tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/childrens-books-18091/articles
Children's books – The Conversation
2024-01-26T11:06:10Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221911
2024-01-26T11:06:10Z
2024-01-26T11:06:10Z
The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists exhibition review: a look at the art that made the kid’s books iconic
<p>The Ladybird books, first published in 1914, helped millions of children learn and love to read over the decades. These hardback, pocket-size books, with bright and interesting artwork on the front, are pretty distinctive. You might have had one in your childhood, or seen one of the many spoofs put out by the original Ladybird publishers in recent years.</p>
<p>They were among the first books made solely with the child reader in mind and featured vivid, detailed and true-to-life illustrations and text simply and articulately expressed by experts in their field. The design of the original books has become iconic, with their full-colour illustrative style and simple typography.</p>
<p>The artwork is central to the success of the books, and to the enduring love many have for them. A quirky and original exhibition at <a href="https://www.victoriagal.org.uk/event/wonderful-world-ladybird-book-artists">Victoria Art Galley</a> in Bath is celebrating the artists that are responsible for Ladybird’s distinctive look. It has been curated by collector and researcher Helen Day, who became fascinated by the books after seeing her baby so engaged with the artwork on the pages of these old stories.</p>
<p>“I began as a collector but my interest soon broadened into a desire to understand better the social history that the books contain,” Day says in an introduction to the exhibition. She created a <a href="https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/">website</a> and heard from a variety of people who were eager to share their own Ladybird experiences and stories.</p>
<p>The exhibition features a compelling assembly of books, artefacts, proofs, letters and original artwork by some of the most highly regarded Ladybird artists of the mid-1900s – such as <a href="https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/john-berry/">John Berry</a>, <a href="https://www.martinaitchison.co.uk/">Martin Aitchison</a>, <a href="https://frankhampsonartwork.co.uk/">Frank Hampson</a>, <a href="https://www.thecharlestunnicliffesociety.co.uk/ladybirdbooks.html">Charles Tunnicliffe</a> and <a href="https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/harry-wingfield-we-have-fun/">Harry Wingfield</a>. Many of them exhibited at London’s prestigious Royal Academy and exquisite originals of some of their work hangs on the walls here.</p>
<p>The intriguing biographies and often humorous quotes and anecdotes from these artists tell the story of the growth of a Loughborough printing company into the iconic imprint of children’s publishing. Such was its success, by the mid-1970s Ladybird was selling millions of copies of its Key Words Reading Scheme books. The series featured the characters Peter and Jane. They were known as the kids next door – which they quite literally were, as they were based on the neighbours of illustrator Harry Wingfield.</p>
<h2>A host of inspiration</h2>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BttMW4D7nY8&t=197s">interview</a> with TV presenter Richard Wyatt, Day noted that: “in the wartime, paper rationing meant that normal work dried up, but they discovered if they took the largest sheet of paper available at the time, and folded it … in a particular way … you could make an entire mini Ladybird book from just one sheet of paper. That was the winning formula. Suddenly, the brand, the format and some amazing individuals was the sort of chemical combination that sparked off this huge success.”</p>
<p>One of those amazing individuals was editorial director Douglas Keen, who commissioned the artists for the books he conceptualised right up until Ladybird was sold to Pearson, owner of Penguin Books, in 1973. Day notes in the exhibition introduction that Keen had enviable instincts for pairing the right illustrator with the right project.</p>
<p>The most fascinating part of the exhibition is the collection of photographs of the locations, families, friends and neighbours who inspired the illustrators. The roughs of the final illustrations are pinned next to the original artworks, which sit alongside the pages of the books in which they were printed. Eric Winter, who illustrated many of the Well-Loved Tales books, sometimes used his wife as a model. Seeing a photograph of her alongside Winter’s final painting of <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/196216/well-loved-tales-cinderella-by-ladybird/9780723281443">Cinderella</a> is a delight.</p>
<p>There are 500 books on the walls and 200 available to read. There is even a life-sized model of Tootles the Taxi from one of Ladybird’s most popular books, Tootles the Taxi and Other Rhymes, in which to read them. Younger visitors will love the interactive activities – dressing up in clothing featured in Ladybird books, drawing book covers to display on the noticeboard and completing a discovery trail around the gallery.</p>
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<p>Seeing the early decades of Ladybird’s history is a reminder not only of how important it is to publish inspiring content, but also that children’s books should reflect the diverse world we live in. With a 100 years in children’s publishing behind it, it is still growing in important ways.</p>
<p>Ladybird is still publishing books and still helping children learn and love to read. Today’s Ladybird artists come from all over the world, reflecting a variety of cultures, ethnicities and differences. New generations of children can see themselves in the pages of books that they, too, will love and reread. </p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:s.stewart2@bathspa.ac.uk">s.stewart2@bathspa.ac.uk</a> is affiliated with:
Society for Young Publishers South-West (I'm a mentor)
Society of Authors
I am an editorial freelancer for Penguin Random House Children's Books (which includes Ladybird), HarperCollins Children's Books, Macmillan Children's Books and most of the other global publishing houses.</span></em></p>
A loving look at the artists who made the children’s publisher so popular.
Samantha Stewart, Lecturer in Publishing, Bath Spa University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210329
2023-08-29T12:24:41Z
2023-08-29T12:24:41Z
This course examines the dark realities behind your favorite children’s stories
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544524/original/file-20230824-27-r4eqqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=479%2C176%2C4677%2C3390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some fairy tales aren't so innocent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-reading-under-sheet-using-flashlight-royalty-free-image/475017710?phrase=bedtime+stories">danez/iStock / via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“Children’s Literature”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>The idea came from a book I bought at a used book sale.</p>
<p>It was Roald Dahl’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/176964">“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,</a>” but it wasn’t the version I expected.</p>
<p>While reading the book to my children in 2017, I discovered that in the copy of the book I had bought, Willy Wonka describes the Oompa-Loompa characters – the subservient chocolate makers in his factory – in a way that resembled the Black slave experience in the United States. Specifically, Willy Wonka says he smuggled them to his factory in crates.</p>
<p>“Imported direct from Africa!” Wonka says in this version of the book. “I discovered them myself. I brought them over from Africa myself – the whole tribe of them, three thousand in all. I found them in the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had ever been before.”</p>
<p>This version, which was published in 1964, <a href="https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/roald-dahl-the-caribbean-and-a-warning-from-his-chocolate-factory/">did not include the changes that Dahl had made in the late 1970s</a> at the urging of the NAACP. Dahl subsequently made the Oompa-Loompa characters’ skin “rosy-white” and their place of origin “Loompaland.”</p>
<p>As a parent, I was so struck by my experience reading the book to my children that, the following year in 2018, I chose to create a course that shows how children’s literature has changed over time.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>We examine books from different periods in time. The texts range from the bawdy Latin plays written for medieval schoolboys to contemporary works like Jacqueline Woodson’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/brown-girl-dreaming/oclc/870919395">“Brown Girl Dreaming,</a>” an autobiography written as a series of poems for young readers.</p>
<p>The course also explores how cultural biases shape people’s assumptions about what books are appropriate for children. We examine the ways race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and age show up in children’s stories. We also explore shifts in capitalism, parenting, sexuality and mental illness that are reflected in texts such as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/little-prince/oclc/57393678">“The Little Prince”</a> and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/293680/peter-pan-by-j-m-barrie/">“Peter Pan.”</a> </p>
<p>I ask students to define childhood, what it looks like and what its purpose is. Students’ answers tend to reflect current cultural norms, describing childhood as a time of innocence in which we learn, play and make mistakes, under the protective gaze of caring adults. But as we read the course texts, it becomes clear just how varied childhood is and has been. Time has changed what people expect childhood to look like. For instance, a 17th-century version of <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/giambattista-basiles-the-tale-of-tales-or-entertainment-for-little-ones/oclc/777595973">“Sleeping Beauty”</a> has a king <a href="https://sites.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0410.html#basile">impregnating a sleeping young lady</a>. In a <a href="https://sites.pitt.edu/%7Edash/type0410.html#grimm">19th-century version</a>, however, there’s no king but a prince, and no sex but a kiss.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/by-the-numbers">American Library Association</a> reports that in 2022 there were more attempts to ban books than in any previous year on record. In the course we discuss the history of censorship. Philosophers and writers such as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1029203531">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a> and <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/guardian-of-education-a-periodical-work/oclc/470574816">Sarah Trimmer</a> argued that fairy tales would morally corrupt children by distorting their grasp on reality. However, once realism in literature became popular in the 19th century, <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade1999">censors</a> tried to protect children from the harsh reality of societal ills.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Near the beginning of the course we examine the fairy tales that permeate modern culture. We read multiple versions of tales like “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Cinderella” to see how these stories were rewritten over time. </p>
<p>Students are often surprised by the overt sexuality and violence in these early versions of tales for children. They learn that the appropriateness of a book is debatable, not fixed.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>• Lewis Carroll’s <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/27976103">“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland</a>” – one of the earliest novels written expressly for children.</p>
<p>• Pamela Brown’s <a href="https://pushkinpress.com/books/the-swish-of-the-curtain-blue-door-1/">“The Swish of the Curtain</a>” follows a group of kids who realize their dream of performing on stage.</p>
<p>• Christopher Paul Curtis’ <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/35779/the-watsons-go-to-birmingham--1963-25th-anniversary-edition-by-christopher-paul-curtis/">“The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963,</a>” a novel with a young Black narrator who is a keen observer of his family’s struggles and joys.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>My hope is that students will begin to look at children’s books in a more critical way. Many people never pick up a children’s book once they become adults, or, if they do, they are reading it to a child or for nostalgic reasons. My course is meant to get students to look at children’s books not just as sources of entertainment or enjoyment, but to better understand how those books are shaped by – and help shape – the cultural norms of the society in which we live.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meisha Lohmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A lecturer in English literature gets her students to examine children’s books through the lens of race, class and sexuality.
Meisha Lohmann, Lecturer in English Literature, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205275
2023-06-26T12:20:54Z
2023-06-26T12:20:54Z
Asian folktales offer moral lessons that help reduce racial prejudice in children
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533260/original/file-20230621-24-qn6kml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=326%2C65%2C5894%2C4072&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A teacher tells a story to a group of students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/diversity-elementary-school-students-who-sit-on-the-royalty-free-image/1320972631?phrase=asian+reading+children+classroom&adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a Cambodian children’s folktale, one man is afraid of lawyers and another is afraid of filth. As the story goes, both are constantly bombarded by their fears despite their efforts to avoid them. </p>
<p>The moral of the tale is revealing and contains a powerful anti-racism message: What you hate becomes your fate.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.uml.edu/education/faculty-staff/faculty/kim-minjeong.aspx">educational linguist</a> and <a href="https://www.uml.edu/fahss/psychology/faculty/mccabe-allyssa.aspx">a psychologist</a> who specialize in children’s literacy development, we know that reading such folktales about people from different ethnic groups <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.14.5.447">reduces prejudice</a> in young children.</p>
<p>By age 4, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12788">children learn stereotypes</a> against certain groups of people, and by age 7, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2011.535906">children of color internalize stereotypes</a>. Research suggests that <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-10122-011">reading stories about a person’s own culture</a> has many benefits, including literacy achievement. </p>
<p>But according to <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/">2020 Cooperative Children’s Book Center statistics</a>, one barrier to providing culturally sustaining texts to young children is the remarkable lack of availability of such texts. </p>
<p>For example, 29% of <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/">children’s books</a> are about animals and 41% about white children. Only 9% address experiences of children of Asian descent.</p>
<p>Because of this dearth of culturally sustaining texts, we decided to produce our own children’s book specifically focused on children of Asian descent. </p>
<p>We teach in Lowell, Massachusetts, a city that has one of the largest Southeast Asian communities in the U.S. and has a number of different <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lowellcitymassachusetts">Southeast Asian American groups</a>. The Cambodian American community in Lowell, for instance, is the second largest in the U.S. and the third largest in the world outside of Cambodia. </p>
<h2>A significant step in combating anti-Asian hate</h2>
<p>Racism against Asians and Asian Americans is not new in America.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act#:%7E:text=It%20was%20the%20first%20significant,immigrating%20to%20the%20United%20States">Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-shameful-stories-of-environmental-injustices-at-japanese-american-incarceration-camps-during-wwii-174011">incarceration of Japanese Americans</a> during World War II demonstrate the long history of abuse that continues today. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.csusb.edu/hate-and-extremism-center/data-reports/original-reports-hate-and-terrorism-center-staff">Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism</a>, hate crimes against Asians in the U.S. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-increased-339-percent-nationwide-last-year-repo-rcna14282">increased by 339%</a> during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211005598">number of studies</a> reveal that such racism has severe negative impacts on many aspects of psychological and physical well-being for victims of prejudice of all ages.</p>
<p>Illustrated by art students from our university, our multilingual children’s book is called “<a href="https://umlseada.omeka.net/items/show/1241">A Long Long Time Ago in Southeast Asia</a>” and focuses on the Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laotian and Burmese communities. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An image of the cover of a book that includes illustrations of a white elephant and a rabbit among others." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533259/original/file-20230621-10551-gub3gb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The book cover of a collection of Asian folktales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">minjeong kim and Allyssa McCabe</span></span>
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<p>In March 2018, we held a workshop to introduce this book to 25 Lowell public school elementary school teachers. During that session, we learned that teachers needed a broader understanding of the cultural contexts that shape Asian folktales for them to teach them effectively in their classrooms. </p>
<p>To that end, we also produced a scholarly collection of research articles, which we published in 2022, called “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666912883/Perspectives-on-East-and-Southeast-Asian-Folktales">Perspectives on East and Southeast Asian Folktales</a>.”</p>
<h2>Moral lessons</h2>
<p>In our research, we found several functions of folktales to be useful to fight against racism, especially when such tales are read to children regularly. Many Asian countries, such as Korea and Vietnam, use folktales as part of an ethics education that is part of their core curricula.</p>
<p>First, folktales often contain explicit moral lessons on honesty, wisdom, good deeds and perseverance.</p>
<p>For example, “A Big Pot of Gold,” one of the Vietnamese folktales in our book, is about a poor but honest couple who decided not to take a pot of gold they accidentally found. </p>
<p>When a thief overheard the couple, he decided to steal the pot. But instead of gold, he got a pot full of snakes. When the thief returned the pot to the couple, it was again full of gold. </p>
<p>The story ends with community members explaining the moral lesson: If you are a good person, you will have good outcomes. </p>
<p>A second important function of Asian folktales is that they challenge stereotypes against Asians by using Asian protagonists who display culturally valued traits and exemplary behavioral norms. </p>
<p>Stereotypes associated with Asians as being quiet and passive are countered by individuals who act bravely to resolve problems.</p>
<p>A third function of Asian folktales is the use of social justice themes such as helping the poor and the weak. </p>
<p>In “The Big Pot of Gold,” for instance, the honest couple used the gold to help other poor people.</p>
<p>Using multicultural books to teach children about other cultures is not new. </p>
<p>When folktales are taught alongside other multicultural books, a wide spectrum of Asian American experiences gets represented and allows children of all races to read about people of different cultures. </p>
<p>That in itself is effective in reducing racism for future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Minjeong Kim has received funding from Creative Economy Grant of University of Massachusetts to conduct research cited in this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allyssa McCabe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Children’s books that feature Asian protagonists are rare. Two scholars decided to offer their own in their attempt to reduce racial prejudice.
Minjeong Kim, Associate professor, UMass Lowell
Allyssa McCabe, Professor of Psychology, UMass Lowell
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/202274
2023-05-19T10:57:29Z
2023-05-19T10:57:29Z
Beatrix Potter’s famous tales are rooted in stories told by enslaved Africans – but she was very quiet about their origins
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525902/original/file-20230512-19-gzwp6j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C2%2C1979%2C1407&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An illustration by Beatrix Potter from The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/218381001">The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Peter Rabbit, the cute and wily bunny who wears a bright blue jacket, is the best-selling creation of English author Beatrix Potter. Originally published in 1902, the Tale of Peter Rabbit – the first of <a href="https://toppsta.com/books/series/6474/beatrix-potter-originals">23 tales</a> in the series – has since been translated into more than 45 languages and sold over 45 million copies.</p>
<p>Peter’s home is the Lake District in north-west England, among ancient stone walls and picturesque rolling hedgerows that crisscross emerald fields. Heralded as <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/introducing-beatrix-potter#:%7E:text=Beatrix%20Potter%20remains%20one%20of,than%20250%20million%20copies%20worldwide.">Britain’s best-loved children’s author</a>, Potter received much praise for her originality as well as her artistic and literary skills during her lifetime, and these “thoroughly English” tales continue to captivate young readers all over the world. The author was a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11750877/New-20-bank-note-Beatrix-Potter-must-be-Britains-next-woman-of-note.html">frontrunner to appear on the UK’s latest £20 note</a>, but was beaten by the painter J.M.W. Turner.</p>
<p>It is popularly held that Potter conceived of her tales in 1893, <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/peter-rabbit-the-tale-of-the-tale">while writing to the sickly son</a> of her friend and former governess, Annie Moore. In these letters she <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1247436/peter-rabbit-picture-letter-correspondence-beatrix-potter/?gclid=CjwKCAjwx_eiBhBGEiwA15gLN9Lw8L_ohRFJW1DXBdx2BpfSYbLpS7h_z6aLDBjgpktow9Sj33Pm6BoCvRcQAvD_BwE">wrote and illustrated stories</a> featuring her pet rabbit, Peter Piper.</p>
<p>As a scholar of folktales and postcolonial literature, however, I spend a lot of time tracing the roots of stories and examining the impact of colonial legacies on them. While rereading another collection of children’s stories featuring the “trickster hero” Brer Rabbit – for <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781783481101/American-Trickster-Trauma-Tradition-and-Brer-Rabbit">my own book</a> on how these folktales were introduced to North America by enslaved Africans – it became clear to me that the similarities between Beatrix Potter’s tales and the Brer Rabbit stories demand further consideration. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>The tales of Brer Rabbit can be traced back to pre-colonial Africa, from where they were transported to the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Sources_and_Analogues_of_the_Uncle_Remus.html?id=fh_XAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">plantations of America by enslaved people</a>. The stories were first adapted for a white audience in the late 19th century by the American journalist and folklorist <a href="http://www.wrensnest.org/history-of-joel-chandler-harris-chandler-circle/">Joel Chandler Harris</a>.</p>
<p>Harris created a fictional African American narrator for his stories, <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/uncle-remus-tales/">Uncle Remus</a>, whose name became the popular title for his collections. Brer Rabbit is a cunning trickster who lives in a briar (bramble) patch and outwits larger animals using his brains rather than his brawn. </p>
<p>In her 2008 biography of Potter, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Beatrix_Potter/lXG5bFER1FoC?hl=en&gbpv=1">A Life in Nature</a>, <a href="http://www.lindalear.com/beatrix_potter__a_life_in_nature_56797.htm">Linda Lear</a> notes that while the author’s “first audience was British”, her work was strongly influenced by Harris – “whose Brer Rabbit stories she had loved as a child”. Lear also writes that Potter’s tales “were favourably compared to Uncle Remus in early reviews of her work”.</p>
<p>And yet, I was amazed to realise how little comment there has been over the years about the many similarities between Potter’s tales and the Africa-originated Brer Rabbit folktales. Indeed, one of the most striking references, cited in Lear’s biography, is found in a letter that Potter herself wrote to her publisher, Harold Warne, on <a href="http://www.lindalear.com/beatrix_potter__a_life_in_nature_56797.htm">November 18 1911</a>. The letter is about her new Peter Rabbit story The Tale of Mr Tod, and directly refers to her use of the Uncle Remus folktales in this work:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think the story is amusing; its principal defect is its imitation of ‘Uncle Remus’. It is no drawback for children, because they cannot read the Negro vernacular. I hardly think the publishers could object to it? I wrote it some time ago. I have copied it out lately.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We don’t know how Warne responded to this letter. However, having analysed the plotting, language and characters in Potter’s tales, it’s clear that she was more than just inspired by these folktales. Her tales owe a debt to the Brer Rabbit stories told by enslaved Africans working on American <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_complexes_in_the_Southern_United_States">plantations</a> that needs to be fully acknowledged.</p>
<h2>Early encounters with Brer Rabbit</h2>
