Cradle Me, written by Debby Slier celebrates Native American families and shows how they carry their babies. It also encourages caregivers to teach children to say the words in their own languages.
“It is impossible for me not to have positive feelings when I look at the faces of babies. Debby Slier's Cradle Me had me happily gazing at the faces of babies from eleven different tribal nations in their cradle boards.” – Debbie Reese (American Indians in Children Literature)
In Loving Me, also written by Debby Slier, babies and toddlers will discover the importance of family relationships through the charming photographs of Native American families.
Cradle Me and Loving Me are available in Navajo English
This week, I'll be in New Orleans at the Healing for Democracy 2012 meetings, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's America Healing initiative. Here's the opening paragraph from their webpage:
In 2010, we launched the America Healing initiative, to support programs that promote racial healing and address racial inequity, with the goal to ensure that all children in America have an equitable and promising future.
As I read those words earlier today, my thoughts turned to news and images that have been in my mind the last couple of weeks. I'm disappointed (again), that people continue to defend playing Indian as harmless fun. When I wrote about Ladybug Girl
dressed like an Indian, several people objected to my critique. And when I heard about
Swamplandia! being on the short list for the Pulitzer, I shook my head in dismay. I did an in-depth study of it here on AICL in January (see
Day One with Russell's Swamplandia! and
Day Two with Russell's Swamplania! and
Day Three with Karen Russell's Swamplandia!).
Society seems determined to inflict hurt through illustrations in picture books (like
Ladybug Girl) and through images generated when you read about the playing-Indian family at the heart of a young adult novel (
Swamplandia!). When Native children are inundated with this imagery, they are denied the promising future the America Healing initiative is committed to.
This morning, I read
Betsy Bird's post at
School Library Journal. There, she short lists
Cradle Me, a beautiful board book that features American Indian babies. The book and Betsy's decision to promote it... Therein lies the promise of racial healing and an equitable and promising future.
Here's the images, side by side. On the left is the healing image, one of a Native baby just starting out in the world. On the right is what that Native baby will have to contend with... People who insist on "playing Indian" and defend it as "harmless fun" or "honoring" American Indians...
What will
your choice be? Heal? or Hurt?
It is impossible for me not to have positive feelings when I look at the faces of babies. Debby Slier's Cradle Me had me happily gazing at the faces of babies from eleven different tribal nations in their cradle boards. Here's the cover:
Inside are babies in their cradleboards, smiling, frowning, peeking, touching, crying, yawning, thinking, looking, sleepy, and sleeping. Beneath each of those words is a line for a parent/librarian/teacher to write that word in--perhaps--the Native language of the child the book is being used with. It is a powerful book because the images are photos, not drawings, and because Slier included a two-page spread that specifies each baby's tribal nation.
When you use the book, make sure you use present tense verbs! I recommend it and think you'll enjoy it, too.
Hoping this isn't a duplicate...
Your links to Days One and Two of your Swamplandia analyses seem to be for your drafts page. Day Three works.
Thanks, Christine. They work now. Odd error! I don't know how it happened, but I definitely appreciate your quick note.
When explained, the side by side view helps.