-reading our earlier work. Do we have the guts to let mistakes stand, own them, and even discuss them publicly as part of our call to mentor the next generation of storytellers? Maybe a "what I wish I could change" or "using my book as discussion" section should be a standard feature of an author's website (featuring those books out of
Please answer this call from Elizabeth Bluemle, bookseller and blogger at Publishers Weekly, for input on how to "sell color in a white world."
At the New England Independent Booksellers Association trade show next week, the Children’s Bookselling Advisory Council is holding a panel discussion on this topic. I’d love for booksellers, authors, publishers and editors, sales reps and publicists to attend and share their successful strategies for getting past reluctant or stymied gatekeepers and reaching across color lines to share wonderful, diverse books with kids. I’ll be posting a follow-up in ShelfTalker after the panel. Here’s the description:
Friday, October 1, 10:15-11:45 am
Multicultural Kids Books: Selling Color in a White World
We all want to support and sell wonderful multicultural books, but many of us live in areas with fairly homogenous populations. How do we get past unconscious color barriers, both our own and our customers’, and put great books featuring characters of all colors in the hands of children? Participants will leave with helpful resources, including sample booktalks, tips for successful conversations with hesitant customers, resources for meeting the needs of multiracial families in your neighborhood, a list of helpful websites, and an annotated bibliography of great multicultural books by age. Panelists will include bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle (The Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vt.), author Mitali Perkins, Stacy Whitman (Editorial Director of Tu Publishing), and Karen Lotz (President and Publisher of Candlewick Press).
"Look around the room," said bookseller Elizabeth Bluemle (pictured left), introducing our New England Independent Booksellers Association panel,
Selling Color in a White World. "Our industry is still dominated by white people, and honestly, we get lazy handselling books featuring people of color."
After she introduced the panelists, I kicked things off with my usual
windows and mirrors spiel and gave two examples of how indies can make a huge difference: my visits to
Titcomb's Bookstore in Sandwich, MA and
Aaron's Bookstore in Lititz, PA.
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| Karen Lotz, Elizabeth Bluemle, and I |
Next came Karen Lotz, President and Publisher of Candlewick. "We feel relatively free from the pressure of gatekeepers," she said. "We're a creatively-led house."
She shared a story about Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who asked to meet with her at a recent BEA. The legendary basketball player came with one request: please package books for and about black kids with the same bling as books for the mainstream. Candlewick makes it a point to comply.
Elizabeth raised the elephant-in-the-room question: do covers featuring people of color hinder sales in mostly-white communities?
When it comes to cover decisions, Candlewick goes through a collaborative cycle that provides input to designers who have read the book mindfully and thoroughly. Karen proudly held up a new Candlewick book,
Zora and Me by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon, making the case that the gorgeous face of a young Zora Neale Hurston on the cover was absolutely necessary for sales.
Karen concluded by encouraging us with the Indonesian concept of
Cuci Mata, which literally means a washing of the eyes, something we all need so that we can begin to see in a fresh way.
Stacy L. Whitman, editorial director of
Tu Books, a new multicultural Sci-Fi/Fantasy imprint of Lee and Low, joined the panel by phone after a flooded New York train station hindered her travel. Stacy
I recently
learned from Karen Lotz, publisher of Candlewick, that the Indonesian phrase Cuci Mata means a "washing of the eyes."
Aha! I thought.
The perfect metaphor for my new feature on Mitali's Fire Escape.
While we may not want to
bowdlerize the classics of the past, we
are eager to grow in our ability to discern both anachronistic and universal attitudes in stories (even, and perhaps especially, in our own). Every month, we'll choose a novel written by a now-dead—no hurt feelings that way—children's book author and explore attitudes towards race, class, gender, and culture as revealed in that story. What stands the test of time in this novel?
Our goal is not to critique and condemn these beloved authors with arrogant "we-know-better-than-you" twenty-first century eyes. We will wash our eyes, see in a fresh way, and find elements in these stories to celebrate as universally relevant. But we also want to notice what the authors themselves might have wished they could change for today's young readers.
I invite you to join me the first week of each month, either here on the Fire Escape, where I'll be blogging my thoughts about the books and asking questions, or via Twitter using the hashtag
#kidclassic. I'm trying to pick lesser-known novels written by famous authors. Here's what I've scheduled so far:
November 1-5 Emily of Deep Valley by Maud Hart Lovelace
(Full disclosure: I wrote the foreword to the
re-issue of this novel from HarperPerennial as a labor of love, but don't let that stop you from seeing it with fresh eyes and speaking to us about what you see.)
December 1-7 An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
January 3-7 The Well-Wishers by Edward Eager
Other suggestions?
If you're going to join us, please leave a note in the comments. Thanks so much!
Photo courtesy of ryawesome via Creative Commons
We're starting our Cuci Mata ("washing of the eyes" in Indonesian) read of classic children's books this week. Once a month, we'll read a standalone novel written by a beloved author and tap into the power of communal vision. Let's ask ourselves:
- When it comes to race, ethnicity, gender, and class, what stands the test of time?
- What might the author wish to change for today's young readers?
I
could do this alone, I suppose, but there's so much more to see when we share a story together. So won't you join me?
If you read or re-read
EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY by Maud Hart Lovelace from November 1-5, tweet your thoughts about race, class, culture, and gender with hashtag #kidclassic or blog a review and leave the link below. I'll compile all tweets and review excerpts in a final post.
(Full disclosure: I wrote the foreword to the
re-issue of this novel from HarperPerennial as a labor of love, but don't let that stop you from seeing it with fresh eyes and speaking to us about what you see.)
Next up:
December 1-7 An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott
January 3-7 The Well-Wishers by Edward Eager
The Bechdel Test challenges us to ask three simple questions about films:
- Are there two or more women with names?
- Do they talk to each other?
- Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?
So many of my favorite films failed the test:
I wonder if we could apply a similar set of race-related questions to stories in diverse settings, whether they come to us via books, television, or movies. Let's call it the "Friends" test, based on that outstandingly non-diverse television show set in New York City, and ask these questions:
- Are there two or more people of color with names?
- Do they have a significant conversation with each other?
- Do they talk about something other than race?
Mia Cabana, astute young adult librarian and YALSA blogger, shares the new paperback cover for Tanita S. Davis' award-winning novel, MARE'S WAR, anticipating increased circulation. Booksellers, librarians, what do you guys think (new cover is below the original)?
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One other factor that gets discussed fairly often around awards season is that while the male/female distribution for authors is about 50/50, there is a feeling that the ratio of published books by male and female authors is skewed highly toward female authors, and thus the awards still have a bias for male authors. I have no position on this, but thought I'd toss it into the conversation.
I'm having a hard time finding any books at all about Hispanic characters, much less award winners. In fact, characters that are not middle class Caucasian have to really be sought.
Thanks for posting this. It's frustrating that it continues to be so low on the horizon for many people. Keep talking!
There are lots of MG and YA books by and about Latinos. There could always be more, for sure, but the ones that exist should get more attention. Here is a great resource:
http://teachinglatinamericathroughliterature.wordpress.com/