<p>Potter knew Harris’s Brer Rabbit folktales as a child, having first encountered them in her father Rupert Potter’s library in their grand London home. Copies of the collections <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2306">Songs and Sayings</a> and its sequel <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24430/24430-h/24430-h.htm">Night with Uncle Remus</a> were found at her farmhouse home in Sawrey in the Lake District after she died in 1943. Each bore her father’s bookplate.</p>
<p>These stories had not been published in the UK when Beatrix Potter was a child. It is therefore likely that her early contact with the Brer Rabbit tales (in comparison with the rest of the British public) was a result of her family roots in the cotton industry.</p>
<p>Her grandfather, Edmund Potter (1802–1883), was a Manchester cotton mill owner and industrialist. He became wealthy in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calico">calico</a> printing business, a cotton cloth originating from India.</p>
<p>Under the British East India Company (1600-1874), the cotton industry was an exploitative one. Cotton was grown by “peasant cultivators” in India who were heavily taxed. At the same time, the growth of demand in Britain and the development of British weaving techniques <a href="https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1329&context=tsaconf">destroyed the traditional Indian cotton manufacturing industry</a>.</p>
<p>In Manchester, Edmund Potter introduced precision machinery to his calico printing process. By 1883, his mill employed 350 workers – <a href="http://www.lindalear.com/beatrix_potter__a_life_in_nature_56797.htm">many of them children</a>, according to Lear’s biography – and was the world’s largest calico printing factory. </p>
<p>A great portion of Edmund Potter’s wealth was passed on to Beatrix’s father, Rupert, a lawyer and photographer. He married a wealthy heiress, Helen Leech, whose family had also made a <a href="https://britishphotohistory.ning.com/profiles/blogs/exhibition-the-world-of-rupert-potter-photographs-of-beatrix-mill">fortune in Manchester’s cotton industry</a> by owning several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton-spinning_machinery">cotton-spinning</a> mills. By the early 19th century, the raw cotton used in these mills was sourced from the Americas, including from the <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/fe657536-3f54-4a5b-a75c-1fd5f28181ea">Sea Islands</a> region and Charleston in <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/39e0b77d-9bde-478d-a39f-3277630111b7">South Carolina</a>.</p>
<p>This was the time of Manchester’s emergence as the world’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2023/apr/03/cotton-capital-how-slavery-made-manchester-the-worlds-first-industrial-city">cotton capital</a>”. The city’s economic success was deeply connected to the enslavement of African people. Its industry predominantly involved the production of cloth made from raw cotton that had been picked by enslaved people on plantations in the Caribbean and US. </p>
<p>Many of the dyes such as <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Nineteenth+Century+Calico+Printer.-a0660701065">logwood</a> used in the printing of cotton were also imported from places such as Belize (known then as British Honduras) in the British Caribbean, and would have been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25765830">harvested by enslaved people</a>.</p>
<p>So, was it the Potter family’s connections with the cotton industry, the US, and the slave trade that brought a plantation Brer Rabbit into the Potter household? </p>
<h2>How Potter fell in love with the Uncle Remus stories</h2>
<p>As noted in my book, <a href="https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2021/02/11/that-wascally-wabbit-review-of-american-trickster-trauma-tradition-and-brer-rabbit-by-emily-zobel-marshall/">American Trickster: Trauma, Tradition, and Brer Rabbit</a>, there are only two detailed pieces of research connecting Potter’s tales with Harris’s earlier folktales. </p>
<p>The first is children’s author John Goldthwaite’s 1996 book, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3V30DAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Natural History of Make-Believe</a>. This was used as a key source in the other important contribution, literary critic Peter Hollindale’s (unpublished) lecture Uncle Remus and Peter Rabbit, delivered in 2003 at the Beatrix Potter Society’s annual general meeting. </p>
<p>I found the title of Hollindale’s lecture on the society’s website and wrote to ask if he would share its contents. His wife typed up the lecture from his handwritten notes, and I am grateful for their assistance with my research. </p>
<p>From her earliest creative forays, the influence of Brer Rabbit on Potter was evident in her work. In 1893, when establishing herself as an illustrator for her writing, she did the <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1263147/brer-fox-and-brer-rabbit-drawing-beatrix-potter/">first of eight Uncle Remus drawings</a> – presumably having been inspired by A.B. Frost’s illustrations in Harris’s books. More followed in <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1263169/brer-fox-goes-a-hunting-drawing-beatrix-potter/">1895</a> and <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1263296/brer-rabbit-steals-brer-wolfs-drawing-beatrix-potter/">1896</a>. </p>
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<img alt="An illustration of a rabbit in human clothes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525906/original/file-20230512-20526-qjsrry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An illustration of Brer Rabbit by A.B. Frost, from Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%27er_Rabbit#/media/File:Brer_Rabbit_and_the_Tar_Baby.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Potter illustrated Harris’s tales for fun, it seems, and to stretch her artistic talent. She was not commissioned to do so, and there’s no indication that Harris was aware of her drawings or ever saw them. </p>
<p>There are, however, clear resemblances between Potter’s Uncle Remus illustrations and those in her tales of Peter Rabbit. For example, her illustration of Brer pretending to be Mr Billy Malone in the Remus tale <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1372604/what-kind-of-lookin-man-drawing-beatrix-potter/">In Some Lady’s Garden</a> is very similar to her drawing of Peter and Benjamin in The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, with both rabbits wearing fitted jackets and hats in an English country garden. </p>
<p>There are also similarities in her illustration of the Remus tale <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1263161/brer-rabbit-rescues-the-terrapin-drawing-beatrix-potter/">Brother Rescues Brother Terrapin</a> with those she did of the fox character, Mr Tod, and the interior of his home for The Tale of Mr Tod.</p>
<p>Potter never publicly admitted the source of any inspiration for her drawings, plotlines or protagonists. But in his lecture, Hollindale argued that she “misunderstood her own talent and, to the end of her life, was afraid of being caught out as a cheat”. </p>
<p>Indeed, in a diary entry in 1883, Potter wrote as <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-History-Make-Believe-Principal-Britain/dp/0195038061">if plagiarism were a viral illness</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s a risky thing to copy. Shall I catch it?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The African roots of the Peter Rabbit tales</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095526252;jsessionid=DCE76F7AEFD79AB9D89AA674CB888E15">Brer Rabbit folklore character</a> originated from the hare trickster figure of the Bantu-speaking peoples of south, central and east Africa. We know the origins of the tales through careful comparisons of plot, structure, language and characters in the stories. Brer was brought to the Americas by enslaved people and became a well-known folk figure across the French-speaking Caribbean and US. </p>
<p>In the Francophone Caribbean and American states, in particular Louisiana, the African hare was called <em>Compère Lapin</em> (Brother Rabbit), while in the <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/132155121.pdf">English-speaking US he was known as Brer Rabbit</a>.</p>
<p>This cunning trickster was known for outwitting his often more powerful animal adversaries using brains rather than brawn. The tales came to embody the tactics of resistance that enslaved people implemented to survive the brutality of plantation life. Harris adapted them while living on the Turnwold cotton plantation in the southern US state of Georgia in the late 19th century. He would spend his evenings in the quarters of the enslaved workers, listening to them <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/on-the-plantation/">share these stories</a>.</p>
<p>Harris’s fictional narrator, Uncle Remus, was a formerly enslaved old man who was content with plantation life and for whom everything was “satisfactory”. Remus was based on, and propagated, a <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2015/07/tracking-tricksters-in-washington-dc/">racist, minstrel-style stereotype</a> that was deeply embedded into white American culture and consciousness.</p>
<p>Harris’s versions of the Brer Rabbit tales were sanitised to entertain white readers. The violence and injustice at the heart of both plantation life and the traditional folktales were tempered. Instead, Harris’s stories offered a more benign view of slavery.</p>
<p>Following on from the US’s <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation">emancipation proclamation</a> of 1863, Harris’s portrayal of Uncle Remus, the “happy slave”, fed a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/704960">white American nostalgia</a> for its plantation past as a time when everybody knew their place. In this fantasy, unruly or child-like enslaved people were guided and cared for by benevolent white masters.</p>
<p>In an angry 1981 essay, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23268234">Uncle Remus, No Friend of Mine</a>, the African American author Alice Walker accused Harris of stealing part of her heritage and making her “feel ashamed of it”. Walker described feeling “separated from [her] own culture by an invention”, adding: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Even our folklore has been ridiculed and tampered with. And this is very serious, because folklore is at the heart of self-expression, and therefore at the heart of self-acceptance.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Poaching plantation stories</h2>
<p>One of the key elements that Harris preserved in his retellings of the oral plantation folktales was the African American vernacular. And some of these turns of phrases and ways of speaking found their way directly into Potter’s stories.</p>
<p>Terms like “rabbit tobacco”, “puddle-duck”, “lickety-split” and “cottontail” are not English at all, but have been lifted from the African American vernacular she learned and enjoyed in the Remus tales.</p>
<p>And when <a href="https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/literary-musings/letters-to-children-from-beatrix-potter-a-path-to-her-books/">writing about the success</a>) of her tales, Potter referenced a “mischievous” enslaved character, Topsy, from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s plantation novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have never quite understood the secret of Peter’s perennial charm. Perhaps it is because he and his friends keep on their way, busily absorbed with their own doings. They were always independent. Like Topsy, they just “grow’d”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are also numerous similarities in the plots of Harris’s and Potter’s tales. In Some Lady’s Garden (1883), for example, Brer Rabbit tricks Miss Janey into letting him into her father’s vegetable garden to steal English peas, sparrow grass (asparagus) and goobers’(peanuts) by pretending to be a friend of her father, Mr Man, from the big white (master’s) house. </p>
<p>This plot is the main storyline in most of Potter’s tales and is directly linked to the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Trickster-Trauma-Tradpb-Zobel-Marshall/dp/1783481102">need for enslaved people to steal food from their masters to survive</a>. In the most famous of Potter’s tales, Peter Rabbit repeatedly tries to steal vegetables from Mr McGregor’s garden.</p>
<p>But her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Mr._Tod">Tale of Mr Tod</a> is the one most clearly based on Harris’s narratives. Its plot centres on overcoming neighbourhood bullies, the badger Tommy Brock and the fox Mr Tod. In her biography of Potter, Lear explains that she copied the tale out from Uncle Remus, then changed the setting to the Lake District’s Sawrey countryside.</p>
<p>In his book, Goldthwaite traces the close connections between this tale and Harris’s Brother Rabbit Rescues Brother Terrapin (1883), which features a kidnapping, rescue and fight. Mr Tod follows a very similar narrative arc and, in some sections, exactly the same action plays out – for instance, a fight in the kitchen featuring crashing furniture. </p>
<p>For the average British reader, the vernacular in Harris’s tales would have been challenging to understand, and perhaps Potter’s knack for translation helped her cover her tracks. Take that kitchen fight. Harris’s story reads:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dey year de cheers a-fallin’, en de table turnin’ over, en de crock’ry breakin’, en den de do’ flew’d open, en out come Brer Fox, a-squallin’ lak de Ole Boy wuz atter ‘im.</p>
<p>[They hear the chairs falling, and the tables turning over, and the crockery breaking, and then the door flew open, and out comes Brer Fox, squalling like the Old Boy was after him.]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Compare this with Potter’s tale:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There was a terrific battle all over the kitchen […] Everything was upset except the kitchen table. […] The crockery was smashed to atoms. […] The chairs were broken. […] </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The environment Potter creates in her tales shares similarities to that of a plantation – a dangerous world where the fight for food and survival is paramount. Despite the backdrop of gentle Lake District landscapes and an English cottage garden, her tales are set in a context of merciless repercussions for those who don’t have the wits to avoid capture – including Peter Rabbit’s father, who we discover has been baked in a pie. </p>
<p>In a 2006 article entitled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/dec/07/booksforchildrenandteenagers">The Ugly Truth of Peter Rabbit</a>, journalist Stuart Jeffries asked: “Should we be celebrating this creator of a dark, sadistic, bloodthirsty world?” He argued that Potter’s stories are a bad influence on children, but did not mention that the stories are drawn straight out of an American slave plantation environment.</p>
<h2>‘Pretence of absolute originality’</h2>
<p>Potter’s use of the Brer Rabbit stories as the basis of her tales is not the main issue here. This is the traditional way that folktales travel across cultures and geographies. As Goldthwaite puts it, Harris’s series was the “base camp” from which Potter could work.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="An illustration of a fox in human clothing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=726&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525912/original/file-20230512-17-ymzyoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Potter’s illustration of the fox Mr Tod.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Mr._Tod#/media/File:The_tale_of_mr_tod.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the steps Potter took to steer readers away from her sources are problematic. She appears to have been keen to claim the stories as her own, while ensuring that readers didn’t make the connection between Peter Rabbit and the stories narrated by Uncle Remus. Potter used the introductions to some of her tales to emphasise her authorship, using phrases such as “I remember” and “I can tell you” as if taking the place of Harris’s fictional narrator. </p>
<p>In the introduction to The Tale of Mr Tod, the darker sequel to The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Potter writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a change, I’m going to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr Tod.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In his book, Goldthwaite writes of Potter’s “deception”, suggesting that those of Potter’s tales that were the most heavily indebted to Harris’s stories open with “pretence of absolute originality”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once satisfied that her translation from Uncle Remus has “grow’d” sufficiently, Potter stamps it officially as hers in the first person singular … What these introductions imply is that fresh work is being undertaken here, and that is the deception. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Goldthwaite adds that Potter’s “fear of being exposed as copyist would lead to a lifelong silence about Uncle Remus”. </p>
<p>It seems that the only references Potter herself made to her stories being drawn from Harris’s Brer Rabbit tales were in that single journal entry and letter. In his lecture to the Beatrix Potter Society, Hollindale commented on the oddity of this omission:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Strange, isn’t it, when you think that Black Rabbit, as in Mr Tod, is a glance at Brer Rabbit, and Cottontail is an Uncle Remus name, and an animal running “lippity lippity” first does so in Uncle Remus, and rabbit tobacco […] comes from there, not to mention some important elements of plotting? But [Potter] didn’t say much [about this]. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, however, she did embed little clues regarding her Uncle Remus sources, making reference to “a fox coming up the plantation” in The Tale of Mr Tod, for example. In Goldthwaite’s view, these hints could be interpreted as a “careless shoplifter who secretly wants to get caught”. </p>
<p>I suspect Potter struggled to steer her work away from Harris’s tales. They absorbed her, they were central to her work in every way, and she enjoyed them. Rather than “clues”, these may be slippages – moments when Potter forgot to recast the story in her Lake District setting and slipped back into the world of Brer Rabbit. </p>
<p>At the same time, Potter expressed some strong ideas about other copycats – once accusing the children’s writer and illustrator <a href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1315781/illustrated-letter-to-nancy-nicholson-illustrated-letter-beatrix-potter/">Ernest Aris of plagiarism </a>. At first she was, according to Lear’s biography, “strangely” defensive of Aris and his portrayal of a rabbit who happened to be named Peter. But later, Potter had a change of heart and wrote to him claiming his work had “no originality” and that “coincidence has a long arm, but there are limits to coincidences”. </p>
<p>This seems an ironic statement in light of Potter’s own silence around Brer Rabbit and the Uncle Remus tales.</p>
<h2>Another famous Brer Rabbit fan</h2>
<p>By their nature, stories constantly change to suit the needs of their audiences, and this is particularly the case with oral storytelling. Prior to Harris’s adaptations, the Brer Rabbit tales had already been remoulded to an American plantation environment by enslaved people from Africa. As such, there are no “authentic” versions of these folktales, which will continue to be told and adapted to new environments, moulded by the needs of the people that tell the tales.</p>
<p>Another British children’s author, Enid Blyton, also wrote <a href="https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=383&title=Heyo%2C+Brer+Rabbit%21">versions of the Brer Rabbit stories</a>, many of which were first published in magazines from the late 1930s onwards. Like Potter, Blyton understood the attractiveness of these folklore-based tales to British children – their delight in scams and tricking grown ups. However, Blyton acknowledged her sources. </p>
<p>Blyton began creating her Brer Rabbit stories in 1934 when she lived in Buckinghamshire. A big fan of Harris’s versions, she adapted them to a middle-class English country setting, further tempering the violence and adding some new characters, including her own beloved dogs and even unicorns. In all, Blyton wrote 338 Brer Rabbit tales as well as a play in 1939 and a cartoon strip. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Book cover featuring rabbits in clothing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526602/original/file-20230516-33484-sbmw2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Egmont Books Ltd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the introduction to her collection <a href="https://stellabooks.com/books/enid-blyton/heyo-brer-rabbit-610911/1507449">Heyo, Brer Rabbit: Tales of Brer Rabbit and His Friends Retold From the Original</a> (1938), Blyton describes the spread of the trickster rabbit figure around the world under different names, but insists the most delightful is his incarnation as Brer Rabbit – folktales she attributes to “the American Negro’s Friend and Brother Creature”. </p>
<p>Blyton explains that Harris’s stories were told in “difficult negro vernacular”, so she set about the “delightful” task of retelling the stories in her own way while retaining the “raciness” of the original stories, claiming that “Brer Rabbit has always been my favourite character”. </p>
<p>Like Potter, Blyton includes many phrases from Harris’s African American vernacular in her stories, such as “bless gracious”, “lay low”, “lippity, clippity” and “a-going”. Blyton’s collection <a href="https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=1884">The Wonder Book for Children</a> (1948) includes three stories entitled Brer Rabbit Tales by Enid Blyton After J.C. Harris. They are illustrated by the artist behind Harris’s later editions, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Rountree">Harry Rountree</a>, with Brer Rabbit smoking a pipe or cigar.</p>
<h2>Ending the silence and changing the narrative</h2>
<p>Both Potter and Blyton, constrained by patriarchal power and middle-class social etiquette, may have revelled in fantasies of breaking through the social boundaries and rules that constrained most women to roles as wives and mothers during their lifetimes. Perhaps they found a sense of freedom in the Brer Rabbit stories and the trickster’s anarchic antics. </p>
<p>Goldthwaite argues that Potter was drawn to these folktales as they enabled her to resist and subvert her “domestic plight” as a young woman living with her father and having to adhere to strict Victorian patriarchal codes of conduct. In Brer Rabbit, he suggests that Potter found what she loved: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The sheer joy of wiliness, the world of the trickster and subversive mischief-maker.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Literary critics have argued that Potter’s tales are anti-imperialist or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/10/beatrix-potter-tales-britain-capitalism">anti-capitalist</a>, highlighting the problems of private property and the struggles of the dispossessed. It has also been said that Potter created a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.1976.9975447?journalCode=cjms19">sexist world</a> in which only men have adventures and can misbehave.</p>
<p>But above all, Peter Rabbit and the rest of Potter’s tales are viewed as quintessentially English stories about characters conjured from Potter’s brilliant mind and inspired by her life in rural England. Yet her tales are, at heart, folktales that originated in Africa before being adapted to expose and reflect the violence, resistance and survival tactics of the plantation life of enslaved people in the Americas.</p>
<p>While Potter, according to the letter and diary entry mentioned earlier, was, at least initially, anxious about imitating Harris, both Hollindale and Goldthwaite ultimately concluded that she felt needlessly guilty about her “borrowing” and “deception” tactics, obvious as they felt these were. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white photo of a woman sitting with a dog outside a house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525896/original/file-20230512-8698-46kdhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beatrix Potter is remembered as one of Britain’s most beloved children’s writers and also for being a fervent conservationist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O176536/beatrix-potter-1866-1943-with-photograph-potter-rupert-1832/?carousel-image=2016JC9406">Victoria and Albert Museum, London</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both academics are clearly great admirers of Potter, who is considered a national treasure – not only for her tales but for her <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/people/beatrix-potter">conservation work</a> and the bequeathing of her extensive land and property <a href="https://beatrixpottersociety.org.uk/beatrix-potter/the-preservationist/">to the National Trust</a>. She has very few critics.</p>
<p>However, in my view, Hollindale and Goldthwaite miss the point in their conclusions. Potter’s actions in shielding the reading public from her sources have fed into a damaging and reoccurring appropriation of black cultural forms that continues today.</p>
<p>The Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit brands are highly lucrative. Yet I have found no references to the black American sources of these tales in any of the Beatrix Potter museums and experiences in the UK and US, which attract hundreds of thousands of visitors yearly. There is similarly no mention of these sources in any of the films of her tales, nor in the 2006 Hollywood biopic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Potter">Miss Potter</a>.</p>
<p>While Harris moved the stories out of the reach of many African Americans and created a damaging minstrel stereotype in Uncle Remus, he did at least credit enslaved black Americans as the storytellers – while describing himself as a “<a href="https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlgb_gb0412">humble compiler and transcriber</a>”). </p>
<p>In contrast, through Potter’s silence concerning her sources, the African American tales that helped create her stories are passed over without acknowledgement or celebration. Brer Rabbit must be firmly reasserted into our understanding and appreciation of Beatrix Potter’s tales. For far too long, they have been stealing from his briar patch.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Zobel Marshall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Beatrix Potter’s silence concerning her sources means the Brer Rabbit folktales that helped create her stories are passed over without acknowledgement or celebration.
Emily Zobel Marshall, Reader in Postcolonial Literature, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205945
2023-05-19T04:09:49Z
2023-05-19T04:09:49Z
Penguin Random House, PEN America, authors and parents sue Florida county for removing books on race and LGBTQ themes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527152/original/file-20230519-25-ufh7u8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3948%2C2626&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A banned books display in a US bookshop</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ted Shaffrey/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new <a href="https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/1-Complaint.pdf">lawsuit</a> against a Florida school board marks a “first-of-its-kind challenge to <a href="https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-files-lawsuit-against-florida-school-district-over-unconstitutional-book-bans/">unlawful censorship</a>”. </p>
<p>On May 17, the world’s largest English-language publisher, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/">Penguin Random House</a>, free-speech organisation <a href="https://pen.org/">PEN America</a>, five authors (including bestselling queer YA author <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/two-boys-kissing">David Levithan</a>) and two parents joined forces. </p>
<p>Their lawsuit claims Florida’s Escambia County School Board has “<a href="https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-files-lawsuit-against-florida-school-district-over-unconstitutional-book-bans/">unlawfully</a>” removed or restricted books about “race, racism and LGBTQ identities”, and those by non-white and/or LGBTQ authors. </p>
<p>“The School District and the School Board have done so based on their disagreement with the ideas expressed in those books,” reads the lawsuit.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527157/original/file-20230519-23-hgzees.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">David Levithan’s Two Boys Kissing is one of the impacted books.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It argues the book removals (and/or restricted access to books), against the recommendations of the district review committee charged with evaluating book challenges, violate the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-constitution/#:%7E:text=The%20First%20Amendment%20provides%20that,for%20a%20redress%20of%20grievances.">First Amendment</a>, which protects freedom of speech. It also argues school officials violated the Equal Protection clause of the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/11/politics/14th-amendment-explainer/index.html">14th amendment</a>.</p>
<p>Nearly 200 books have been targeted in the district in the past year, according to <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hv6Wtu55zY3t5bmbksY2ie7Q-L3zAQdjrtaFh4duLC4/edit#gid=0">publicly available information</a>. CNN <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/17/us/florida-escambia-county-school-district-book-bans-lawsuit/index.html">reports</a> that more than half of those titles have been placed under restricted access and require parental permission during the review process, and 16 books have been either removed from all libraries or made only available for certain grades.</p>
<p>The lawsuit asks for books to be returned to school library shelves, “where they belong”.</p>
<p>PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel says the book removals are “a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guess-what-mem-foxs-childrens-book-was-banned-in-florida-over-nudity-but-bathing-is-not-a-sexual-act-205657">Guess What? Mem Fox’s children's book was banned in Florida over 'nudity' – but bathing is not a sexual act</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A history of underrepresentation</h2>
<p>Children’s books about people of colour have historically been disproportionately underrepresented across Western countries, including the UK and Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527155/original/file-20230519-27-24y32n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A <a href="https://clpe.org.uk/research/clpe-reflecting-realities-survey-ethnic-representation-within-uk-childrens-literature-0">UK survey</a> found that only ten percent of children’s books feature Black, Asian or minority ethnic characters, and just five percent have such a protagonist. This percentage shows a clear underrepresentation of children from minority ethnic backgrounds, who account for <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics">34.5 percent</a> of UK school children. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-books-must-be-diverse-or-kids-will-grow-up-believing-white-is-superior-140736">Australian research</a> from 2020 shows “First Nations groups are commonly absent from children’s books.” As stated by researchers at Edith Cowan University:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A world of children’s books dominated by white authors, white images and white male heroes, creates a sense of white superiority. This is harmful to the worldviews and identities of all children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This speaks to the idea of “windows and mirrors”, a term first coined by <a href="https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf">Dr Rudine Sims Bishop</a> in 1990, in reference to the lack of people of colour in children’s literature. Bishop argues children need both windows (the ability to see others) and mirrors (the ability to see themselves) in their books. She writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read […] they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-books-must-be-diverse-or-kids-will-grow-up-believing-white-is-superior-140736">Children's books must be diverse, or kids will grow up believing white is superior</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Censoring LGBTQ themes</h2>
<p>Books by LGBTQ authors or covering LGBTQ themes have a long history of censorship. One of the first picture books to show same-sex parents, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/249466/heather-has-two-mommies-by-leslea-newman/">Heather Has Two Mommies</a>, has faced many challenges since its original publication in 1989. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/24/living/feat-heather-has-two-mommies-leslea-newman/index.html">These include</a> protests, 42 attempts to remove the book from American schools and libraries, and even book burnings. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527158/original/file-20230519-22-939te3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, the picture book <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/And-Tango-Makes-Three/Justin-Richardson/9781481446952">And Tango Makes Three</a>, which tells the true story of two male penguins who raise a chick together at Central Park Zoo, has met similar challenges. The book featured on the American Library Association’s <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10/archive">Top Ten Most Challenged Book List</a> eight times from 2006 to 2017 for depicting same-sex parents, and is “one of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/23/from-pornography-to-winnie-the-pooh-juno-dawson-picks-books-that-were-banned">most challenged books</a> of all time”. </p>
<p>In Australia, the 2015 picture book <a href="https://captainhoney.com.au/portfolio_page/mummy-and-mumma-get-married/">Mummy and Mumma Get Married</a> was questioned over its “<a href="https://neoskosmos.com/en/2016/05/25/features/reactions-to-australias-first-childrens-picture-book-about-same-sex-marriage/">appropriateness</a>” for school libraries. Although seen by some as controversial, the book was largely positively received. However, some Catholic schools <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/17/this-is-australias-first-picture-book-about-same-sex-parenting-why-did-it-take-so-long">refused donations</a> of the book to their school libraries.</p>
<p>Queer Australian YA author Will Kostakis’s latest novel, <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Will-Kostakis-We-Could-Be-Something-9781761180170/">We Could Be Something</a>, is a “part coming-out story”. He <a href="https://twitter.com/willkostakis/status/1659334042469408769">recently shared</a> that when visiting religious schools as an author, he’s sometimes cautioned not to talk about his work if staff haven’t read (and presumably vetted) it first. He believes there’s a link to the current US culture wars.</p>
<p>“We can feel smug about the fact we don’t have politicised school books in Australia, but this move to ‘protect’ kids from queerness is bleeding into Australia,” he told me.</p>
<p>“We see it in the threats and intimidation that has seen drag storytime events be cancelled. We see it in schools, where teacher librarians who build collections that feature books that speak to current teen experiences, some of them queer, fear that one parent who might complain about content.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527153/original/file-20230519-21-vpo3sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian queer YA author Will Kostakis says this move to ‘protect’ kids from queerness is ‘bleeding into Australia’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recurring theme in response to Mummy and Mumma, as well as other LGBTQ books, is the idea children needed to be “taught” about same-sex parented families at a specific, appropriate age. </p>
<p>Conversely, heteronormative relationships are not seen as something that needs teaching, or left for discussion until a child is “old enough to understand”. Rather, as the default “norm”, heteronormativity is something children are exposed to from birth <a href="https://textjournal.scholasticahq.com/article/23707-out-of-sight-the-censoring-of-family-diversity-in-picture-books">without explanation</a>. </p>
<p>This “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/42880288/Resisting_Gentle_Bias_A_Critical_Content_Analysis_of_Family_Diversity_in_Picturebooks">heterosexism</a>” can prevent children with heterosexual parents from acknowledging – or understanding – that same sex parented families are “real” families.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-books-for-kids-and-teens-that-positively-portray-trans-and-gender-diverse-lives-202832">5 books for kids and teens that positively portray trans and gender-diverse lives</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Left and right argue against ‘indoctrination’</h2>
<p>According to research by PEN America, there has been a significant rise in educational gag orders and book bans in America in the past two years. <a href="https://pen.org/report/americas-censored-classrooms/">Gag orders</a> refer to state legislature restrictions on topics like “race, gender, American history and LGBTQ identities” being taught in schools. </p>
<p>Such restrictions have become law in 16 states, though 306 gag order bills have (so far) been introduced across 45 states. Meanwhile, 32 states (5,049 schools) currently have some form of book banning in place in school libraries. PEN America argues such censorship “imposes ideological control over the freedom to read, learn, and think”.</p>
<p>Conversely, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis claims reports of book banning in Florida are a “<a href="https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/#:%7E:text=%E2%80%94%20Today%2C%20Governor%20Ron%20DeSantis%20further,History%2C%20including%20topics%20like%20slavery">leftist hoax</a>”. He argues the “mainstream media, unions and leftist activists” are trying to indoctrinate students, and that books with “pornographic content and other types of violent and age-inappropriate content” have been identified in 23 school districts across Florida. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527161/original/file-20230519-23-e904y9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ron De Santis has complained of book bannings as a ‘leftist hoax’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Douglas R Clifford/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response to book banning allegations, he claims “harmful materials” are being removed from Florida schools to ensure students are provided with “a quality education free from sexualization”. </p>
<p>This is echoed by Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/">who said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Education is about the pursuit of truth, not woke indoctrination […] Under Governor DeSantis, Florida is committed to rigorous academic content and high standards so that students learn how to think and receive the tools necessary to go forth and make great decisions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This directly contradicts the argument made by the lawsuit against Escambia County, which states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ensuring that students have access to books on a wide range of topics and expressing a diversity of viewpoints supports a core function of public education, preparing students to be thoughtful and engaged citizens.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It appears both sides are fighting against indoctrination – but fundamentally disagree on what it is.</p>
<h2>What the research tells us</h2>
<p>Representation is vital in children’s literature. Restricting diverse voices and stories is an issue with far-reaching consequences. Research shows that a child’s ability to “see themselves” in books has a wealth of educational and emotional benefits. </p>
<p>It helps <a href="https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1929&context=reading_horizons">connect them</a> to the world, validates their <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1437629608?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">personal experiences</a>, forges positive <a href="https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&context=education_ETD_masters">social connections</a> – and even helps them do better in <a href="https://fisherpub.sjf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1315&context=education_ETD_masters">school</a>. </p>
<p>As the World of Difference Institute <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1437629608?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">explains</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Books are mirrors in which children can see themselves. When they are represented in the literature we read, they can see themselves as valuable and worthy of notice.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205945/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Mokrzycki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Differences over what counts as indoctrination lie behind a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in Florida. PEN America’s CEO deems book removals ‘a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices’.
Sarah Mokrzycki, Lecturer, children's literature and creative writing, Victoria University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205657
2023-05-16T03:32:19Z
2023-05-16T03:32:19Z
Guess What? Mem Fox’s children’s book was banned in Florida over ‘nudity’ – but bathing is not a sexual act
<p><em>EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this article was published, officials in Duval County, Florida, have <a href="https://amp.abc.net.au/article/102355360">denied</a> the book was formally banned. The book does not appear among the 21 books listed as “not approved” on the <a href="https://dcps.duvalschools.org/Page/33197">Duval County Public Schools website</a>. However, it does feature on a list of books reported as having been removed from school libraries, on the grounds that it contravened a <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2022/847.012">state law</a> banning the distribution to children of material that “depicts nudity or sexual conduct”. The list, of which The Conversation has obtained a copy, was the result of a Florida Department of Education survey of school districts, as part of the state’s mandated review of school books. The Conversation acknowledges the work of the <a href="https://www.fftrp.org/">Florida Freedom to Read Project</a> in investigating this issue.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Australian author Mem Fox’s 1988 picture book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1155071.Guess_What_?">Guess What?</a>, illustrated by Vivienne Goodman, has been banned in Duval County, Florida over allegations of “pornography”. Why? Because one illustration depicts the main character, “old witch” Daisy O'Grady, taking a bath.</p>
<p>The picture book, which invites children to guess Daisy’s witchy identity through a series of clues, joins a plethora of titles – mostly with LGBTQIA+ or culturally diverse themes – that have been removed from school libraries in the state. </p>
<p>Fox is one of Australia’s most beloved authors: her first book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/977817.Possum_Magic">Possum Magic</a>, is one of Australia’s bestselling ever children’s books, with sales of over four million (and counting). Her agent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/15/mem-fox-book-guess-what-banned-in-florida-county-under-ron-desantis-bill">told the Guardian</a>, “We have nothing to say on this issue. Duval County is a county of 997,000 people in Florida. It is not important.”</p>
<p>The banning comes on the heels of new legislation, enacted in 2022, that has seen many Florida schools strip their library shelves and cover up books in classroom libraries for fear of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries">breaching the law</a> – and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/florida-schools-directed-cover-remove-classroom-books-vetted/story?id=96884323">risking a prison sentence</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526380/original/file-20230516-23-mz8xy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ron De Santis has presided over new Florida legislation that seen many Florida schools strip their library shelves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under <a href="http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0847/Sections/0847.012.html">Section 847.012</a> of the Florida statutes, materials prohibited in schools include: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any picture […] or visual representation of a person or a portion of a human body which depicts nudity or sexual conduct, sexual excitement, sexual battery, bestiality, or sadomasochistic abuse and which is harmful to minors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Failure to comply is a third-degree felony, which can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.</p>
<p>The full criteria can be found in the department’s <a href="https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20562/urlt/8-6.pdf">online training slideshow</a> but, simply put, all books must be age appropriate and “free of pornography”. However, what constitutes both “appropriate” and “pornography” – and how this is decided – remains unclear. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teacher-sacked-for-reading-bum-book-to-students-the-latest-conservative-book-ban-179301">Teacher sacked for reading bum book to students: the latest conservative book ban</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bodies are not ‘inherently sexual’</h2>
<p>So how exactly does Guess What? fit these parameters? </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526372/original/file-20230516-25-bribzy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1004&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daisy O'Grady in the bath, as depicted in Guess What?.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scholastic Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In one illustration, Daisy sits across a double bowl sink (that she is comically too big to fit in) wearing a scuba mask. The bowls are filled with water, and she sits sideways in one with her feet splashing in the other. She is nude, but not exposed. Limbs cover her breasts and genitalia. The room is busy and pleasantly chaotic: soap on the floor, a frog on a towel, fish pegged to the clothesline that hangs over the sink. </p>
<p>It’s far from a sexual image. Unless you’re into that sort of thing. In which case, we are no longer talking about the “prevailing standards in the adult community”, but rather a personal sexual preference or “kink” (a word I never thought I would write in relation to a Mem Fox picture book). </p>
<p>What the issue comes down to is a blatant conflation between nudity and sexuality. The statute’s wording is highly problematic: nudity in and of itself is not a sexual act. Bathing is not a sexual act. It’s basic hygiene. By banning books with any form of nudity in a bid to rid school libraries of “<a href="https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/">pornographic content</a>”, the statute situates all nudity as a form of pornography. </p>
<p>The irony, of course, is that by trying to shelter children from sex – and from material that “sexualises students” – the law itself is sexualising children’s bodies. By implying that nudity in a non-sexual context is “pornographic”, the Florida government and Department of Education is teaching children that their bodies are inherently sexual. </p>
<h2>Australian attempted book bans haven’t worked</h2>
<p>In some ways, this ban could be considered as an example of differing social standards between Australia and the United States. Earlier this year, Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/is/book/show/42837514-gender-queer">Gender Queer</a> was pulled from a Queensland library after complaints by a <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/maia-kobabe-gender-queer-book-classified-as-m-mature-not-recommended-for-readers-under-15-years/0c95bfdd-7bab-4763-bdfc-5e503227da36">conservative activist</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526384/original/file-20230516-27-qrxl1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1081&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In the US, Gender Queer was 2021’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/01/books/maia-kobabe-gender-queer-book-ban.html">most banned book in the country</a>” and topped the American Library Association’s “<a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10">Most Challenged</a>” list in 2022 for “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/essentials/banned-books-the-10-most-commonly-challenged-books-in-the-u-s-and-where-to-buy-them/">sexually explicit</a>” content.
However, after <a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/media-and-news/media-releases/media-release-classification-publication-gender-queer-memoir">review</a> here by the Australian Classification Board, the book was given an “unrestricted classification” and consumer advice that it is “not recommended for readers under 15 years”. </p>
<p>Australian Classification Board director Fiona Jolly said of Gender Queer: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The treatment of sex and nudity is […] not high in impact and is not exploitative, offensive, gratuitous or very detailed. Given the [book’s] literary, artistic and educational merits, the Board does not consider that the publication contains material that offends a reasonable adult to the extent that it should be restricted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Australian legislation <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-23/dangerous-and-deeply-disgusting-books-once-banned/11421108">still allows</a> books to be banned – and it does occur – book banning is much rarer here, and more likely to be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-23/dangerous-and-deeply-disgusting-books-once-banned/11421108">focused on</a> topics like euthanasia and terrorism.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-the-word-period-is-now-politicised-that-makes-judy-blumes-classic-ode-to-puberty-especially-relevant-202640">Even the word 'period' is now politicised. That makes Judy Blume's classic ode to puberty especially relevant</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Book banning as a presidential tactic</h2>
<p>The surge of book banning in Florida appears to be political. As <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries">The New Yorker</a> has noted, the Florida law changes – and subsequent mass book removals in schools – have come in the wake of Florida governor <a href="https://theconversation.com/florida-gov-desantis-leads-the-gops-national-charge-against-public-education-that-includes-lessons-on-race-and-sexual-orientation-196369">Ron DeSantis</a>’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/ron-desantis-set-jump-2024-presidential-fray-may-rcna81666">bid</a> for the US presidency. </p>
<p>DeSantis, a highly <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2023/03/08/governor-ron-desantis-debunks-book-ban-hoax/">conservative</a> politician, is campaigning against “pornographic and inappropriate materials that have been snuck into [Florida] classrooms and libraries to <a href="https://theconversation.com/worried-about-the-sexualisation-of-children-teach-sex-ed-earlier-10311">sexualize</a> our students”. This crusade has given him considerable media coverage, as well as leverage among conservative voters.</p>
<p>The banning of Guess What? is part of a wider issue that affects the entire state of Florida. In order to comply with government requirements spearheaded by DeSantis, the Florida Department of Education has put together strict, somewhat “<a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/theres-confusion-over-book-bans-in-florida-schools-heres-why/2023/03">confusing</a>” criteria for book selection that all schools must follow. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ss3pVTRwEqI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This official video by Duval County, Florida, is a guide to ensuring books are ‘age-appropriate’ and ‘free of pornography’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prison for violating book removal law</h2>
<p>Of course, Guess What? – and countless other banned books – do not actually fit the requirements for removal, but they are removed regardless. This is because the law is <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/theres-confusion-over-book-bans-in-florida-schools-heres-why/2023/03">vague</a> and the penalty for violating it – a potential prison sentence – is severe. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526385/original/file-20230516-23-xndwxx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The Department of Education in Florid has instructed schools to “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/why-some-florida-schools-are-removing-books-from-their-libraries">err on the side of caution</a>” when choosing and allowing books. </p>
<p>Understandably, the ambiguity over what is and isn’t okay has led to mass book removals across Florida schools. </p>
<p>The restrictions in Florida are part of a “<a href="https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/">deeply undemocratic</a>” book ban movement sweeping the US. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/">2022 study</a> by PEN America, 32 states in the US have book bans in place in school libraries. This has culminated (so far) in 1,648 titles being removed across 5,049 schools, limiting access to books for nearly four million students.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Australia’s reading culture is very different, as the unsuccessful attempt to ban Gender Queer demonstrates.</p>
<p>But Guess What? is just one drop in an ocean of book censorship in America: one that’s seeing more and more schools, districts and states in the US removing and banning books. This is not an isolated problem, but one that is growing exponentially. </p>
<p>Which books will be next?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205657/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Mokrzycki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Book bans in Ron DeSantis’s Florida have censored beloved Australian author Mem Fox – for an illustrated character’s bath. But blanket nudity bans teach children bodies are ‘inherently sexual’.
Sarah Mokrzycki, Lecturer, Victoria University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204287
2023-05-07T08:30:01Z
2023-05-07T08:30:01Z
Children’s book revolution: how East African women took on colonialism after independence
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524145/original/file-20230503-27-t4c7oy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail from the cover of the children's book Kayo's House by Ugandan author Barbara Kimenye.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Macmillan/Mactracks Series</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As independence from British colonial rule swept across East Africa in the early 1960s and freedom was won in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/uganda-gains-independence">Uganda</a>, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/kenya-granted-independence">Kenya</a> and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/tanzania-gains-independence">Tanzania</a>, parents and teachers worried about what their children were reading.</p>
<p>Most children’s books on the market were dominated by European writers like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Enid-Blyton">Enid Blyton</a>. One of Kenyan writer <a href="https://ngugiwathiongo.com/about/">Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo’s</a> most stringent criticisms of colonialism was the explosive effect of this “cultural bomb” in the classroom, as missionaries taught African students western cultures and foreign histories. This, according to Kenyan publisher Henry Chakava, <a href="https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/publishing-in-africa">was producing</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>a new breed of black Europeans, who began to despise their own skin and background. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Publishers and African writers were quick to realise the gap in the market for literature that was suitable for a new generation growing up in independence. From the mid-1960s onwards, publishing houses began a concerted effort to produce such literature. What’s particularly noteworthy is that most of these authors of children’s books in this period were women. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-an-african-childrens-book-that-explains-the-science-of-skin-colour-164324">The story of an African children's book that explains the science of skin colour</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As an historian of East Africa, these women writers and their children’s books formed part of my <a href="https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/31493/1/Adima_205057140_CorrectedThesisClean.pdf#page=107">doctoral research</a>. Not only have they been largely ignored by history, but their voices matter because through them we receive a unique insight into this period of East African history.</p>
<h2>The women writers of independence</h2>
<p>In the 1960s, ideas of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/decolonization">decolonisation</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Afrocentrism">Afrocentrism</a> dominated East African culture and academia. The <a href="https://www.vestiges-journal.info/Abbia/Abbia_1_1963/Abbiav1n7.pdf">1962 African Writers Conference</a> was convened at Uganda’s Makerere College (today Makerere University). The University of Nairobi’s English Department was dissolved in a 1968 <a href="https://literature.uonbi.ac.ke/basic-page/our-history">revolution</a> led by East African writers and thinkers. It was replaced by a department of literature, and a department of linguistics and African languages. But such discourse happened mainly inside elite intellectual spaces and small circles. </p>
<p>We mainly know of male voices in East African literature from this period – the likes of Ngūgī, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Okot-pBitek">Okot p'Bitek</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Taban-lo-Liyong">Taban lo Liyong</a>. As men, they had more educational and professional opportunities, and better access to publishing networks. Women writers were seldom published and often dismissed or even ridiculed.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A children's book cover with an illustration showing a classroom of school pupils in uniform, alarmed and recoiling at the sight of a green snake emerging from the shirt of a boy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524419/original/file-20230504-27-szm0nf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxford University Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They found a gap in children’s literature. Women writers took it upon themselves to educate children about independence and the meaning of decolonisation. They did this outside of the academy’s ivory tower, with popular work that trickled down to all levels of society.</p>
<p>These authors included <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/18/barbara-kimenye">Barbara Kimenye</a>, <a href="https://www.asenathboleodaga.com/her-story">Asenath Bole Odaga</a>, <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/life-and-style/lifestyle/the-making-of-prof-miriam-were-africa-s-2022-nobel-peace-prize-nominee-3777092">Miriam Khamadi Were</a>, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/kola-pamela">Pamela Kola</a>, <a href="https://peoplepill.com/people/anne-matindi">Anne Matindi</a>, <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/zirimu-elvania-namukwaya-1938-1979">Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/31/marjorie-oludhe-macgoye">Marjorie Macgoye</a>. </p>
<p>They wrote for children of all ages, creating fiction, folk tales, and works used in school textbooks. With their words, the women imparted lessons they believed were important for the post-independence generation to learn in order to undo colonialism’s “cultural bomb”. These were works of transformative potential that foregrounded African settings and lessons.</p>
<h2>The Moses series</h2>
<p>Some of the best known African children’s books of the 1960s and 1970s included the Moses series by Ugandan author <a href="https://globaleastafrica.org/global-lives/barbara-kimenye-1929-2012">Barbara Kimenye</a>, one of East Africa’s most celebrated children’s book writers. The series follows the adventures and misdemeanours of Moses and his friends at the ficitional Ugandan boarding school, Mukibi’s Educational Institute for the Sons of African Gentlemen. The Moses series was published between 1968 and 1987 by Oxford University Press.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Moses_in_Trouble.html?id=GUYQAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Moses in Trouble</a>, the fifth in the series, centres on an upheaval at Mukibi’s due to poor school meals. Moses and his friend King Kong “sneak off to the village duka (shop) to buy a packet of biscuits” and are later forced to go to nearby farms to steal food. Eventually, Moses is hospitalised with malnutrition. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A children's book cover with an illustration of a boy falling to the ground as he's hit by a coconut from a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524423/original/file-20230504-17-53qf0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oxford University Press</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the seriousness of the topic, the narrative is humorous, and the Moses series remained popular for decades. The book contains subtle criticism of post-colonial political oppression. Mukibi’s can be seen as a replication of the (post) colonial state: it restricts the boys’ movements and demands complete obedience to authority, but fails to provide basic necessities. </p>
<p>With Moses in Trouble, Kimenye encourages even young readers to remain critical of authority, especially in a time when then-president <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Milton-Obote">Milton Obote</a>’s rule in Uganda was becoming increasingly authoritarian. </p>
<h2>Folk tales</h2>
<p>African folk tales were another popular literary genre for children. African publishers encouraged that these be written and distributed across East Africa. One example is the collection <a href="https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/east-african-why-stories">East African Why Stories</a> by Kenyan author Kola. It was published by East African Publishing House in 1966. </p>
<p>The stories recount the origins of the habits and characteristics of animals native to Kenya, with titles such as Why the Hippo Has No Hair or Why Baby Chickens Follow Their Mothers. As an educator, Kola understood the need for African stories to be read by African children. She wrote down the stories as they were told to her by her grandmother in the local Luo language before translating them into English. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A children's book cover with an illustration of a buck leaping up at a bat in an African hut." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524422/original/file-20230504-25-oq48q3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">East African Publishing House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The oral origins of the stories are reflected in the entertaining, conversational style in which they are written. Reading traditional folk stories was a way for African children to remain in touch with their heritage, which the colonial education system effectively eradicated.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>The works of male authors continue to be celebrated today for their contributions to the East African literary canon. Fewer remember the role children’s book authors played in the Africanisation of written literature in the 1960s and 1970s – probably because most of them were <a href="https://africainwords.com/2020/08/18/where-were-the-women-east-african-writing-and-the-1962-makerere-conference/">women</a>.</p>
<p>Looking beyond the texts discussed here, the women critiqued colonialism and neocolonialism, inequality, oppression, patriarchy and state authoritarianism, often representing marginalised communities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-should-know-about-ngugi-wa-thiongo-one-of-africas-greatest-living-writers-67009">Five things you should know about Ngugi wa Thiong'o, one of Africa's greatest living writers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In writing for young readers, these writers imparted their hopes for independence to them. Their texts reached all echelons of society, exposing children to ideas that allowed them to understand their changing world while serving as an antidote to Eurocentric education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Adima received funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p>
At independence, adults were reading decolonial classics - but children were reading Enid Blyton. A generation of unsung women writers changed that.
Anna Adima, Post-Doctoral Research Associate in History, The University of Edinburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200254
2023-02-20T23:37:12Z
2023-02-20T23:37:12Z
Roald Dahl rewrites: rather than bowdlerising books on moral grounds we should help children to navigate history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511061/original/file-20230220-25-tzoxle.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=640%2C0%2C3287%2C1808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Roald Dahl in 1954.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carl Van Vechten/Wikimedia Commons.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although several of his best-known children’s books were first published in the 1960s, Roald Dahl is among the most popular authors for young people today. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/18/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-to-remove-language-deemed-offensive">recent decision</a> by publisher Puffin, in conjunction with The Roald Dahl Story Company, to make several hundred revisions to new editions of his novels has been described as censorship by <a href="https://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie/status/1627075835525210113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1627075835525210113%7Ctwgr%5E8d06cef5296fd1a7eaec37f32baa536178ff5510%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbooks%2F2023%2Ffeb%2F20%2Froald-dahl-books-rewrites-criticism-language-altered">Salman Rushdie</a> and attracted widespread criticism.</p>
<p>The changes, recommended by sensitivity readers, include removing or replacing words describing the appearance of characters, and adding gender-neutral language in places. For instance, Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer “fat” but “enormous”. Mrs Twit, from The Twits, has become “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly”. In Matilda, the protagonist no longer reads the works of Rudyard Kipling but Jane Austen. </p>
<p>While the term “<a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/roald-dahl-childrens-books-rewritten-to-delete-offensive-fat-ugly-character-references/L53YBV5A2JCPLABB7UI5BVEGL4/">cancel culture</a>” has also been used to describe these editorial changes, there is actually a long history of altering books to meet contemporary expectations of what young people should read. </p>
<p>Should we consider children’s literature on a par with adult literature, where altering the author’s original words is roundly condemned? Or do we accept that children’s fiction should be treated differently because it has a role in inducting them into the contemporary world?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1627075835525210113"}"></div></p>
<h2>Bowdlerising literature</h2>
<p>Thomas Bowdler’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/familyshakespear00shakuoft">The Family Shakespeare</a> was published in 1807 and contained 20 of the author’s plays. It removed “words and expressions … which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family”, specifically in front of women and children. </p>
<p>“Bowdlerising” has since come to refer to the process of altering literary works on moral grounds, and bowdlerised editions of Shakespeare continued to be used in schools throughout the 20th century. </p>
<p>While Shakespeare’s works were not intended specifically for children, the fiction of Enid Blyton is a more recent example of bowdlerisation of works regarded as classics of children’s literature. There have been <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-392400/Row-faster-George-The-PC-meddlers-chasing-us.html">several waves of changes</a> made to her books in the past four decades, including to The Faraway Tree and The Famous Five series.</p>
<p>While Blyton’s fiction is often regarded as formulaic and devoid of literary value, attempts to modernise names and remove references to corporal punishment, for example, nevertheless upset adults who were nostalgic for the books and wished to share them with children and grandchildren.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abused-neglected-abandoned-did-roald-dahl-hate-children-as-much-as-the-witches-did-152813">Abused, neglected, abandoned — did Roald Dahl hate children as much as the witches did?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How is children’s literature different?</h2>
<p>Children’s literature implicitly shapes the minds of child readers by presenting particular social and cultural values as normal and natural. The term we use for this process within the study of children’s literature is “socialisation”. </p>
<p>People do not view literature for adults as directly forming how they think in this way, even if certain books might be seen as obscene or morally repugnant. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511084/original/file-20230220-22-3vmk6m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1013&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>While many people are outraged at the overt censorship of Dahl’s novels, there are several layers of covert censorship that impact on the production of all children’s books. </p>
<p>Children’s authors know that certain content and language will prevent their book from being published. Publishers are aware that controversial topics, such as sex and gender identity, may see books excluded from libraries and school curriculums, or targeted for protest. Librarians and teachers may select, or refuse to select, books because of the potential for complaint, or because of their own political beliefs.</p>
<p>Several of Dahl’s books have previously been the subject of adult attempts to rewrite or <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade1999">ban them</a>. Most notably, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) was partially rewritten by Dahl in 1973 after <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/roald-dahls-anti-black-racism/">pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People</a> and children’s literature professionals.</p>
<p>Dahl’s original Oompa Loompas were “a tribe of tiny miniature pygmies” whom Willy Wonka “discovered” and “brought over from Africa” to work in his factory for no payment other than cacao beans. </p>
<p>While Dahl vehemently denied that the novel depicted Black people negatively, he revised the book. The Oompa Loompas then became residents of “Loompaland” with “golden-brown hair” and “rosy-white skin”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-pygmies-to-puppets-what-to-do-with-roald-dahls-enslaved-oompa-loompas-in-modern-adaptations-166967">From pygmies to puppets: what to do with Roald Dahl's enslaved Oompa-Loompas in modern adaptations?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511248/original/file-20230220-24-2b9goz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Oompa-Loompas as African Pygmies, as depicted by Joseph Schindelman in the original version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Historical children’s books today</h2>
<p>Children’s literature scholar Phil Nel suggests in <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Was_the_Cat_in_the_Hat_Black/WDoqDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=was+the+cat+in+the+hat+black&printsec=frontcover">Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature and the Need for Diverse Books</a> that we have three options when deciding how to treat books containing language and ideas that would not appear in titles published today. </p>
<p>First, we can consider these books as “cultural artefacts” with historical significance, but which we discourage children from reading. This option works as a covert form of censorship, given the power adults hold over what books children can access. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511249/original/file-20230220-14-tai927.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1146&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Second, we can permit children only to read bowdlerised versions of these books, like those recently issued by Dahl’s publisher. This undermines the principle that literary works are valuable cultural objects, which must remain unchanged. In addition, revising occasional words will usually not shift the values now regarded as outdated in the text, only make it harder to identify and question them. </p>
<p>Third, we can allow children to read any version of a book, original or bowdlerised. This option allows for the possibility of child readers who might resist the book’s intended meaning.</p>
<p>It also enables discussion of topics such as racism and sexism with parents and educators, more easily achieved if the original language remains intact. While Nel favours this approach, he also acknowledges that refusing to alter texts may still be troubling for segments of the readership (for example, Black children reading editions of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn in which the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2011/jan/05/censoring-mark-twain-n-word-unacceptable">N-word has not been removed</a>).</p>
<p>Dahl’s novel Matilda emphasises the power of books to enrich and transform the lives of children, while also acknowledging their intelligence as readers.</p>
<p>Although many aspects of the fictional past do not accord with the ideal version of the world we might wish to present to children, as adults we can help them to navigate that history, rather than hoping we can rewrite it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Children’s books implicitly shape the minds of young readers - and are covertly censored in many ways. But revising occasional words will usually not shift the values regarded as outdated in the text.
Michelle Smith, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197006
2023-01-18T13:47:57Z
2023-01-18T13:47:57Z
A librarian recommends 5 fun fiction books for kids and teens featuring disabled characters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504976/original/file-20230117-21-ulm0kf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C0%2C5708%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's a small but growing number of books for younger readers that feature main characters with disabilities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/smiling-pupil-in-wheelchair-holding-books-royalty-free-image/486073752?adppopup=true">Wavebreakmedia/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disability representation is slowly increasing in books geared toward children and teens. </p>
<p>In 2019 the <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/the-numbers-are-in-2019-ccbc-diversity-statistics/">Cooperative Children’s Book Center</a> at the University of Wisconsin-Madison – a library that allows teachers, librarians and researchers to view books before deciding which ones to buy – found that only 3.4% of books it received from publishers included a character with a disability.</p>
<p>The CCBC website recently added a <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/diversity-statistics-book-search/">diversity statistics book search</a> with categories for physical, cognitive and psychiatric disabilities or conditions. In 2022, the center received 165 books that included a character with a disability, up from 126 in 2019.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://experts.okstate.edu/rebecca.weber">an academic librarian</a> who also has a disability, I’m happy to recommend the following five children’s books that treat disability as a part of life and living.</p>
<h2>1. Maria Gianferrari (author), Patrice Barton (illustrator), “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/953843150">Hello Goodbye Dog</a>” (2017)</h2>
<p>Moose loves her girl Zara – and she hates saying goodbye. When Zara goes to school, Moose wants to go too and keeps showing up, even though dogs aren’t allowed. What will Zara, her parents, the principal, her teacher and the other kids in Zara’s class do? </p>
<p>This fun picture book is perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners. While Zara uses a wheelchair, her disability isn’t the focus of the story. Readers will have fun seeing what Moose is up to this time and learn that sometimes dogs can go to school.</p>
<h2>2. Kelly Fritsch, Anne McGuire, Eduardo Trejos, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1143634427">We Move Together</a>” (2021)</h2>
<p>All bodies are different – whether disabled or nondisabled – and everyone matters. These are the themes of this easy reader. With its vibrant illustrations, simple text and portrayals of a wide variety of people, “We Move Together” is a great introduction to the concepts of community, disability and accessibility for readers in kindergarten through second grade, while older readers can learn more about accessibility and disability rights in the glossary.</p>
<h2>3. Darren Lebeuf, Ashley Barron, “<a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/1204288075">My City Speaks</a>” (2021)</h2>
<p>A girl who is blind and her dad explore the city and its sounds. They wait at a crosswalk, play in the park, take a bus, avoid a rainstorm and eat ice cream. Words and pictures help the reader feel the rhythms of the city. Readers in preschool through second grade will enjoy this story because of its colorful illustrations and rhythmic text. </p>
<h2>4. Ali Stroker, Stacy Davidowitz, “<a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/1192305488">The Chance to Fly</a>” (2021)</h2>
<p>Nat Beacon is the new girl in school with a talent for wheelchair racing, but when the 13-year-old gets the chance to audition for a summer production of the musical “Wicked,” she knows the theater is where she belongs. How does she tell her parents? </p>
<p>This novel for readers in fifth, sixth and seventh grades explores themes of independence, friendship and first love.</p>
<h2>5. Melissa See, “<a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/1263864983">You, Me, and Our Heartstrings</a>” (2022)</h2>
<p>Daisy and Noah are two of the best musicians in their high school orchestra and dream of attending Juilliard, the prestigious performing arts school in New York City. When their performance of an original piece goes viral, they have to deal with the world’s interpretation of them and their relationship. </p>
<p>This rom-com of a novel combines disability representation with themes of friendship and romance. Great for readers in grades nine to 12. </p>
<hr>
<p>For more books featuring characters with disabilities, check out the American Library Association’s <a href="https://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/schneider-family-book-award">Schneider Family Book Award</a>. For a wide variety of diverse titles, see <a href="https://diversebooks.org/resources-old/where-to-find-diverse-books/">We Need Diverse Books</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Weber is a member of the American Library Association and volunteers on the RUSA Accessibility Assembly and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). </span></em></p>
Disability representation in books is an important part of diversity and inclusion.
Rebecca Weber, Associate Professor Library, Oklahoma State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187090
2023-01-01T19:39:41Z
2023-01-01T19:39:41Z
My favourite fictional character: Seven Little Australians’ wild heroine, Judy, was equipped to conquer the world – but not to survive it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498861/original/file-20221205-26-xd1my0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C0%2C7916%2C5297&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I can’t remember if I first met Judy Woolcot on the TV screen or in print: the two versions have cohered into a single entity. The television series of Ethel Turner’s <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/seven-little-australians/">Seven Little Australians</a> first aired in 1973, so if I met her on-screen, it must’ve been via re-runs. </p>
<p>I know my mother’s paperback copy of the novel featured a still from the series on its cover: a family portrait — Meg, Bunty, Baby, Nell, Pip; the General in a nightshirt, clinging to his young mother. The ultra-Victorian Captain Woolcot, played by Leonard Teale, his chin jutting out so precipitously that it threatens to pierce through the picture. And Judy, with bundles of shoulder-length hair, perched on a sofa arm, seeming somehow too big, too angular for the frame. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498613/original/file-20221202-18-f8tswy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Abebooks</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Seven Little Australians was published in 1893 and tells the story of the Woolcot family: seven children, running semi-wild in the rural outskirts of Sydney, overseen by their generous young stepmother, Esther, and military-man father, Captain Woolcot. Judy, the second oldest, aged 13, is a focal point of the tribe of children.</p>
<p>What is it about Judy that makes her my favourite character? By the time I read Seven Little Australians, I had already met <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8127.Anne_of_Green_Gables">Anne of Green Gables</a> and the stable of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1934.Little_Women">Little Women</a> sisters. I had probably just opened the chocolate sampler box that was the Bennet girls. So why not Anne Shirley? Why not Jo March? Why not Elizabeth Bennet?</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IJz1AASVY10?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The 1973 television series, Seven Little Australians, dramatises Ethel Turner’s 1893 story of the rambunctious Woolcot family.</span></figcaption>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/little-women-at-150-and-the-patriarch-who-shaped-the-books-tone-102565">Little Women at 150 and the patriarch who shaped the book's tone</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Bone-true’ authenticity of self</h2>
<p>For one thing, Judy was solid. You could trust her with an axe, a rope, a river. She was not, like Anne Shirley, a red-headed scrap of a thing, for whom accidents were always just waiting. She was not, like Jo March, inhabiting a secret, interior writer’s life. She was not, like Elizabeth Bennet, riveted to the question of appropriate marriages. </p>
<p>You could rely on Judy, in her boots, stomping across a paddock, cutting through the vanities and inanities of 19th-century life. She was fearlessly outwards-facing, and deeply honest: a “wild, unquiet subject” with a “strongly expressed scorn for equivocation”. Her honesty was the noble type of honesty that came, not from assiduous avoidance of lies, but from a bone-true authenticity of self. </p>
<p>She was also Australian. She spoke in an Australian accent (in the series and in my head). Her trees were my trees: gum trees. Although Seven Little Australians is set in Sydney in the late 1800s, the sky that sheltered her was the sky that sheltered me; the hot, scruffy dust was the hot, scruffy dust of my childhood. The bird calls were from bell birds and whip birds, way up high in impossibly tall trees with names like ironbark: trees that were very hard to cut down and fatal when they fell.</p>
<p>Anne could get knocked off her perch with a mere shake of a tree branch (or of her orange braids); Jo and Elizabeth could fall in love at any moment and waft away from their own centres. But not Judy. Judy was unassailably in and of herself. And only Judy could do that gravest of things: only Judy could die.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Anne Shirley was beaten as a contender for favourite fictional character by ‘unassailably in and of herself’ Judy Woolcot.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anne-of-green-gables-goes-to-war-94157">Anne of Green Gables goes to war</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Robustly competent, yet vulnerable</h2>
<p>Re-reading Seven Little Australians, I discovered that the image I have of Judy’s physical sturdiness is not borne out by the text. Turner tells us “she was very thin, as people generally are who have quicksilver instead of blood in their veins”. Her thinness, I realise now, is code for her fragility, which runs like a weave through the novel. </p>
<p>When she runs away from boarding school, walking 70 miles and sleeping rough, she suffers for her adventurousness; she is found in the stable loft, coughing blood into a handkerchief — a signal moment of terror in any 19th-century narrative. </p>
<p>When the children conspire to earn their father’s favour, Judy doesn’t wait on him or sew for him like her sisters: she mows the lawn, <em>with a scythe</em>. It is this hardiness of hers, her ability to wield a scythe, that explains the robust competence that is my image of her. Yet it also reveals her precariousness: she sweeps the “abnormally large scythe” back and forth in long, dangerous arcs, “decapitating a whole army of yellow-helmeted dandelions” while her father watches on in terror.</p>
<p>I’m struck, as an adult, by Captain Woolcot’s recognition of his daughter’s vulnerability. “Be careful of Judy,” her mother had said on her deathbed, and thinking about Judy’s future gave her father “an aggrieved kind of feeling”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>That restless fire of hers that shone out of her dancing eyes, and glowed scarlet on her cheeks in excitement, and lent amazing energy and activity to her young, lithe body, would make a noble, daring, brilliant woman of her, or else she would be shipwrecked on rocks the others would never come to, and it would flame up higher and higher and consume her […] Judy was stumbling right amongst them now, and her father could not “be careful” of her because he absolutely did not know how.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a terrible modern tragedy in this: the father’s sensitive awareness of his daughter and complete incapacity to nurture and protect her. Judy is both equipped to conquer the world and ill-equipped to survive it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-with-men-i-feel-like-a-very-sharp-glittering-blade-when-5-liberated-women-spoke-the-truth-191496">Friday essay: 'with men I feel like a very sharp, glittering blade' – when 5 liberated women spoke the truth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘The first time I wept reading a book’</h2>
<p>Judy’s death was the first time I wept reading a book. I knew her death was coming: I had watched it on TV. Watched her dash to save her baby brother, watched the enormous tree branch creak and fall, trapping her body beneath it. Still, I wept. I kept hoping the book would somehow reverse the tragedy of the television version: rewrite it, reanimate Judy. But no, Judy dies – as obstinately and heroically as she lived. </p>
<p>And in her death, how honest and modern she remains; wholly absent of any stoic, religion-inflected martyrdom you might expect of the period. She’s a frightened child, in a hut, feeling the light fall away. “Oh Meg, I want to be alive!” she says frantically. “How’d you like to die, Meg, when you’re only thirteen!” This stricken cry cut through my childhood.</p>
<p>I didn’t cry this time, but I did feel sobered and still and, at least for a few moments after finishing, <em>very</em> still. I was right to remember Judy. Judy was a reminder of how to live, how to be in the world, which is “always in a perfect fever of living”. </p>
<p>By virtue of her death, Judy has a gravitas that none of her fictional contenders possess. Her mortality is the very point of her being, the point of her character. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Judy!” Pip said, in a voice of beseeching agony. But the only answer was the wind at the tree-tops and the frightened breathing of the others.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edwina Preston has received funding for her own creative work from Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria. She is the recipient of a Research Training Scholarship and Dean's Excellence in Research Scholarship at the University of Melbourne. She was the recipient of the 2020 Felix Meyer Creative Writing Scholarship and the Helen Macpherson Smith Scholarship for female researchers.</span></em></p>
Edwina Preston tells why her favourite literary heroine is Seven Little Australians’ Judy Woolcot and her ‘bone-true authenticity of self’ – beating fellow tomboys Jo March and Anne Shirley.
Edwina Preston, PhD Candidate, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195578
2022-12-27T19:20:14Z
2022-12-27T19:20:14Z
6 non-fiction reads for kids this summer, recommended by kids aged 9 to 11
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499962/original/file-20221209-25000-8w73ee.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5607%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Drew Perales/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kids are often gifted books for Christmas, but the trick is to get them to read them! </p>
<p>No one likes nagging their kids to read, though we know <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/read-the-room-it-s-time-to-act-on-our-children-s-literacy-20220904-p5bf7w.html">reading is crucial</a> to their <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/education/teacher-training-and-professional-develop/english-and-literacies-learning-how-make-meaning-primary-classrooms">critical and literacy development</a>. </p>
<p>But what do <em>they</em> think about books and reading over the summer? Kids’ voices are often overlooked when it comes to cultural criticism. </p>
<p>For the past two years, I have been facilitating a children’s book club. In our most recent session, I asked the participants – aged 9 to 11 – to share their summer reading recommendations. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/children-and-biography-9781350236370/">My research</a> has found that kids respond positively to non-fiction books in social reading environments. Reading non-fiction impacts positively on their civic and critical literacy. So, we focused on non-fiction recommendations.</p>
<p>These tips – straight from the kids themselves – might help adult readers to know what books to buy this Christmas, or to hunt out at the library over summer.</p>
<hr>
<h2>1. You Don’t Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine by Yeva Skalietska</h2>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/you-dont-know-what-war-is-9781526660138/">an eye-opening and heart-breaking story</a> about a 12-year-old girl called Yeva Skalierska, living through the Ukraine war of 2022. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499963/original/file-20221209-19531-ygz235.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>A normal girl who loves school and spending time with friends, she suddenly goes through shelling and bombing right out the front of her own house. She travelled around Ukraine with her grandmother, and many other Ukrainians, trying to escape the war and danger. This book is Yeva’s personal diary account of the experiences of the war through her eyes. </p>
<p>I found it fascinating that a girl so similar to me can be going through something so drastically different. This is happening at this very moment, not in the history books, which makes me wonder why we have to have more war like this. This is a good book for anyone wanting to understand the impact of war on children and families and to put into perspective the things we might complain about that don’t really matter. </p>
<p><strong>– Chloe, age 11</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-must-read-books-about-russia-and-ukraine-our-expert-picks-179832">5 must-read books about Russia and Ukraine: our expert picks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Inspiring Young Changemakers by Jess Harriton and Maithy Vu</h2>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.rebelgirls.com/products/100-inspiring-young-changemakers">the latest book</a> in the amazing <a href="https://www.rebelgirls.com/products/good-night-stories-for-rebel-girls">Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls</a> series. </p>
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<p>The book contains 100 short stories about young changemakers. A changemaker is someone who has achieved something in the world to make it a little bit better. These changemakers are from all parts of the world with different abilities. </p>
<p>The book is introduced by conservationist Bindi Irwin. The subjects in this book include Greta Thunberg (activist), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Springmuhl_Tejada">Isabella Springmuhl</a> (fashion designer) and Zendaya (actor and singer). </p>
<p>I think this book is wonderful because this Rebel Girls book focuses on young people only. Young girls aren’t usually recognised as having an impact in the world, so that’s what makes this book special. People who read this will see how great young people are at making the world a better place.</p>
<p><strong>– Darcy, age 11</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/empathy-starts-early-5-australian-picture-books-that-celebrate-diversity-153629">Empathy starts early: 5 Australian picture books that celebrate diversity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Welcome to Your Period by Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes</h2>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/welcome-to-your-period-by-yumi-stynes/9781760503512">a very informative book</a> about welcoming you to your period and what is going on with your body as you grow up and start changing into a young woman. The authors are two women that have experienced everything you’re starting to go through and know all the tricks to managing your period. </p>
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<p>They understand what you’re going through and how you may feel about the situation. The book makes you feel as if it’s nothing to worry or be scared about. The authors act like your big sisters; they’ll guide you and teach you everything you need to know about your body. They make you feel comforted, with different alternatives to manage your period to suit your body type, and help you talk to somebody you can trust and help you through that process. </p>
<p>I think that this book is a really great preparation for when you don’t have your period but when you feel like you need to start managing it or talking to a helpful adult who can help you through this tough time.</p>
<p><strong>– Arly, age 10</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/first-periods-can-come-as-a-shock-5-ways-to-support-your-kid-when-they-get-theirs-177920">First periods can come as a shock. 5 ways to support your kid when they get theirs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Barefoot Kids by Scott Pape (2022)</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460763650/barefoot-kids/">This book</a> is all about money and how to invest properly. It teaches you about money and how to use it a “smart” way. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499966/original/file-20221209-25362-uu9du9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Usually, when I think of a book about money, I think “oh no I’m not reading that!”. But this book was super fun, exciting and interesting. I loved it. It included short interviews of children who started a business and got heaps of money. It was really inspiring and amazing for giving ideas. It had good instructions of what to do to earn money, and I found it interesting that children five and up can have their own business. </p>
<p>I definitely recommend this book to other kids aged nine and up, because I gave it to my cousin who is nine years old, and she loved it. It definitely helps children to be “smarter” with money than most adults. I think it would be very intriguing for kids with a short attention span. </p>
<p>It tells kids that they are the boss, while also telling them to get parents’ permission and help. It tells you how to separate money into four buckets and has apparently changed lives. I give this book a five-star rating.</p>
<p><strong>– Sienna, age 11</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-kids-about-maths-using-money-can-set-them-up-for-financial-security-85327">Teaching kids about maths using money can set them up for financial security</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. How to Speak Dog: a Guide to Decoding Dog Language by Aline Alexander Newman</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780008257910/how-to-speak-dog/">How to Speak Dog</a> is a fantastic book about how to communicate with dogs. This book tells you when your dog is sick, sad, happy or scared. It has many interesting facts about dogs. It even tells you how to deal with an aggressive dog and what to do if a dog attacks you. How to Speak Dog even has some pages on how to train your dog.</p>
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<p>I think people will like this book because it has lots of information about dogs and dogs are a common pet. They could have a new puppy with some bad habits, and they might need help training their pup. </p>
<p>I have a dog and this book was very helpful to me because I learnt from it that my dog is scared when he shows the whites of his eyes. My favourite thing about this book is that they have funny facts on every page. Facts like: “A dog can smell half a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in an Olympic sized swimming pool.”</p>
<p><strong>– Avery, age 9</strong></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-pat-or-not-to-pat-how-to-keep-interactions-between-kids-and-dogs-safe-182419">To pat or not to pat? How to keep interactions between kids and dogs safe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>6. Against all Odds: Young Readers’ Edition by Richard Harris and Craig Challen</h2>
<p>This is <a href="https://www.phoenixdistribution.com.au/against-all-odds-young-readers-edition">an interesting, educational, and suspenseful</a> book, with exhilarating and thrilling twists all through it. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499968/original/file-20221209-25682-10j1q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>(Editor’s note: the book tells the inside story of the cave rescue of a boys’ soccer team in Thailand, back in 2018. It’s written by the two Australian cave divers involved in the rescue.)</p>
<p>This book explained everything in great detail, giving the reader a real idea of what’s happening. I liked how they made the book extremely fascinating, and the authors went far to explain everything to an understandable degree. </p>
<p>I disliked how such a large chunk of the book was an autobiography about Craig and Richard. I would recommend this for 10-15 year olds, since younger children may not understand the complex vocabulary used in the book. I would rate it 7.5/10.</p>
<p><strong>– Molly, age 11</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195578/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Douglas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
How can you get your kids to read this summer? Research has found they respond well to reading non-fiction – so we’ve gathered 6 top non-fiction books, recommended by the kids themselves.
Kate Douglas, Professor of English, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/196376
2022-12-15T14:21:23Z
2022-12-15T14:21:23Z
Quentin Blake at 90: celebrating the joy and magic of the illustrator of Matilda, The BFG and beyond
<p>The expression “national treasure” could have been invented for <a href="https://www.quentinblake.com/meet-qb/biography">Sir Quentin Blake</a> who celebrates his 90th birthday on December 16 – and we might also celebrate his considerable impact on the status and understanding of the art of illustration.</p>
<p>This is not just based on his prolific creative output, spanning a staggering eight decades (so far), but also through his tireless work in promoting and preserving our rich graphic arts heritage in the UK. </p>
<p>This heritage has not always been as fully recognised within the UK as it might have been. One of Blake’s heroes, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/03/ronald-searle">Ronald Searle</a> (creator of the <a href="http://www.ju90.co.uk/ron.htm">St Trinian’s cartoons</a>), moved to France in the 1960s, at the height of his fame. Although this was primarily due to personal circumstances, he had also become increasingly weary of the British tendency to box visual artists as either “commercial” or “fine”.</p>
<p>Happily, in the last 20 years here in the UK we have at last begun to see a breaking down of these barriers and prejudices in our cultural institutions with more exhibits showcasing illustration. The Dulwich Picture Gallery in London staged a major exhibition of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/welcome-escape/">Sir Quentin’s work</a> in 2004, having previously featured <a href="https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/ernest-howard-shepard">the drawings of EH Shepard</a>, the man who brought to life AA Milne’s funny little bear, Winnie the Pooh.</p>
<p>A new museum in his name opened in 2016 in Pinner, celebrating the whimsical illustrations of the artist <a href="https://www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/william-heath-robinson/">Heath Robinson</a>. And in 2017 the V&A museum staged the hugely popular exhibition, <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/winnie-the-pooh-exploring-a-classic">Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic</a>. Currently nearing the end of its run (closing in January 2023), <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/beatrix-potter-drawn-to-nature">Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature</a> is the latest V&A blockbuster to respond to growing public interest in the work of our illustrators and their methods and processes. </p>
<h2>Not a typical start</h2>
<p>Blake’s particular route into illustration was not a typical one. At Sidcup Grammar School in the late 1940s, he developed a keen interest in drawing. But his love of literature won through and rather than heading for art school, he took a place at Downing College, Cambridge, where he read English from 1953 to 1956.</p>
<p>He had been submitting cartoons to magazines such as Punch since his mid-teens and before the end of the 1940s had begun to have drawings published regularly. At Cambridge, he inevitably became involved with the student magazine, Granta, both as regular contributor of cartoons and drawings, and as occasional art editor.</p>
<p>A briefly held post at the French Lycée in London convinced him of the dangers of becoming trapped in teaching and he decided to set about making a go of it as an illustrator. Conscious of having had no formal training, Blake enrolled for life drawing classes at Chelsea School of Art with painter and illustrator <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/brian-robb-1853">Brian Robb</a>, whose work he admired and with whom he would later work at the Royal College of Art.</p>
<p>Commissions for Punch continued to roll in and when the magazine decided in the late 1950s to discard its iconic 1849 Richard Doyle engraving in favour of a freshly commissioned full-colour cover each week, Blake became a regular cover artist, alongside many of his graphic heroes, including Searle and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/apr/21/guardianobituaries.france">André François</a>. </p>
<p>The commissions enabled him to experiment with more painterly approaches, while still incorporating his increasingly characteristic line, which was also making regular appearances in the Spectator magazine. It was not until 1960 that Blake made his first foray into book illustration.</p>
<h2>Anarchy and chaos</h2>
<p>Finding one-off drawings increasingly unfulfilling but having no idea how to enter the world of sequential book illustration, he asked his friend John Yeoman to write a book for him. The resulting <a href="https://www.quentinblake.com/books/a-drink-of-water">A Drink of Water</a> was published by Faber that year, the first of many collaborations between the two and the first of somewhere in the region of 500 books illustrated – and often written – by Blake.</p>
<p>Of his many creative partnerships, perhaps that with <a href="https://www.roalddahl.com/about/">Roald Dahl</a> is the most celebrated, beginning with <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-enormous-crocodile/roald-dahl/quentin-blake/9780141365510">The Enormous Crocodile</a> in 1978 and flourishing throughout the 1980s. The hugely successful <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-bfg-colour-edition/roald-dahl/quentin-blake/9780141371146">BFG</a> and <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/matilda/roald-dahl/quentin-blake/9780141365466">Matilda</a> are enduring examples of writer and artist in perfect harmony.</p>
<p>His distinctive visual vocabulary, while playful and animated, is somehow able to apply itself equally successfully to the lyrical and the tragic, as evidenced in books such as his own <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780099253327">The Green Ship</a> and <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/08/25/michael-rosens-sad-book-quentin-blake/">The Sad Book</a> with Michael Rosen. </p>
<p>When asked how he achieves so much movement in his characters, Blake has revealed that he often finds himself physically acting out their contortions and gestures as he draws them in the privacy of his studio. His childlike joy in the anarchy and chaos that so often emerges on the pages of his books continues to speak to and delight generations of children.</p>
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<p>From his studio overlooking a Kensington square, he continues to draw obsessively, daily. In recent years, and especially during the pandemic, he has taken time to make purely speculative, expressive work.</p>
<p>Birds and fish feature strongly, along with monumental, often dark, human heads. Sometimes all three merge into one. Many of these were shown in a joint exhibition with lifelong friend Linda Kitson in November this year, and have been published in <a href="https://www.quentinblake.com/books/a-year-of-drawings-2">Quentin Blake: A Year of Drawings</a>.</p>
<p>Somehow, alongside all this productivity, Sir Quentin has found time and energy to oversee the evolution of <a href="https://www.qbcentre.org.uk/">The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration</a> at its historic New River Head site in Clerkenwell, London. When it opens fully in 2024, we will at last have a national public museum and gallery devoted to the art of illustration. Or as the gallery puts it, “the art that we experience in our everyday lives”.</p>
<p>So happy birthday Sir Quentin Blake – and thank you.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Salisbury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
With his delightful drawings for children’s books, the British illustrator has helped to promote and preserve a rich graphic arts heritage in the UK.
Martin Salisbury, Professor of Children's Book Illustration, Anglia Ruskin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195158
2022-11-24T13:19:56Z
2022-11-24T13:19:56Z
The best fiction of 2022: Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker and writing outside the constraints of time
<p>When <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/treacle-walker">Treacle Walker</a> was announced as a nominee for the 2022 Booker Prize, 87-year-old Alan Garner was highlighted as the oldest-ever shortlisted author. He is now 88. That said, Treacle Walker, begins with a quote from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/14/carlo-rovelli-exploding-commonsense-notions-order-of-time-interview">Italian quantum physicist, Carlo Rovelli</a>: “Time is ignorance.” </p>
<p>Age is, of course, an aspect of time. But Garner, older as he might be getting, has a photo of himself aged six (grinning very fully and twinkly-eyed at something distant), which he has stated most captures who he is “<a href="https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/alan-garner">then and now</a>”.</p>
<p>Describing why it had been nominated, the Booker committee described Treacle Walker as “fiction from a remarkable and enduring talent [that] brilliantly illuminates an introspective young mind trying to make sense of the world around him.” It is more than that, it is about how we take care of the Earth and understand it in relation to the universe. It feels to me, as a lifelong reader of Alan Garner, that this is where he has been leading us all along.</p>
<h2>A boy in his own time</h2>
<p>Treacle Walker features a modern improbability – a child who lives alone in their own house with nothing much other than marbles and comics to occupy him along with his travels into the landscape around Alderley Edge in Cheshire, Garner’s home turf. Joseph Coppock gets up when he hears the daily train, who he calls “Noony”, since it comes through when the sun is high. </p>
<p>That train is Joseph’s only time reference, aside from light and dark. How accurate that time is for those of us who live in a world dominated by the clock (the ones for whom the train runs perhaps) is irrelevant. Joseph’s world is drawn for us within the first page and Garner takes us quickly and quietly into this semi-timeless rural space. </p>
<p>In this space the reader accepts (well I did, immediately and without question) the strange outside-of-time life Joseph lives and the things that happen to him in the story. That Garner takes us so smoothly into this narrative demonstrates his level of craft. </p>
<h2>Pace, compression and simplicity</h2>
<p>In the frontispiece to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-red-shift-by-alan-garner-2196201.html">Redshift</a>, his sixth book, he describes his approach to writing as: “I must write poetry, making words work on more than one level, subjecting myself to the poetic disciplines – pace, compression, simplicity.” Those tools – pace, compression and simplicity – are what makes this seemingly impossible story work.</p>
<p>Garner is a long-established writer. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221013-alan-garner-the-magical-master-of-british-literature#:%7E:text=This%20year%20Alan%20Garner%20became,itself%20feels%20a%20little%20magical.">He has won</a> the children’s literary prize, the Carnegie Medal, twice, and the Guardian and Phoenix book prizes once each. He also has an OBE for his services to literature. </p>
<p>He is mostly identified as a children’s writer, although he has often been quoted as saying he sees himself as a general and much more inclusive writer.</p>
<p>His characters are usually, but not always, children. That is probably because children more easily question adults’ life-choices and can perhaps accept things that might challenge adult ideas of “commonsense”.</p>
<p>While we might decry those who work in book marketing as banal for attempting to pigeonhole his work in this way, I probably would not have read Ganer’s work as a child had they not done so. I don’t know where that would have left me as a reader, writer or general human. </p>
<p>Garner’s are “soul reading” texts that try to get to grips with the big things in life – such as landscape, geology, folk memory, life and death and the universe. However, the world we live in is a world of selling stuff, of “new, new, new” and how we find our way to the stories we really need is unpredictable, so I do bless the day that someone in a marketing department categorised the books so that they would be shelved where my mum would find them for me.</p>
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<p>His first book <a href="https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book/t/the-weirdstone-of-brisingamen/">The Weirdstone of Brisingamen</a> was published in 1960. Treacle Walker is his 11th work of fiction. Not the most prolific of writers then. However, each of those books is crafted with care and there is not a wasted word in any of them. He is a poet’s novelist, interested in the aforementioned tools of pace, compression and simplicity. </p>
<p>Garner is also very much a writer of place. In his book of essays <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-voice-that-thunders/alan-garner/9781846554728">The Voice That Thunders</a> (1997) his best advice to other writers is to “know your place”. By which, of course, he does not mean where you doff your cap, but develop your understanding of where you are and through that perhaps something of who you are.</p>
<p>He lives very close to where he was born and has lived in the area for most of his 88 years. But that doesn’t make his writing insular. To try to understand the ground beneath your feet and the sky above your head, wherever you find yourself, is to understand a bit more about the planet and ultimately the universe – and that would surely help even the most adrift of us to shut out the mayhem and get to grips a bit more with the question of who we are as animals, as co-occupants of the planet and the universe. </p>
<p>Treacle Walker is a book about that universe, about the universal, told through one small patch of land, and its keepers. If you haven’t read it – do so, I can’t see how you’d regret it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Following the life of young Joseph Coppock, Treacle Walker is about making sense of the world around us.
Anna Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Media Foundation and Creative Writing, University of East London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178642
2022-03-21T19:04:19Z
2022-03-21T19:04:19Z
Overcoming bias in the next generation: 5 unmissable Australian queer picture books
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452072/original/file-20220315-131692-ickbln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Queer parents and their children rarely see families like theirs in books for early and pre-readers. </p>
<p>In 2021, the Children’s Book Council of Australia <a href="https://cbca.org.au/shortlist-2021">shortlisted</a> a queer picture book in its Early Childhood Award <a href="https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s13384-020-00423-7?sharing_token=5oFCWXBLcWcp-p9ZSHGCNfe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY4sxRC_Ey6dgww7Jw4XWqj_rUz25RR3e5uClPn__Mmjzqr_fU9pRwgnealIGmhg5Sj1iUkX-mpzSSy0-tjvbQJQT3JU4_tJtYirOiZe9EEZoJ8f_3dd_LtxYRevP_VMtCw%3D">for the first time</a>: <a href="https://www.scribblekidsbooks.com/books/p/whos-your-real-mum">Who’s Your Real Mum?</a> by Bernadette Green and Anna Zobel.</p>
<p>Awards like this have a huge influence on sales, readership, and the books that are taught in schools. The teachers’ notes and classroom activities provided for most shortlisted books are added incentives for early childhood and primary school educators to adopt these books.</p>
<p>This landmark shortlisting inspired us to look for more titles that engage deeply with the diverse communities that make up Australian society, including queer families. We enlisted the help of the State Library of NSW, inviting library staff across NSW to share diverse books from their collections. </p>
<p>We’ve selected five unmissable reads that centre on queer stories from <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/public-library-services/diverse-picture-books">the resulting Diverse Picture Books list</a>, now live online. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/queer-young-adult-fiction-isnt-all-gloomy-realism-here-are-5-uplifting-books-to-get-you-started-141125">Queer young adult fiction isn't all gloomy realism. Here are 5 uplifting books to get you started</a>
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<h2>Bias learned from an early age</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/queer-young-adult-fiction-isnt-all-gloomy-realism-here-are-5-uplifting-books-to-get-you-started-141125">Queer representation in fiction</a> can provide education, validation and affirmation to young people. It also helps to normalise queerness. </p>
<p>Because bias is learned from a very early age, it’s important for early and pre-readers to access the stories and experiences of queer families, and to begin the work of <a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-primary-school-children-about-lgbt-relationships-is-the-government-taking-the-right-approach-138486">overcoming those biases</a>. </p>
<p>Books about queer families provide a window into that experience for those outside it, promoting wider acceptance, understanding or celebration of such families. They also hold up a mirror for the many children living in such families, giving them the opportunity to see their lives reflected in the literature they read. </p>
<p>So, whether you are looking through a window or holding up a mirror, here are five picture books about family, identity and the queer experience:</p>
<h2>1. <a href="https://www.scribblekidsbooks.com/books/p/whos-your-real-mum">Who’s Your Real Mum?</a> written by Bernadette Green, illustrated by Anna Zobel</h2>
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<p>This picture book challenges the stereotypes of what makes a family. It addresses a common question that same-sex parents and their children inevitably face: <em>Who’s your real mum?</em> </p>
<p>Elvi has two mums and her curious friend Nicholas constantly asks which mum is the “real” one. As Nicholas persists, Elvi comes up with increasingly outlandish, imaginative responses. Ultimately, Elvi teaches Nicholas the beautiful lesson that the role of a parent is far more than just biology. </p>
<h2>2. <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/Wrestle-Maya-Newell-Charlotte-Mars-and-Gus-Skattebol-James-illustrated-by-Tom-Jellett-9781760296810">Wrestle</a> by Maya Newell, Charlotte Mars, Gus Skattebol-James, illustrated by Tom Jellett</h2>
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<p>Inspired by the award-winning documentary, <a href="https://thegaybyproject.com/">Gayby Baby</a>, Wrestle is a story of queer family, identity and challenging stereotypes. </p>
<p>It explores the broad spectrum of “maleness” through main character Gus’s obsession with wrestling. Gus ultimately arrives at the realisation that there is more than one way to be a boy and most definitely more than one way to be a wrestler. </p>
<p>This book is also a must-read for any family wanting to learn more about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-histories-of-mardi-gras-and-gay-tourism-in-australia-are-intertwined-92733">Sydney Mardi Gras</a>. </p>
<h2>3. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54557593-my-shadow-is-pink">My Shadow is Pink</a> by Scott Stuart</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452054/original/file-20220315-130173-1g3phjw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>My Shadow is Pink draws on the author-illustrator’s life, and his relationship with his son, to challenge gender stereotypes. The book tells the story of a young boy whose pink shadow is different to his dad’s blue shadow. The boy loves ponies, princesses, and putting on dresses, and while he is initially embarrassed about this, his father helps him to overcome this and to just be himself. </p>
<p>Written in verse, this book explores toxic masculinity, gender identity, fatherhood, diversity, childhood bullying and self-expression. Its message is clear: positive parenting through loving and accepting your kids for who they are can make all the difference. My Shadow is Pink is also an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIwaQGHB1LU&t=2s">animated short film</a>. </p>
<h2>4.<a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/love-makes-a-family-by-sophie-beer/9781760502225">Love Makes a Family</a> by Sophie Beer</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452055/original/file-20220315-133415-14v17aw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Drawing on everyday activities, from reading and bathing, to finding lost toys, this colourful board book for the very young celebrates family life in all of its diversity. It provides a great opportunity for carers and educators to discuss ideas about family and relationships. </p>
<p>The message is simple: love sits at the centre of every family, regardless of its shapes and forms.</p>
<h2>5. <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/introducing-teddy-9781681192116/">Introducing Teddy: A gentle story about gender and friendship</a> by Jessica Walton, illustrated by Dougal MacPherson</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452056/original/file-20220315-19-8bpe3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Errol and his teddy bear Thomas love playing together, but one day Errol realises that Thomas is very unhappy. After Errol ensures that Thomas feels safe to share his worries with him, Thomas confesses that he is a girl teddy and wants to be called Tilly. And Errol is fine with this. </p>
<p>This picture book about a trans teddy bear is great for introducing young minds to the concepts of gender identity and transition. The book deals with a complex topic sensitively and simply. So, as Tilly the teddy emerges from Thomas the Teddy, she is surrounded by the acceptance and love that every child needs and deserves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Because bias is learned from a very early age, reading and learning about diverse experiences cannot start too soon. Here are five Australian picture books that centre on queer stories.
Helen Caple, Associate Professor in Communications and Journalism, UNSW Sydney
Ping Tian, Honorary Associate, Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171637
2021-12-16T15:30:10Z
2021-12-16T15:30:10Z
‘Twas the night before Christmas’ helped make the modern Santa – and led to a literary whodunit
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437839/original/file-20211215-15-ztgkjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C1004%2C413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you picture Santa Claus as plump and jolly and pulled by reindeer, you may have this poem to thank.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Visit_From_St._Nicholas,_by_Clement_C_Moore_(cropped).jpg">Clement Clark Moore/New-York Historical Society</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The poem “<a href="https://poets.org/poem/visit-st-nicholas">A Visit from St. Nicholas</a>,” better known by its opening line “‘Twas the Night before Christmas,” has a special place among Christmas traditions, right alongside hot chocolate, caroling and bright lights. It has also inspired <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/031215_nitebeforexmas.html">the modern image of Santa Claus</a> as a jolly old man sporting red and a round belly.</p>
<p>But this poem has been steeped in controversy, and debate still looms over who the true author is. Traditionally, Clement C. Moore – a 19th-century scholar at the General Theological Seminary in New York, where I work as a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Melissa-Aaronberg/publication/346574231_Distance_Learning_at_General_Theological_Seminary/links/5fce3b3445851568d146df50/Distance-Learning-at-General-Theological-Seminary.pdf">reference librarian</a> – <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Gpw7MwEACAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en&source=newbks_fb">has been credited with writing the poem</a> in 1822 for his children. Every December, library staff shares our multiple copies of the poem in an exhibit to celebrate the holiday season. </p>
<p>No matter who wrote it, the poem is a fascinating object that has shaped <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-charles-dickens-redeemed-the-spirit-of-christmas-52335">Christmases past, present – and maybe yet to come</a>.</p>
<h2>A changing Santa Claus</h2>
<p>Santa Claus had undergone many makeovers in the Western imagination by the time readers were introduced to “‘Twas the Night before Christmas.”</p>
<p>Some scholars argue that the idea of a magical being bringing gifts and good cheer can be traced all the way back <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-734X.1995.1804_17.x">to the Greek goddess Artemis</a>. St. Nicholas, <a href="https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602586352/the-saint-who-would-be-santa-claus/">an early Christian bishop</a> in what is now Turkey, was said to have destroyed a temple to Artemis, which he believed was idolatrous. Afterward, some of Artemis’ traits began showing up in legends as characteristics of St. Nicholas. He became known for generosity, such as giving children presents and gifting dowries to young women in need.</p>
<p>His feast day, Dec. 6, became a popular celebration in medieval Europe. By the modern era, <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/031215_nitebeforexmas.html">images of St. Nick</a> portrayed him as a tall, thin, stern man in a bishop’s hat who brought children both gifts and punishments. In German legend, he was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Krampus#ref1276135">accompanied by Krampus</a>, a half-goat, half-demon creature that meted out a range of punishments to bad children, from mild to violent. </p>
<p>In Victorian Britain, Christmas became a festive holiday, with much feasting and drinking in addition to a religious celebration. In the early 19th century, <a href="https://nines.org/print_exhibit/1378">Santa was sometimes depicted</a> as a reveler from the lower classes – someone in need of charity, rather than a gift-giver himself. </p>
<p>As Christmas began to evolve into a family holiday, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-advertising-through-the-ages-has-shaped-christmas-129147">the image of Santa changed as well</a>. Now, his jolliness came from the Christmas spirit, not feasting, and his rosy cheeks were the result of joy, not alcohol.</p>
<p>“‘Twas the Night before Christmas” was instrumental in crafting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.0095">the modern American version</a> of Santa Claus. <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43171/a-visit-from-st-nicholas">The poem</a> describes St. Nicholas as “dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,” with twinkling eyes, rosy cheeks, a snow white beard and a round belly. Throughout the poem, Santa is depicted as a jolly elf bringing joy with his reindeer-led sleigh to both children and adults. </p>
<p><a href="https://northcarolina.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5149/9780807837351_halloran/upso-9780807835876">Thomas Nast</a>, a Civil War-era cartoonist with the magazine Harper’s Weekly, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-cartoonist-created-modern-image-santa-claus-union-propaganda-180971074/">created the enduring image</a> of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-christmas-became-an-american-holiday-tradition-with-a-santa-claus-gifts-and-a-tree-172479">Santa Claus</a> in a series of <a href="https://rockwellcenter.org/news/150-years-ago-harpers-weekly-published-the-union-christmas-dinner/">33 drawings</a> published between 1863 and 1886. The first of these drawings is inspired by the poem’s depiction of Santa carrying a sack full of presents with his sled pulled by reindeer.</p>
<p>Our library holds a copy of Nast’s book “<a href="https://gts.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=17707">Christmas Drawings for the Human Race</a>,” containing his illustrations for “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” The introduction to our copy is written by Nast’s grandson, Thomas Nast St. Hill, who inscribed and donated it to the library in 1971. In some images, Nast used Santa to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/civil-war-cartoonist-created-modern-image-santa-claus-union-propaganda-180971074/">send a political message</a> – such as one illustration that depicts him with toys related to battle, showing his support for Union soldiers.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white magazine cover shows an image of Santa visiting soldiers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437845/original/file-20211215-21-kdgjeb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Nast’s cartoons, such as this one during the Civil War, helped shape Americans’ modern image of St. Nick.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/santa-claus-in-camp-january-3-wood-engraving-sheet-14-3-4-news-photo/1288544718?adppopup=true">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Authorship debate</h2>
<p>Two hundred years after the poem debuted, one fundamental question remains: Who is its true author? </p>
<p>The poem first appeared anonymously in a New York newspaper, the Troy Sentinel, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Who_Wrote_The_Night_Before_Christmas/SP0WDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=twas+the+night+before+christmas+modern+image+of+santa&printsec=frontcover">on Dec, 23, 1823</a>, and was reprinted many times. The New York Book of Poetry cited Moore, the 19th-century biblical scholar, as the author in 1837, and in 1844 he included it in his <a href="https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/moore-clement-c/poems/100894.aspx">book of poems</a>. Several years after the poem’s publication in the Sentinel, editor Orville Holley wrote that the author was “by birth and residence [belonging] to the city of New York, and that he is a gentleman of more merit as a scholar and writer than many of more noisy pretensions.” That’s an apt description of Moore, according to Niels Sonne, a librarian at General Theological Seminary in the 20th century who <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42973358">published an article</a> about the authorship controversy. Moore was officially cited as the author in The New York Book of Poetry in 1837.</p>
<p>But the descendants of Henry Livingston Jr., a poet and farmer from an influential New York family, argue that <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Author_Unknown.html?id=Q017AgAAQBAJ">he wrote the famous poem</a> as early as 1808 and was never properly credited. Relatives of Livingston have claimed that his manuscript was brought to Wisconsin, where it was destroyed in a fire in 1847. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2000/12/24/who-was-that-poet-anyway/9fa4e99f-476d-467d-b586-1538f3f9ac50/">His defenders</a> point to similarities with other poetry and witty satires he wrote, and argue that his fun personality was much more in keeping with “A Visit from St. Nicholas” than Moore’s. His grandson, William Sturgus Thomas, spent years collecting evidence in his grandfather’s favor, and <a href="https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/data/58780316">his papers</a> are housed at the New York Historical Society.</p>
<h2>The story continues</h2>
<p>Every December, the Seminary library displays all the original copies of the poem we own in addition to more modern retellings and illustrations. Our copy of Moore’s 1844 “Poems” has one significant detail: it’s signed by Moore to the Reverend Samuel Seabury, who was a professor at General Theological Seminary and also the grandson of the first Episcopal American bishop, Samuel Seabury. The inscription says: “To the Reverend Dr. Seabury, with the respect of his friend the author, July 1844.”</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>The library also owns Moore’s rare follow-up work, titled “<a href="https://gts.bywatersolutions.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=77412&query_desc=ti%2Cwrdl%3A%20the%20night%20after%20christmas">The Night after Christmas</a>,” which was published after his death in 1863. In this version, the children are visited by their doctor after having too many treats delivered by Santa – and the physician shares some similarities with Santa himself:</p>
<p>“His eyes how they twinkled! Had the doctor got merry?
His cheeks looked like Port and his breath smelt of Sherry… </p>
<p>But a wink of his eye when he physicked our Fred
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread…”</p>
<p>
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<p><a href="https://www.ats.edu/">General Theological Seminary is a member of the Association of Theological Schools</a></p>
<footer>The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation U.S.</footer>
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</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Chim does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ is one of the most famous American poems. But who wrote it?
Melissa Chim, Adjunct Professor and Reference Librarian, General Theological Seminary
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171396
2021-12-13T01:36:18Z
2021-12-13T01:36:18Z
Buying picture books as Christmas presents? These stories with diverse characters can help kids develop empathy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437064/original/file-20211212-17-e3x2c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-little-boys-reading-book-on-1248193327">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gifting children books can be about more than just giving them something to read. Books are portals to adventure, imagination and new experiences. Importantly, books can help children understand and appreciate themselves, and those around them.</p>
<p>Sadly, books normalising racial, cultural, family or gender diversity and diverse abilities are <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/1/32">few and far between</a>.</p>
<p>When children see characters and stories reflecting their background, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-019-00375-7">they can develop a stronger sense of identity</a>. Research also shows reading books with diverse characters and story-lines helps children develop a greater <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1096250618811619">understanding and appreciation of people different to themselves</a>.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-books-must-be-diverse-or-kids-will-grow-up-believing-white-is-superior-140736">Children's books must be diverse, or kids will grow up believing white is superior</a>
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<p>Here are some <a href="https://petaa.edu.au/w/Store/Item_Detail.aspx?iProductCode=PET128&Category=PEN">suggestions of diverse picture books</a> you could buy for kids this Christmas.</p>
<h2>1. Books with diverse characters</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435520/original/file-20211203-27-1hle88i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hachette.com.au/maxine-beneba-clarke-van-t-rudd/the-patchwork-bike">Hachette Australia</a></span>
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<p>A student teacher I know was tutoring a nine-year-old Muslim girl and decided to share with her a book called <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35529549-the-rainbow-hijab">The Rainbow Hijab</a>. When the girl saw the book, her eyes lit up with excitement and she turned to her tutor and said, “I didn’t know they made books about Muslim girls like me.”</p>
<p>No child should feel invisible in books. All children should be able to see themselves and people different to them portrayed in positive and inclusive ways. </p>
<p>The best books for children are those containing enjoyable story lines and reflecting diversity without preaching about it.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/maxine-beneba-clarke-van-t-rudd/the-patchwork-bike">The Patchwork Bike</a> by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Van T. Rudd, is about children of African and Muslim background and the bike they build together from things they find around them. All children can relate to the joyful story of playing outside and being creative.</p>
<p>Other books containing relatable childhood stories are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/picture-books/Auntys-Wedding-Miranda-Tapsell-Joshua-Tyler-and-Samantha-Fry-9781760524838">Aunty’s Wedding</a>, by Miranda Tapsell, illustrated by Joshua Tyler and Samantha Fry</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Books/Maddies-First-Day-9781925381351">Maddie’s First Day</a> by Penny Matthews, illustrated by Liz Annelli.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>2. Books portraying diverse abilities</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435522/original/file-20211203-25-8j8p2c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.magabala.com/products/two-mates">Magabala Books</a></span>
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<p>Almost 5% of children in Australia live with a <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/australias-children/contents/health/children-disabilities">severe disability</a>, while nearly 8% have some level of disability. This number is likely higher as there are many children with undiagnosed complex needs, such as autism.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/two-mates">Two Mates</a>, written and illustrated by Melanie Prewett is about a young Aboriginal boy and his non-Indigenous best mate who has spina bifida. The story focuses on their mateship and adventures rather than highlighting their differences. All children benefit from seeing diverse abilities being portrayed in such a positive way.</p>
<p>Two others books in which diverse abilities are normalised rather than highlighted are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/536605/isaac-and-his-amazing-asperger-superpowers-by-melanie-walsh-illustrated-by-melanie-walsh/">Isaac and His Amazing Asperger Super Powers!</a> written and illustrated by Melanie Walsh</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://philcummings.com/reviews/">Boy</a> by Phil Cummings, illustrated by Shane Devries.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>3. Books portraying gender and family diversity</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435523/original/file-20211203-13-rzgnaj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://larrikinhouse.com/product/my-shadow-is-pink-hardcover/">Larrikin House</a></span>
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<p>Many adults find selecting books for children challenging. My, and others’, research shows <a href="https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol46/iss8/4/">adults generally select children’s books based on what they loved</a> when they were children.</p>
<p>This can be a problem, as older books often reflect <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-021-00494-0">outdated views of gender, families, diverse cultures and abilities</a>. </p>
<p>For example, there are close to 48,000 single sex families in Australia. yet children from these families rarely see characters like them in books.</p>
<p><a href="https://larrikinhouse.com/product/my-shadow-is-pink-hardcover/">My Shadow is Pink</a>, written and illustrated by Scott Stuart, is a rhyming book about a young gender-diverse child. This book beautifully explores his relationship with his father who helps him be proud of who he is.</p>
<p>Two other books that tell stories of gender or family diversity in supportive and informative ways are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.scribblekidsbooks.com/books/p/whos-your-real-mum">Who’s Your Real Mum?</a> by Bernadette Green, illustrated by Anna Zobel </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602705/love-makes-a-family-by-sophie-beer/">Love Makes a Family</a>, written and illustrated by Sophie Beer. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>4. Books challenging gender stereotypes</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/i-want-to-be-a-superhero">I Want to be a Superhero</a> by Breanna Humes, illustrated by Ambelin Kwaymullina tells the story of a little girl who wants to be a superhero. Her Grandpa encourages and supports her as she discovers it is OK to dream big. It is important for children to see that gender or race should not define who you are or what you can do.</p>
<p>Two others books promoting positive messages that disrupt traditional gender stereotypes are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/me-and-my-boots-by-penny-harrison/9781760502331">Me and my Boots</a> by Penny Harrison, illustrated by Evie Barrow </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/567598/want-to-play-trucks-by-ann-stott-illustrated-by-bob-graham/">Want to Play Trucks?</a> by Ann Stott, illustrated by Bob Graham.</p></li>
</ul>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hf_z-R8306k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>5. Books with messages about social justice</h2>
<p>These books shed light on important social justice issues through gentle informative stories.</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/maxine-beneba-clarke/when-we-say-black-lives-matter">When We Say Black Lives Matter</a>, written and illustrated by Maxine Beneba Clarke</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/Somebodys-Land-Welcome-to-Our-Country-Adam-Goodes-and-Ellie-Laing-illustrated-by-David-Hardy-9781760526726">Somebody’s Land</a> by Adam Goodes and Ellie Laing, illustrated by David Hardy </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/stories-for-simon-9780143784258">Stories for Simon</a> by Lisa Miranda Sarzin, illustrated by Lauren Briggs.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Other diverse books I simply must recommend</h2>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.andersenpress.co.uk/books/the-proudest-blue/">The Proudest Blue</a> by Ibtihaj Muhammed (as told to S. K. Ali), illustrated by Hatem Aly</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Rainbow-Hijab-Amran-Abdi/dp/154119795X">The Rainbow Hijab</a> by Amran Abdi, illustrated by Nicola Davies</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/baby-business">Baby Business</a>, written and illustrated by Jasmine Seymour</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/once-there-was-a-boy">Once There Was a Boy</a>, written and illustrated by Dub Leffler.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171396/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Joanne Adam receives funding from the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry. She is a Board Director for the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and serves in a voluntary capacity on the book selection panel for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Australia.</span></em></p>
Research shows reading books with diverse characters and story-lines helps children develop a greater understanding and appreciation of people different to themselves.
Helen Joanne Adam, Senior Lecturer in Literacy Education and Children's Literature: Course Coordinator Master of Teaching (Primary), Edith Cowan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165229
2021-08-24T14:32:20Z
2021-08-24T14:32:20Z
Indigenous children’s book ‘Little Louis’ aims to curb COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy with a culturally relevant story
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417088/original/file-20210819-23-o3wag8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C802%2C1079&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The children's book, Little Louis, tells the story of a young boy preparing for his COVID-19 vaccination.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Morning Star Lodge)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/indigenous-children-s-book--little-louis--aims-to-curb-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-with-a-culturally-relevant-story" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone. But communities are different, and so are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2020-214401">their pandemic experiences</a>. After more than a year of uncertainty and frustration, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/how-soon-will-covid-19-vaccines-return-life-normal">vaccines have brought many a sense that a return to normal</a> is on the horizon. However, health and research communities now face a new challenge: vaccine hesitancy. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410911/original/file-20210712-19-geybnm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/vaccine-confidence-in-canada-107061">Click here for more articles in our series about vaccine confidence.</a></span>
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<p>While there are countless reasons to be vaccine hesitant, we must acknowledge the numerous legitimate reasons for hesitancy. </p>
<p>For example, if a community has experienced an exhausting history of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/his.2013.0015">medical experimentation</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-november-13-2018-1.4902679/indigenous-women-kept-from-seeing-their-newborn-babies-until-agreeing-to-sterilization-says-lawyer-1.4902693">forced or coerced sterilization</a> and breaches of trust by the very institutions presenting the vaccine, their hesitancy is based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.4161/hv.24657">cultural or historical factors</a> and entirely distinct from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-inherent-racism-of-anti-vaxx-movements-163456">“anti-vaxx” movement</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nutrition-researchers-saw-malnourished-children-at-indian-residential-schools-as-perfect-test-subjects-162986">Nutrition researchers saw malnourished children at Indian Residential Schools as perfect test subjects</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is the daunting reality for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.210112">many Indigenous communities</a> across the country. As a result, there is an urgent need to repair trust and promote vaccine confidence through evidence-based knowledge.</p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.indigenoushealthlab.com/">Morning Star Lodge</a>, we are part of a partnership between the community research advisory committee at <a href="https://fhqtc.com/star-blanket/">Star Blanket Cree Nation</a> and <a href="https://kidsinpain.ca/">Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP)</a>. Together we have collaborated to promote vaccine confidence while demonstrating the importance of community-led research.</p>
<h2>Reflecting culture</h2>
<p>We entered into this partnership to promote vaccine uptake under the direction of Indigenous communities. Through our discussions, we came to solutions about ways we could promote COVID-19 vaccination information — like booklets <a href="https://tinyurl.com/AllAboutMeKids">for Indigenous children</a> <a href="https://tinyurl.com/AllAboutMeAdults">and adults</a>. After coming up with several solutions, Star Blanket Cree Nation’s research advisory committee members pointed towards an additional need: A children’s book, and in came <em>Little Louis</em>. </p>
<p>Many Indigenous Peoples grew up without medical information that respected or reflected their culture, the CRAC recognized the need to reverse this trend. A children’s book that reflects the identities of Indigenous children is important for making information accessible to all.</p>
<p>SKIP, Morning Star Lodge and Indigenous community members began to prepare a children’s book that is engaging, educational and relevant for Indigenous children experiencing needle fear or vaccine hesitancy — seeing their culture reflected in a children’s book can make all the difference when it comes to getting the jab. Needle fear or hesitation <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.150391">is a common feeling</a> and there is minimal children’s literature on the topic, especially literature that is culturally relevant. </p>
<p>The Star Blanket Cree Nation’s cultural, community and <a href="http://mediacentre.maramatanga.ac.nz/system/files/NPM%20Conference%20Proceedings%202012.pdf#page=32">storytelling</a> expertise far exceeds that of SKIP or Morning Star Lodge. The community research advisory committee members live in, and are from, the communities we serve, <a href="https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/what-does-indigenous-knowledge-mean">their Indigenous Knowledge adds depth and relevance to all of our projects</a>. Their guidance and leadership ensures that developments, like <em>Little Louis</em>, directly reflect community needs. </p>
<h2>Indigenous Peoples expertise, guidance and leadership</h2>
<p><em>Little Louis</em> talks about how to prepare for getting a vaccine, what vaccines feel like and what parents and children can do in order to be supported. The intention is that <em>Little Louis</em> will evolve into several different stories that will target different audiences and address different issues as time goes on and different issues arise. This sort of flexibility is a requisite to working with dynamic communities.</p>
<p>Inflexible research was and is often the norm. <a href="https://irb.cherokee.org/media/rkknqeww/helicopter-research.pdf">“Helicopter” research</a> (where researchers enter communities, collect data and leave, never to be heard from again) was and is still practised. This entirely one-sided interaction always benefits researchers but rarely, if ever, benefits communities. It frequently misrepresents realities for Indigenous communities and <a href="http://doi.org/10.3233/SJI-180478">actively creates negative stereotypes</a> that have been used to justify systemic racism. </p>
<p>Historically, research with Indigenous Peoples was not conducted “<a href="https://caan.ca/tools-and-resources/resource/doing-research-in-a-good-way">in a good way</a>.” Today, researchers can be guided to correct the errors of the past through principles like <a href="https://fnigc.ca/ocap-training/">OCAP (ownership, control, access and possession)</a> and the <a href="https://www.gida-global.org/care">CARE and FAIR principles for Indigenous data governance</a>. Further, researchers can learn about <a href="https://www.indigenoushealthlab.com/courses">ethical engagement and cultural safety</a> to ensure their research is truly ethical and upholds community perspectives.</p>
<p><a href="https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/tcps2-eptc2_2018_chapter9-chapitre9.html">In practice, this means Indigenous Peoples should be at the helm</a> of any research that may impact them or is about them. Doing so can prevent harmful misrepresentations, promote self-determination and contribute to solutions Indigenous communities actually need — like a children’s book that addresses vaccine hesitancy.</p>
<p><em>The following is a synopsis of “Little Louis.” Check the <a href="https://www.indigenoushealthlab.com/blog">Morning Star Lodge blog for updates on publication</a>.</em></p>
<h2>Meet <em>Little Louis</em></h2>
<p><em>Little Louis</em> tells the story of Louis, a young boy preparing for his COVID-19 vaccination. Louis starts by sharing his fears and frustrations with safety restrictions and the vaccine. His family listens and tells him how brave he is for making the decision to keep himself and the community safe. </p>
<p>Still nervous and hesitant about the vaccine, Louis’ family has an idea to create a “little” Louis, out of paper, which he can bring to the vaccination clinic during his appointment. Louis’ family also shares the story of a <a href="http://www.metismuseum.ca/media/db/06280">brave Métis leader named Gabriel Dumont</a> and his rifle, <em>le petit</em> (little one). </p>
<p>The night before the vaccination appointment, Louis dreams of going on a fishing adventure with Little Louis where they reel in what they think is a fish but it turns out to be a big needle! Louis and Little Louis both bravely face the needle, reeling it in until it turns into the big catch they hoped for. The next morning Louis shares his dream with his family. They tell him that he was brave for facing his fears. </p>
<p>Finally, Louis goes to his vaccine appointment with Little Louis by his side. The doctor asks to see Little Louis to give him the vaccine first. Observing that Little Louis was brave and didn’t get scared, Louis is ready and the doctor gives Louis his vaccine. Both Louis and Little Louis are now protected from COVID-19! </p>
<p><em>Do you have a question about COVID-19 vaccines? Email us at <a href="mailto:ca-vaccination@theconversation.com">ca-vaccination@theconversation.com</a> and vaccine experts will answer questions in upcoming articles.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Sullivan is directly employed by Morning Star Lodge and, by extension, indirectly employed by the communities Morning Star Lodge serves. Therefore, Patrick has an interest in promoting the methodologies utilized by Morning Star Lodge and the priorities identified by community members. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather O'Watch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There is an urgent need to combat historically fuelled vaccine hesitancy within Indigenous communities. The best way to do this is through evidence-based knowledge and community-led work.
Patrick Sullivan, Sr. Research Assistant, Morning Star Lodge, University of Saskatchewan
Heather O'Watch, Research Assistant, Morning Star Lodge, University of Saskatchewan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164736
2021-07-30T12:53:35Z
2021-07-30T12:53:35Z
Tokyo Olympics: why the stories of elite athletes make for such great childrens’ books
<p>Whether it’s Tom Brown, the principled captain of the cricket team in <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1480/1480-h/1480-h.htm">Tom Brown’s School Days</a>, or Darrell Rivers playing lacrosse in Enid Blyton’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/bbcs-adaptation-of-malory-towers-reveals-more-about-the-period-and-its-diversity-than-blytons-book-136087">Malory Towers</a>, or <a href="https://www.wizardingworld.com/discover/books/harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone">Harry Potter</a> making the Quidditch team in his first year at Hogwarts, the sporting hero has long been a stalwart of children’s literature. </p>
<p>The most popular child protagonists often possess innate – or unexpected – athletic ability. They exhibit <a href="https://globalsportmatters.com/culture/2018/08/13/who-needs-sportsmanship-the-answer-is-we-all-do/">good sportsmanship</a>, winning and losing with grace and good humour. They model determination and dedication. </p>
<p>It is no surprise then that children find real-life athletes mesmerising too. From skateboarder <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/17/skateboarding-sky-brown-begged-parents-to-let-me-go-olympics-team-gb">Sky Brown</a> – Team GB’s youngest Olympian to date, aged 13 – to record-breaking swimmer <a href="https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2021/july/adam-peaty-the-elite-psychology-of-a-champion/">Adam Peaty</a>, players on the Olympic stage appear as superheroes, seemingly able to defy the laws of gravity or swim faster than Aquaman. </p>
<p>Their exploits chime with the way children seek to <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-ways-parents-can-help-their-kids-take-risks-and-why-its-good-for-them-120576">push physical boundaries</a>, wanting to always climb higher, jump further, run faster and hold their breath underwater for longer. As the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/14/marcus-rashford-scores-in-book-charts-with-you-are-a-champion">runaway success</a> of Marcus Rashford’s book, You Are a Champion, demonstrates, books by and about real-life sporting heroes are as instructive as they are <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/how-olympic-gold-medallist-mary-wineberg-is-inspiring-children-around-the-world">exhilarating</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Close up of a small part of the giant Marcus Rashford mural in Withington, Manchester" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413769/original/file-20210729-23-12pana4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Messages left on a Marcus Rashford mural demonstrate quite how much of a hero the footballer has become to children across the country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/close-up-of-a-small-part-of-the-giant-manchester-united-player-marcus-rashford-mural-in-withington-manchester-england-united-kingdom-that-was-vandalised-with-abusive-graffiti-after-englands-euro2020-football-loss-on-july-11th-2021-the-mural-was-created-by-french-born-street-artist-akse-p19-on-the-wall-of-the-coffee-house-cafe-on-copson-street-marcus-people-have-left-thousands-of-supportive-notes-pictures-flags-flowers-and-anti-racist-messages-following-the-defacement-image434944554.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=9159E949-6B13-458D-BDC7-B441E195F18E&p=718675&n=115&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3Dmarcus%2520rashford%2520child%26qt_raw%3Dmarcus%2520rashford%2520child%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26edrf%3D0%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3D%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D0%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D1%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3DFR%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26lb%3D%26pl%3D0%26plno%3D%26fi%3D0%26langcode%3Den%26upl%3D0%26cufr%3D%26cuto%3D%26howler%3D%26cvrem%3D0%26cvtype%3D0%26cvloc%3D0%26cl%3D0%26upfr%3D%26upto%3D%26primcat%3D%26seccat%3D%26cvcategory%3D*%26restriction%3D%26random%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26contributorqt%3D%26plgalleryno%3D%26plpublic%3D0%26viewaspublic%3D0%26isplcurate%3D0%26imageurl%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D%26t%3D0%26filters%3D0">Terry Waller / Alamy Stock Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inspirational figures</h2>
<p>Tapping into the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/dr-seuss-vs-madonna-can-celebrities-write-good-childrens-books/244700/#:%7E:text=Jamie%20Lee%20Curtis%2C%20John%20Lithgow,'re%20natural%20publicity%20machines.%22">celebrity author trend</a> in children’s literature, numerous athletes have penned their own books. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10583-016-9281-7">Research</a> has looked at how those by female athletes – from softball champion Jennie Finch’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9150503-throw-like-a-girl">Throw Like a Girl</a> to football player and Olympic gold medallist Alex Morgan’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23846402-breakaway">Breakaway</a> – seek to empower young girls.</p>
<p>While Rashford’s guide to dreaming big and being the best you can be is aimed at older children and young people, tomes for the youngest readers have garnered acclaim too. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31208005-ready-steady-mo">Ready Steady Mo!</a> and the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35999725-go-mo-go">Go, Mo, Go!</a> series UK distance runner <a href="https://www.mofarah.com/">Mo Farah</a> has written with popular children’s author Kes Gray, he has used rhyming verse and illustrations designed to appeal to beginners: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Run on the pavement,<br>
Run on the grass,<br>
Run in the playground,<br>
Perhaps not in class!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The emphatic repetition creates an almost onomatopoeic sense of Farah’s swift footsteps as he runs away from sea monsters, yetis and dinosaurs. </p>
<p>In his 2009 book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6500084-how-to-train-with-a-t-rex-and-win-8-gold-medals">How to Train with a T. Rex and Win 8 Gold Medals</a>, US Olympian Michael Phelps, meanwhile, presents the kind of facts small children are drawn to: swimming the length of nearly 11 Eiffel towers in a single Olympic Games; and eating enough broccoli to fill the back of a pick-up truck. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1076217516644635">Much has</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271257662_The_Availability_of_Access_Features_in_Children's_Non-Fiction">been written</a> on the importance of non-fiction in children’s literature, in terms of satisfying curiosity and promoting analytical thought. </p>
<h2>Discipline and determination</h2>
<p>Lucy Semple’s <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/616740/when-i-grow-up---sports-heroes-by-dk/#:%7E:text=About%20When%20I%20Grow%20Up%20%E2%80%93%20Sports%20Heroes&text=Meet%20Lionel%20Messi%20when%20he,and%20became%20a%20figure%20skater.">When I Grow Up – Sports Heroes</a> is a colourful illustrated book which follows sports stars from childhood to the Olympic podium. As well as showing that they were once children too, the book helps young readers appreciate that the 19.30 seconds it took Usain Bolt to win the 200m in Beijing 2008 was the culmination of decades of hard training and self-sacrifice. </p>
<p>And in one of her <a href="https://books.apple.com/au/book/katarina-johnson-thompson-ultimate-sports-heroes/id1524907042">Ultimate Sports Heroes</a> series, Melanie Hamm tells the story of how the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/57960415">heptathlete</a> Katarina Johnson-Thompson became a world champion. Hamm does not sugar-coat the injuries and disappointments the Liverpudlian suffered early in her career but instead emphasises that it is exactly those moments of darkness and despair that have since propelled Johnson-Thompson to glory.</p>
<p>These are stories of discipline and resilience. Psychotherapists <a href="https://www.reachinginreachingout.com/documents/CCCF-Fall07-English.pdf">suggest</a> that they can provide children with concrete examples of how to handle adversity. </p>
<h2>Triumphing over adversity</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46223445-flying-high">Flying High</a>, Michelle Meadows relates the inspirational journey of US gymnast <a href="https://theconversation.com/tokyo-2020-simone-biles-withdrawal-is-a-sign-of-resilience-and-strength-165287">Simone Biles</a> through a regular ABCB rhyme scheme. As the most decorated gymnast of all times completes the Biles – one of the moves now <a href="https://time.com/6083539/gymnastics-moves-named-after-simone-biles/">named after her</a> – at the Gymnastics World Championships, we see that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Her signature move shows<br>
phenomenal flair:<br>
two breathtaking flips<br>
high up in the air.</p>
<p>Simone is on a roll,<br>
watch her go, go go!<br>
She’s the best in the world<br>
three years in a row.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2466/pr0.1978.43.3f.1231">Research shows</a> that rhyming texts help children to better remember the sequence of events in a narrative. Parents can <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1973-28602-001">take advantage of rhyme</a> to make reading aloud more interactive by pausing before reading the rhyming word to allow young children to fill it in. </p>
<p>Correctly anticipating the missing rhyming word gives children <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0142723714544410">a sense of accomplishment</a> and makes them more likely to recall that word for use in the future. By reading for pleasure about the medal-winning performances of an Olympic gymnast, children are also becoming more agile and confident in their use of language. </p>
<h2>Body positivity and role models</h2>
<p>Team GB synchronised swimmers Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe revealed last week that they have been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57778626">bullied online</a> for their “big shoulders, small boobs and small bums”. This is sadly something that happens a lot, so it is clear that inspiring body positivity and a sense of sporting potential in young girls is crucial. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-feminist-picture-book-revolution-77461">Children’s books</a> including Meadows’s book about Biles, as well as Jeanette Winters’s celebration of Venus and Serena Williams in <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sisters/Jeanette-Winter/9781534431218">Sisters</a>, aim to do just that. </p>
<p>Books like Rachel Ignotofsky’s <a href="https://rachelignotofskydesign.com/women-in-sports">Women in Sport: Fifty Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win</a>, meanwhile, celebrate the female sporting role models <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-research-shows-seven-is-heaven-for-girls-and-sports">young girls often lack</a>, from Canadian ice hockey goaltender <a href="https://www.nhl.com/kings/news/manon-rheaume-still-inspiring-young-women-to-pursue-hockey-dreams/c-315598612">Manon Rhéaume</a> to Columbian BMX cyclist <a href="https://olympics.com/en/athletes/mariana-pajon">Mariana Pajón</a>. </p>
<p>Jaded adults might <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/sports/olympics/tokyo-olympics.html">question</a> whether the games should go on. But the stories Olympians have to tell still have the power to enthral. And the very values the Olympics purport to embody – <a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/faq/olympic-rings-and-other-olympic-marks/what-are-the-values-of-olympism#:%7E:text=The%20three%20values%20of%20Olympism,to%20building%20a%20better%20world.">excellence, friendship and respect</a> – remain closely aligned with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/105345129803300304">those</a> we hope our children will <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/41529222.pdf">glean</a> from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/empathy-starts-early-5-australian-picture-books-that-celebrate-diversity-153629">books</a> they <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7036210/">read</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Spencer-Regan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Whether in defeat or victory, each Olympian’s story is one of dedication and perseverance. Children’s authors have long cottoned on to their literary potential
Eleanor Spencer-Regan, Vice-Principal and Senior Tutor of St Chad's College, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164324
2021-07-28T15:40:42Z
2021-07-28T15:40:42Z
The story of an African children’s book that explains the science of skin colour
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411246/original/file-20210714-27-ig4bz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://newafricabooks.com/products/skin-we-are-in-sindiwe-magona-nina-g-jablonski?variant=32109559742500">Skin We Are In</a> is a landmark South African book for children (and grown-ups) on the subject of skin colour. Published in 2018, it was co-authored by an artist and a scientist, both South African luminaries – the author <a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-from-the-story-of-pioneering-south-african-writer-sindiwe-magona-155670">Sindiwe Magona</a> and the anthropologist and palaeobiologist <a href="https://anth.la.psu.edu/people/ngj2">Nina Jablonski</a>. Here they talk about how – and why – the book came about.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Nina Jablonski:</strong> As someone who studies the human biological past, I had been writing about skin colour and race for academic journals and for adult readers for years. The idea of doing a children’s book was planted back in 2010 when a friend impressed on me the importance of writing up my <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520275898/skin">research</a> on <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520283862/living-color">skin colour and race</a> as an illustrated book for young readers. Like many South Africans, he realised that skin colour had been transformed through the country’s colonial history from a simple bodily trait – something that covers our bodies – to something that determines human worth and destiny. </p>
<p>I had found, in the course of my work, that people knew its social significance, but they didn’t understand it. Many were convinced that there was a genetic connection between skin colour and other physical and intellectual traits, including intelligence. This information – about how skin colour had evolved and how it didn’t determine any other human traits – really needed to be conveyed to the people who counted most: young people. </p>
<p>But I had no experience in writing for kids and no idea where the story would come from. I had the big challenge of finding a storyteller. I turned to the writer <a href="https://www.njabulondebele.co.za">Njabulo Ndebele</a> for advice. He suggested you, Sindiwe, saying “she has the spirit and spine needed”.</p>
<p><strong>Sindiwe Magona:</strong> The project scared me for I had never worked with a scientist. But the subject matter is one of the most important aspects of my life as it has been the bane of black life in this country and, indeed, the world. This was a book that could enable parents to broach the subject of skin colour with their children. All parents need help to deal with race and racism; many did not get good grounding as children. Skin colour is often a difficult subject and dealing with it through storytelling is a great aid.</p>
<p><strong>Nina Jablonski:</strong> One of the things that most impressed me, once we were talking, was your ability to express the everyday wear-and-tear of skin colour and colour-based racism.</p>
<p><strong>Sindiwe Magona:</strong> Racism in South Africa was a way of life as it was sanctioned. Social stratification, according to skin, was reinforced by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid laws</a> that in turn embedded and entrenched poverty and lack of mobility for the oppressed. The darker the skin colour, the less legal protection accorded, to the extent of denial of citizenship. Just as skin colour is inescapable, so was poverty inescapable. This created and reinforced a deep-seated sense of inferiority in most black people while most white people suffered the reverse and felt superior.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A book cover with the words 'Skin we are in' on an illustration of five young people, each a different skin tone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411224/original/file-20210714-19-12xcgux.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of the book written by two South African luminaries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">New Africa Books</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Nina Jablonski:</strong> You found the hook to start writing the book quite by chance…</p>
<p><strong>Sindiwe Magona:</strong> Coming back from our first meeting, Nina, I walked through the gate and reached behind the post for mail. Right there, on the small bush whose leaves I often have to brush aside to look into the mailbox, sat a chameleon. I watched as it slowly made its way from the stalk onto a leaf … changing colour as it did. At once, I morphed into a child, a boy, and I envied the chameleon’s ability. If only I could do that. Strange thing is – never before and never since have I spied another in my garden.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/learning-from-the-story-of-pioneering-south-african-writer-sindiwe-magona-155670">Learning from the story of pioneering South African writer Sindiwe Magona</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Nina Jablonski:</strong> When you told me about Njabulo, who longed to change his colour, I knew we had a great story. From there, we worked step by step, fitting the science alongside the developing text. We began working with Lynn Fellman, the illustrator, to create the look of the characters and their setting… </p>
<p><strong>Sindiwe Magona:</strong> Enter Uncle Joshua and a group of children – Njabulo, Aisha, Tim, Chris and Roshni. Given a recycling project, Njabulo offers his Uncle Joshua’s junkyard, where the group from a multiracial school should meet. Njabulo, waiting for his group, is suddenly assailed by misgivings. Will his “friends” find him wanting? Are they, indeed, his friends? That is when he comes across the chameleon and wishes they were all the same colour … or if one could change colour like the chameleon. Uncle Joshua is stricken by the realisation of the self-doubt that is the lot of the black child. Later, he gets the group talking about skin colour; and here Nina’s science comes in very handy. With understanding grows self acceptance and appreciation. The result is the song that the group presents with the instruments they make using bits and pieces from the scrap yard.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elder woman smiles lightly as she looks into the camera, eyes warm and dressed in black, beaded traditional Xhosa attire, a zebra skin on the wall behind her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413535/original/file-20210728-23-k84xc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sindiwe Magona has written over 130 children’s books.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Bjorn Rudner/Sindiwe Magona</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Nina Jablonski:</strong> Uncle Joshua was a believable and trusted wise uncle, who talked to the kids about things like the effects of sunlight on the body and how people got it wrong when they equated skin colour with intellectual potential. The science content boxes on each page provided basic facts backing up what Uncle Joshua was saying. The characters are very true, I don’t know how you do it.</p>
<p><strong>Sindiwe Magona:</strong> I am fortunate that I never discarded my childhood, or perhaps it never left me. This enables me to go into that world of the child, imagine its delights, its fears, its doubts, and the absolute thrill of discovery, of mastery.</p>
<p><strong>Nina Jablonski:</strong> We can’t force books into the hands of children, parents and teachers. But we made the book available in all of the official languages of South Africa, and made free copies readily available to schools in the Western Cape through <a href="http://www.biblionefsa.org.za">Biblionef South Africa</a>. We are incredibly fortunate that we had support from the businessman <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/koos-bekker/?sh=793484be416d">Koos Bekker</a> through the Babylonstoren Foundation to make these things possible.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-unpack-the-word-race-and-find-new-language-138379">We need to unpack the word 'race' and find new language</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Sindiwe Magona:</strong> All parents are challenged by the issue of race and racism. White parents often feel “accused” of racism and black parents, by and large, feel since they are at the receiving end of racism, it is the other side that should learn. If white people would just stop being racist then the problem would be no more. Were it that simple. </p>
<p>We all need to forgive ourselves and one another … so we can go on and own our past and what it dealt us and then rid ourselves of beliefs we have come to know or recognise as unfounded. From there, we might be able to hand over a cleaner, wiser belief system to our children.</p>
<p><em>You can order a copy of Skin We Are In over <a href="https://newafricabooks.com/products/skin-we-are-in-sindiwe-magona-nina-g-jablonski">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nina G. Jablonski receives funding from the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) and is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of STIAS.. </span></em></p>
For parents, skin colour is often a difficult subject and dealing with it through storytelling can be a useful aid.
Nina G. Jablonski, Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Penn State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162583
2021-06-30T19:40:46Z
2021-06-30T19:40:46Z
5 children’s books that teach valuable engineering lessons
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408905/original/file-20210629-16-1j5jcge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5124%2C3382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Engineering lessons can be found in many books kids already have at home or their local library. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-hoists-her-books-to-the-checkout-desk-at-the-watertown-news-photo/1228228140">Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people think of the children’s classic “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/charlottes-web-e-b-whitekate-dicamillo?variant=32153972277282">Charlotte’s Web</a>” as a story of devoted friendship between a spider and a pig. But it can also be read as a story of a budding engineer – Charlotte – who prototypes, builds, tests and revises her web to solve a problem.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-Wmb3e8AAAAJ&hl=en">teacher</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vA_66SsAAAAJ&hl=en">educators</a>, we use children’s books <a href="https://my.nsta.org/resource/115145/methods-and-strategies-hiding-in-plain-sight">to make lessons about science</a> and <a href="https://www.nsta.org/science-scope/science-scope-novemberdecember-2020/using-trade-books-and-biographies-bring-practices">engineering</a> accessible to children of all ages.</p>
<p>Through books, children can experience how engineers use <a href="https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/what-is-design-thinking">design-based thinking</a>, which focuses on creative and innovative solutions, to solve problems. They can also explore the history of things that they use every day, such as crayons, bridges and cars. And they can expand their image of who can be an engineer or inventor.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.16.4.4">Our work</a> suggests that picture books and biographies for young adult readers can be particularly effective for introducing children to the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/best/edp.html">engineering design process</a>. These are the actions – ask, imagine, plan, create, test and improve – that engineers take to design a solution to a problem. They also help children understand engineering <a href="https://www.linkengineering.org/Explore/what-is-engineering/5808.aspx">habits of mind</a>. These are the traits, such as creativity and persistence, that help engineers successfully solve problems.</p>
<p>Here are five of our favorite science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) books for children, and some of the engineering lessons that they teach.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children's book cover with man holding water gun" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408909/original/file-20210629-21-xq8p1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The man who made water guns awesome.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. ‘<a href="https://chrisbarton.info/books/whoosh.html">Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions</a>’</h2>
<p><a href="http://lonniejohnson.com/">Lonnie Johnson</a> was always curious about how things worked. One day, while trying to figure out a way to replace the harmful chemicals found in refrigerators and air conditioners, he connected a pump with a nozzle to his bathroom faucet. When he turned the faucet on, water blasted across the room. Johnson had invented a water gun! Johnson tested and redesigned his new invention until it became the perfect summer toy – the Super Soaker. </p>
<p>This picture-book biography introduces young readers to the prototype-test-redesign process that is central to engineering. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children's book cover with man holding strings to parade balloon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408911/original/file-20210629-22-if7v14.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=621&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marionette strings inspired the famous parade balloons.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. ’<a href="https://www.melissasweet.net/balloons-over-broadway">Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade</a>’</h2>
<p>Grab a front-row seat to the story of how Tony Sarg, an immigrant from Western Europe, created one of America’s most iconic holiday traditions – the giant balloons of <a href="https://www.macys.com/social/parade/?decade=1920s">Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade</a>. </p>
<p>This picture-book biography highlights how engineers draw on imagination and inspiration to improve their designs. After reading, children can use these same traits to create their own <a href="https://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/curriculum/the-arts/details/wayang-puppet-plays">Indonesian rod puppets</a>. These puppets inspired Sarg to flip his marionette strings upside-down so that his famous balloons could soar.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children's book cover of woman watching birds fly" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408912/original/file-20210629-28-1hu7t3s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greatness often starts with failure.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. ‘<a href="https://kirsten-w-larson.com/wood-wire-wings-emma-lilian-todd-invents-an-airplane/">Wood, Wire, Wings: Emma Lilian Todd Invents an Airplane</a>’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.earlyaviators.com/etodd1.htm">Lilian Todd</a> – a self-taught inventor, engineer and contemporary of the Wright brothers – worked to improve airplane designs in the early 1900s. This picture-book biography of her life illustrates how an engineer’s designs frequently fail. And it uses quotes from Todd’s perspective – “There is no work so discouraging, so exasperating, so delightful … so exhilarating as building aeroplanes” – to capture her resilience in overcoming these challenges. </p>
<p>As children often face similar obstacles in their own STEM journeys, Todd’s story provides a model for how children can prepare for, reflect on and move forward from moments of failure.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children's book cover of server in an ice cream parlor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408913/original/file-20210629-11592-17idmbs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Life wasn’t always so sweet for the young chocolatier.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. ’<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Milton-Hershey/M-M-Eboch/Childhood-of-Famous-Americans/9781416955696">Milton Hershey: Young Chocolatier</a>’</h2>
<p>We’ve all eaten Hershey’s chocolate bars and Hershey’s Kisses. However, the road to commercial success for <a href="https://www.thehersheycompany.com/en_us/our-story/milton-hershey.html">Milton Hershey</a> was circuitous, and he failed many times before he succeeded. </p>
<p>This biography, written for ages 8-12, highlights the power of persistence and the design axiom: “<a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57be4ff3893fc0b6f35a64c4/t/59a5f87512abd9d5f9884c45/1504049273548/annotated-file.pdf">Fail often so you can succeed sooner</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children's book cover of boy standing on a windmill" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408915/original/file-20210629-14-ov21k7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1100&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kamkwamba used old bike parts to power his family’s home.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>5. ‘<a href="https://clubs.scholastic.com/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind%3A-young-readers-edition/9780545946032-rco-us.html">The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind</a>’</h2>
<p>This biography, written for ages 10-13, tells how teenaged <a href="http://www.williamkamkwamba.com/">William Kamkwamba</a> built a wind turbine to produce electricity for his family in Malawi. The story shows how anyone, of any age, anywhere in the world can be an engineer. </p>
<p>This book is a great selection for a family or multi-age book club as it is also available as a <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/307402/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-by-william-kamkwamba-and-bryan-mealer-illustrated-by-elizabeth-zunon/">picture book</a>, a <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-boy-who-harnessed-the-wind-william-kamkwambabryan-mealer?variant=32128262242338">biography for adults</a> and even a <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80200047">movie</a>. Everyone can pick the version that is best for them and gather in person or via video chat to talk about lessons learned from Kamkwamba’s dream, determination and design.</p>
<h2>Other books</h2>
<p>Many books that are already in homes, schools and local libraries can also be used to introduce the engineering design process and habits of mind. We recommend looking for the <a href="https://www.nsta.org/science-and-children/science-and-children-januaryfebruary-2021/innovation-and-design">following story features</a> when choosing a book to explore design-based thinking with children. </p>
<p>First, the story presents a problem in a real-life context. Second, the story describes a design plan or way to solve the problem. Third, a character creates, tests and evaluates a prototype of this design. And finally, a character improves the design and applies the revised solution.</p>
<p>Parents and teachers can find more high-quality STEM books on the National Science Teaching Association’s <a href="https://www.nsta.org/best-stem-books-k-12">Best STEM Books K-12</a> or our own expanded <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/18pmSBBZx7f676earUpfKxdjtAI51GxbW/view">list of favorites</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Picture books and young adult biographies can introduce kids to design-based thinking and engineering habits like creativity and persistence.
Michelle Forsythe, Assistant Professor of STEM Education, Texas State University
Julie Jackson, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, Texas State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/158354
2021-04-08T12:02:22Z
2021-04-08T12:02:22Z
Beverly Cleary refused to teach kids how to be good – and generations of young readers fell in love with her rebel Ramona
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393632/original/file-20210406-15-r8vikl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C17%2C2991%2C1720&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Beverly Cleary's beloved characters, including Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins, have enthralled readers for decades.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObitBeverlyCleary/b32b1b09637f4e00bbb15cc0b45f1ff8">AP Photo/Anthony McCartney</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s nothing like being reasoned with by a 4-year-old girl. </p>
<p>“‘Stop it,’ ordered Beezus. ‘Stop it this instant! You can’t eat one bite and then throw the rest away.’</p>
<p>‘But the first bite tastes best,’ explained Ramona reasonably, as she reached into the box again.</p>
<p>Beezus had to admit that Ramona was right. The first bite of an apple always did taste best.”</p>
<p>The author of this scene is Beverly Cleary, who died on March 25, 2021, at the age of 104. The book is <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/beezus-and-ramona-beverly-cleary?variant=32117484847138">“Beezus and Ramona.”</a> Most readers appreciate Ramona’s arguments, admiring the innocence, the free-spiritedness, the insight that inspires her to take a whole carton of apples and indulge in one first bite after another, only ever tasting “the reddest part.”</p>
<p>Many fans love Cleary’s work for a lifetime – first as young children, then as adults. As a mother of twin boys, I have been surprised at how her writing continues to resonate. But what is it that makes Cleary’s characters so enduring?</p>
<h2>Novels that teach</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-arts-and-sciences/english/about-us/directory/kristin-girten.php">scholar of 18th-century British literature</a>, I recognize the pressure on novelists to teach children through their writing. This expectation was set in the 18th century when it was assumed that the modern novel, newly developed, would <a href="https://www.wwnorton.co.uk/books/9780393308617-before-novels">teach as well as please</a>. Reading was expected to be, <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0253.xml">in the words of Horace</a>, both “dulce” (literally sweet, or enjoyable) and “utile” (literally useful, or instructive).</p>
<p>Though readers have, at least since <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/468997">the early 20th century</a>, generally let go of this expectation for authors who write for adults, the expectation persists for those who write for children. With a writing career beginning in the early 1950s, Cleary directly challenged such a notion.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Beverly Cleary wearing a red suit and gold medal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393656/original/file-20210406-21-1988hxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1105&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cleary was a 2003 recipient of a National Medal of Arts, which honors artists and patrons of the arts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-george-w-bush-stands-with-recipients-of-the-news-photo/2721886">Getty Images/Time Sloan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/cleary/transcript">Cleary once told PBS</a> that her fans love Ramona “because she does not learn to be a better girl.” She went on to explain what inspired her to create Ramona’s character: “I was so annoyed with the books in my childhood because children always learned to be better children, and in my experience, they didn’t.” </p>
<p>In fact, Cleary’s Ramona doesn’t just challenge the assumption that readers must learn “from” and “with” fictional characters; one of Ramona’s distinguishing characteristics is rebelliousness.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the time Ramona’s parents are disappointed by her report card:</p>
<p>“‘Now, Ramona.’ Mrs. Quimby’s voice was gentle. ‘You must try to grow up.’</p>
<p>Ramona raised her voice. ‘What do you think I’m doing?’</p>
<p>‘You don’t have to be so noisy about it,’ said Mrs. Quimby.”</p>
<p>The scene continues:</p>
<p>“Ramona had had enough. … She wanted to do something bad. She wanted to do something terrible that would shock her whole family, something that would make them sit up and take notice. ‘I’m going to say a bad word!’ she shouted with a stamp of her foot.”</p>
<p>Then, in the culmination of the scene: “Ramona clenched her fists and took a deep breath. ‘Guts!’ she yelled. ‘Guts! Guts! Guts!’ There. That should show them.”</p>
<h2>Gendering Ramona</h2>
<p>So exactly where does Cleary’s Ramona fit? She doesn’t. She’s an outlier of school standards and gender expectations. Before there were terms like “gender nonbinary,” “gender nonconforming” or “genderqueer,” there was Ramona. Ramona defies categorization. Her friendship with Howie offers one of many examples:</p>
<p>“‘At my grandmother’s,’ said Howie. ‘A bulldozer was smashing some old houses so somebody could build a shopping center, and the man told me I could pick up broken bricks.’</p>
<p>‘Let’s get started,’ said Ramona, running to the garage and returning with two big rocks. … Each grasped a rock in both hands and with it pounded a brick into pieces and the pieces into smithereens. The pounding was hard, tiring work. Pow! Pow! Pow! Then they reduced the smithereens to dust. Crunch, crunch, crunch. They were no longer six-year-olds. They were the strongest people in the world. They were giants.”</p>
<p>This passage is from “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ramona-the-brave-beverly-cleary?variant=32117486288930">Ramona the Brave</a>,” which both is and isn’t of its time. Published in 1975, the novel may be seen as an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">expression of second-wave feminism</a>, which sought to recognize gender as a social construct and to challenge how mainstream society kept women from fulfilling their potential. However, it also previews third-wave feminism by insisting that women <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/books/review/beverly-cleary-ramona-quimby.html">need not abandon their femininity</a> to claim equity for themselves.</p>
<p>Ramona, though quite boyish, insists on writing her last name, “Quimby,” with the “Q” shaped into a cat “with a little tail,” reminding the reader of her feminine side.</p>
<p>I see in Cleary’s writing a nostalgia for the time in childhood before gender is clearly defined. By looking back to that time, children and adult readers alike may imagine a future in which people are able to think <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Beyond-Gender-An-Advanced-Introduction-to-Futures-of-Feminist-and-Sexuality/Olson-Horn-Schott-Hartley-Schmidt/p/book/9780367878337">beyond gender</a>.</p>
<h2>Cleary now</h2>
<p>Most of Cleary’s books are set in the mostly white Grant Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, where she grew up. The lack of racial diversity in Cleary’s work is a likely consequence of her having followed the adage adhered to by many writers: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/write-what-you-know-helpful-advice-or-idle-cliche.html">“Write what you know.”</a> However, current readers might wish that she had stretched herself and her abilities a bit further to have imagined a more racially or ethnically diverse cast of characters.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/my-ramona/308553/">many assert the “universality” of Cleary’s stories</a>. One such reader is young-adult author <a href="https://www.reneewatson.net/">Renee Watson</a>, who, upon Cleary’s death, commented that Ramona “<a href="https://www.pdxmonthly.com/arts-and-culture/what-ramona-quimby-taught-me-about-taking-up-space">wasn’t afraid to take up space</a>.” </p>
<p>“I needed a friend like Ramona,” Watson said. “Cleary introduced to me this rambunctious girl, and I love her. … The power of her storytelling is the respect she had for young readers. She had a deep understanding that a girl articulating how she feels is an asset, not a flaw.”</p>
<p>As I’ve read Cleary’s books to my own Gen-Z sons, I have been particularly struck by how her writing has gotten them interested and invested in female as well as male protagonists. They love the books about Henry and Ribsy, but they love the Ramona books too. When it is so common for boys and men to ignore–or merely <a href="https://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2018/03/male-glance">“glance” at</a>–women’s writing about girls, this is significant. Through Cleary’s work, my sons can see that the big guys don’t always know best or win. Such perspectives can create new normals that are less, well, normative.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristin Girten does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Beverly Cleary once said that her fans love Ramona ‘because she does not learn to be a better girl.’
Kristin Girten, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Arts and Humanities/Associate Professor of English, University of Nebraska Omaha
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156378
2021-03-04T01:57:44Z
2021-03-04T01:57:44Z
Cat in a spat: scrapping Dr Seuss books is not cancel culture
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387623/original/file-20210304-20-13iz99x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C25%2C2382%2C1570&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210303001524522146?path=/aap_dev10/device/imagearc/2021/03-03/ef/ad/05/aapimage-7eqt69neyzq8lbqgfjl_layout.jpg">Christopher Dolan/The Times-Tribune via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Let’s start by putting aside the bugbear that it is even possible to “cancel” children’s author <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/61105.Dr_Seuss?from_search=true&from_srp=true">Dr Seuss</a>. </p>
<p>As Philip Bump wrote yesterday in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/02/if-curtailing-racist-imagery-dr-seuss-is-cancel-culture-what-exactly-is-your-culture/">The Washington Post</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one is ‘cancelling’ Dr Seuss. The author, himself, is dead for one thing, which is about as cancelled as a person can get.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Laying aside a multimillion-dollar publishing business, tattered copies of Dr Seuss books clutter children’s bedrooms around the globe. Parents still grapple nightly with the tongue-twisters of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/105551.Fox_in_Socks?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=heTuR1TrNO&rank=10">Fox in Socks</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7779.Horton_Hears_a_Who_?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=heTuR1TrNO&rank=9">Horton Hears a Who!</a> or <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206962.Hop_On_Pop?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=heTuR1TrNO&rank=12">Hop on Pop</a>, and try their best to keep their eyes open through a 20th reading of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23772.Green_Eggs_and_Ham?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=heTuR1TrNO&rank=2">Green Eggs and Ham</a>. </p>
<p>However, on Tuesday (what would have been Dr Seuss’s 117th birthday), the company that protects the late author’s legacy <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dr-seuss-books-banned-for-racist-stereotypes-qdt55xnjl">announced its plan to halt publishing and licensing</a> six (out of more than 60) Dr Seuss books. </p>
<p>Few would know some of the discontinued titles, like <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7777.McElligot_s_Pool?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=9U9Tp5Gie5&rank=1">McElligot’s Pool</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316575.The_Cat_s_Quizzer?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=e0GHLdRGS8&rank=1">The Cat’s Quizzer</a>. However, many will recognise <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/147029.If_I_Ran_the_Zoo">If I Ran the Zoo</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28351.And_to_Think_That_I_Saw_It_on_Mulberry_Street">And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street</a>, which have been <a href="https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/vol1/iss2/4/">criticised</a> for racist caricatures and themes of cultural dominance and dehumanisation.</p>
<p>In If I Ran the Zoo, young Gerald McGrew builds a “Bad-Animal Catching Machine” to capture a turbaned Arab for his exhibit of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8OsP-iDDF4">unusual beasts</a>”. </p>
<p>“People will stare,” Gerald marvels, “And they’ll say, ‘What a sight!’”. Chinese “helpers” with “eyes at a slant” hunt exotic creatures in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8OsP-iDDF4">reading</a> recorded for Dr Seuss Day in 2019, removes the racist taunt. Instead of helpers who “wear their eyes at a slant”, the helpers “all wear such very cool pants”. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, pervasive racial imagery and subservient typecasting remain. That doesn’t mean Dr Seuss books should — or can — be scrapped altogether. Instead, these books present an opportunity to build awareness and teach young readers about history and context.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of man on colourful wall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387619/original/file-20210303-13-9r8ayy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The visage of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known as Dr Seuss, at the Massachusetts museum that honours his legacy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210302001524379892?path=/aap_dev10/device/imagearc/2021/03-02/b1/fe/23/aapimage-7eqkmpzo51u187d5pfjl_layout.jpg">AP Photo/Steven Senne, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-dr-seuss-childrens-books-a-commitment-to-social-justice-that-remains-relevant-today-45206">In Dr Seuss' children's books, a commitment to social justice that remains relevant today</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Censorship in children’s titles</h2>
<p>Children’s books are among those most often <a href="http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/banned-books-qa">banned or censored</a>. In this case, removing the Dr Seuss titles recognises that he was writing in a time and place when racial stereotyping was commonplace and frequently the focus of humour. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, controversy over golliwogs as racist caricatures was confrontingly played out in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10657.Enid_Blyton?from_search=true&from_srp=true">Enid Blyton</a>’s Noddy stories. In her original telling of <a href="https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book-details.php?id=334">In the Dark, Dark Wood</a>, Noddy is carjacked by three golliwogs who trap him, strip him naked, and leave him crying. “You bad, wicked golliwogs!” Noddy says. “How dare you steal my things!”</p>
<p>Similarly, in the first edition of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4273.Roald_Dahl?from_search=true&from_srp=true">Roald Dahl</a>’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12818090-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory">Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</a>, the Oompa-Loompas are African pygmies who have been “rescued” by Willy Wonka and enslaved in his factory. When Charlie says, “But there must be people working there,” Grandpa Joe responds, “Not people, Charlie. Not ordinary people, anyway.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/abused-neglected-abandoned-did-roald-dahl-hate-children-as-much-as-the-witches-did-152813">Abused, neglected, abandoned — did Roald Dahl hate children as much as the witches did?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In his <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/01/dr-seuss-protest-icon/515031/">political cartoons</a>, which appeared in a New York newspaper in the early 1940s, Dr Seuss ran the gamut of racist depictions, from African-American people as monkeys to Japanese characters with yellow faces and “rice paddy” hats.</p>
<p>In the now-suspended The Cat’s Quizzer, there is “a Japanese” depicted in conical hat and stereotypical dress. On Mulberry Street, a Chinese man with bright yellow skin wears geta shoes and carries a bowl of rice. </p>
<p>In early editions, the caption underneath reads “A Chinaman who eats with sticks”. In 1978, over 40 years after the book was first published, the character’s skin tone and braid were changed. The caption was changed from “Chinaman” to “Chinese man”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pages from a children's book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387608/original/file-20210303-15-q5twut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An earlier 1964 edition of And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street features a character described as ‘a Chinese boy’ with yellow skin and a long ponytail, while a 1984 edition changes the character to ‘a Chinese man’ and alters his appearance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20210303001524522164?path=/aap_dev10/device/imagearc/2021/03-03/8a/e2/6a/aapimage-7eqt6b5mqsy12v4ukfjl_layout.jpg">Christopher Dolan/The Times-Tribune via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>If I ran the library … by today’s standards</h2>
<p>Dr Seuss’s work contains racism and xenophobia, but should we judge him by today’s standards? </p>
<p>Children’s literature has always been subject to socio-historical shifts. It is a product of its time and the context in which it is created. Viewed through the changing lens of history, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/gsch.2011.1.1.4">childhood itself is an unstable concept</a>. </p>
<p>In other words, it is impossible to separate children’s literature from the ideological structure of our world, and from the particular historical moment in which it is produced.</p>
<p>While Dr Seuss’s best-loved characters — the Cat in the Hat, Horton the elephant, the Grinch — have earned their place in the canon, what we should be concerned about is the question of diversity in children’s literature. </p>
<p>We know from numerous <a href="https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/">studies</a> that white children dominate children’s books, with talking animals and trains outnumbering the representations of First Nations, Asian, African and other minority groups. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/empathy-starts-early-5-australian-picture-books-that-celebrate-diversity-153629">Empathy starts early: 5 Australian picture books that celebrate diversity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>No quick fixes</h2>
<p>Although never perfect, other beloved children’s literature series have sought solutions to similar dilemmas. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/16/famous-five-go-back-to-original-language-after-update-flops">Enid Blyton’s stories</a> have been continuously revised since the 1990s. Noddy is now carjacked by goblins, and, in the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20433500-the-magic-faraway-tree-collection?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=3jC6upmETT&rank=1">Faraway Tree series</a>, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/rewrites-a-blight-on-blytons-legacy--by-golly-20120630-219f0.html#ixzz1zbtJ6yLN">Dame Snap replaces Dame Slap</a>, with Fanny and Dick getting a makeover as Frannie and Rick. </p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/family/article/2016/06/27/iconic-richard-scarry-books-now-reflect-contemporary-social-values">Richard Scarry’s books were updated</a> to depict Daddies cooking and Mummies going to work, while the latest film adaptation of The Witches cast actor of colour <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9736665/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t2">Jahzir Bruno</a> as the boy protagonist. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, queer representation in young adult fiction is <a href="https://www.aate.org.au/products/special-editions-of-english-in-australia/english-in-australia-love-in-english">still problematic</a>, with most queer stories <a href="http://archermagazine.com.au/2017/02/4087/">authored by writers who do not identify as queer</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1366783931278786561"}"></div></p>
<p>On one level, the decision to discontinue half a dozen Dr Seuss books because “<a href="https://www.seussville.com/statement-from-dr-seuss-enterprises/">they are hurtful and wrong</a>” seems a simple gesture (and one with relatively small financial impact). Racism permeates the Dr Seuss catalogue, including The Cat in the Hat’s <a href="https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=cat-hat-racist-read-across-america-shifts-away-dr-seuss-toward-diverse-books">origins in blackface minstrel performances</a>. Like Dr Seuss’s Yertle, it’s <a href="https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Turtles_all_the_way_down">turtles all the way down</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, finding meaningful ways to contextualise these historical aspects for young readers today might be a better focus, rather than withholding a few and letting more prominent titles slide by. </p>
<p>Kids and teens, like adults, need to see themselves in the books they read, and young white readers need to see other cultural groups as something more than illegal, or violent, or criminal. </p>
<p>As chidren’s literature expert Perry Nodelman notes: “Stories structure us as beings in the world”. In the same week a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-03/chinese-australians-physically-tension-pandemic-lowy-report/13207464">Lowy study</a> found one in five Chinese Australians have been threatened or attacked, it could not be more important to invest in an inclusive future for our kids.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P4qN-478bYw?wmode=transparent&start=510" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘I literally know The Cat in the Hat by heart without the book,’ said Donald Trump Jr.
Stephen Colbert’s segment finishes with suggested books by authors of colour.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Anguished cries of ‘cancel culture’ rang out with news that six Dr Seuss books would be shelved. But canceling Dr Seuss is not possible, nor is it the best way to build diversity and understanding.
Kate Cantrell, Lecturer in Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland
Sharon Bickle, Lecturer in English Literature, QLD rep for Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/153629
2021-02-04T19:07:36Z
2021-02-04T19:07:36Z
Empathy starts early: 5 Australian picture books that celebrate diversity
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382103/original/file-20210202-23-1fshk40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-father-children-lying-on-grass-287064023">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Early exposure to <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-tips-to-make-school-bookshelves-more-diverse-and-five-books-to-get-you-started-110718">diverse story characters</a>, including in ethnicity, gender and ability, helps young people develop a strong sense of identity and belonging. It is also crucial in cultivating compassion towards others.</p>
<p>Children from minority backgrounds rarely see themselves reflected in the books they’re exposed to. <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1119279">Research</a> over the past two decades shows the world presented in children’s books is overwhelmingly white, male and middle class.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/bias-starts-early-most-books-in-childcare-centres-have-white-middle-class-heroes-130208">2020 study</a> in four Western Australian childcare centres showed only 18% of books available included non-white characters. Animal characters made up around half the books available and largely led “human” lives, adhering to the values of middle-class Caucasians.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://rdcu.be/cdpqL">our recent research</a> of award-winning and shortlisted picture books, we looked at diversity in representations of Indigenous Australians, linguistically and culturally diverse characters, characters from regional or rural Australia, gender, sex and sexually diverse characters, and characters with a disability. </p>
<p>From these, we have compiled a list of recommended picture books that depict each of these five aspects of diversity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-20-years-of-award-winning-picture-books-non-white-people-made-up-just-12-of-main-characters-147026">In 20 years of award-winning picture books, non-white people made up just 12% of main characters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander characters</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781921504105/tom-tom/">Tom Tom</a>, by Rosemary Sullivan and Dee Huxley (2010), depicts the daily life of a young Aboriginal boy Tom (Tommy) in a fictional Aboriginal community — <a href="http://www.lemonadesprings.com.au/index.html">Lemonade Springs</a>. The community’s landscape, in many ways, resembles the Top End of Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of Tom Tom, by Rosemary Sullivan and Dee Huxley" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382107/original/file-20210202-19-aft8dc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=793&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781921504105/tom-tom/">Harper Collins</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tom’s 22 cousins and other relatives call him Tom Tom. His day starts with a swim with cousins in the waters of Lemonade Springs, which is covered with budding and blossoming water lilies. The children swing on paperbark branches and splash into the water. Tom Tom walks to Granny Annie’s for lunch and spends the night at Granny May’s. At preschool, he enjoys painting. </p>
<p>Through this picture book, non-Indigenous readers will have a glimpse of the intimate relationship between people and nature and how, in Lemonade Springs, a whole village comes together to raise a child.</p>
<h2>Characters from other cultures</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of That's not a daffodil, by Elizabeth Honey" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382108/original/file-20210202-15-1kd5spd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/childrens/picture-books/Thats-not-a-daffodil-Elizabeth-Honey-9781742372488">Allen & Unwin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1742372481/ref=x_gr_w_bb_sout?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_bb_sout-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1742372481&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">That’s not a daffodil!</a> by Elizabeth Honey (2012) is a story about a young boy’s (Tom) relationship with his neighbour, Mr Yilmaz, who comes from Turkey. Together, Tom and Mr Yilmaz plant, nurture and watch a seed grow into a beautiful daffodil.</p>
<p>The author uses the last page of the book to explain that, in Turkish, Mr Yilmaz’s name does not have a dotted “i”, as in the English alphabet, and his name should be pronounced “Yuhlmuz”. </p>
<p>While non-white characters, Mr Yilmaz and his grandchildren, only play supporting roles in the story, the book nevertheless captures the reality of our everyday encounters with neighbours from diverse ethnic backgrounds. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-i-always-get-children-picture-books-for-christmas-127801">5 reasons I always get children picture books for Christmas</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Characters from rural Australia</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of All I want for Christmas is rain, by Cori Brooke and Megan Forward" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382111/original/file-20210203-23-nuadtm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.newfrontier.com.au/books/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-rain">New Frontier Publishing</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.newfrontier.com.au/books/all-i-want-for-christmas-is-rain">All I Want for Christmas is Rain</a>, by Cori Brooke and Megan Forward (2017), depicts scenery and characters from regional or rural Australia. The story centres on the little girl Jane’s experience of severe drought on the farm. </p>
<p>The story can encourage <a href="http://d.site-cdn.net/916339b02a/a13ed7/swedits2all-i-want-for-christmas-is-rain-teaching-notes-.pdf">students’ discussion</a> of sustainability. </p>
<p>In terms of diversity, it is equally important to meet children living in remote and regional areas as it is to see children’s lives in the city. </p>
<h2>Gender non-conforming characters</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of Granny Grommet and Me, by Dianne Wolfer and Karen Blair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382114/original/file-20210203-19-t2kimc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/News/CBCA-Awards-2014">Walker Books</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://diannewolfer.com/books/picture-books/granny-grommet-and-me/">Granny Grommet and Me</a>, by Dianne Wolfer and Karen Blair (2014), is full of beautiful illustrations of the Australian beach and surfing grannies.</p>
<p>Told from the first-person point of view, it documents the narrator’s experiences of going snorkelling, surfing and rockpool swimming with granny and her grommet (amateur surfer) friends. </p>
<p>In an age of <a href="https://www.mumstrife.com/lifestyle/technology/bluey-is-a-girl/">parents’ increasing concern</a> about gender stereotyping (blue for boy, pink for girl) of story characters in popular culture, Granny Grommet and Me’s representation of its main character “Me” is uniquely free from such bias. </p>
<p>The main character wears a black wetsuit and a white sunhat and is not named in the book (a potential means of assigning gender). </p>
<p>This gender-neutral representation of the character does not reduce the pleasure of reading this book. And it shows we can minimise attributes that symbolise stereotypes such as clothing, other accessories and naming.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teen-summer-reads-5-books-to-help-young-people-understand-racism-150072">Teen summer reads: 5 books to help young people understand racism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Characters living with a disability</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of Boy by Phil Cummings and Shane Devries." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=666&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382120/original/file-20210203-23-axqnxu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=837&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://philcummings.com/">Phil Cummings</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://resource.scholastic.com.au/resourcefiles/8495028_65542.pdf">Boy</a>, by Phil Cummings and Shane Devries (2018), is a story about a boy who is <a href="https://www.aussiedeafkids.org.au/terminology-for-deafness.html">Deaf</a>. </p>
<p>He uses sign language to communicate but people who live in the same village rarely understand him. That is, until he steps into the middle of a war between the king and the dragon that frightens the villagers. </p>
<p>He resolves the conflict using his unique communication style and the villagers resolve to learn to communicate better with him by learning his language.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153629/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We have compiled a list of award-winning or shortlisted picture books that depict various aspects of diversity.
Ping Tian, Honorary Associate, Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney
Helen Caple, Associate Professor in Communications and Journalism, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152813
2021-01-21T01:57:58Z
2021-01-21T01:57:58Z
Abused, neglected, abandoned — did Roald Dahl hate children as much as the witches did?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379853/original/file-20210121-21-11jbgm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C25%2C1902%2C1023&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Witches (1990)</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100944/mediaviewer/rm1111398145/">IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Described as “<a href="https://www.writerswrite.co.za/roald-dahl-tops-the-list-of-the-50-greatest-storytellers-of-all-time/">the world’s greatest storyteller</a>”, Roald Dahl is frequently ranked as the best children’s author of all time by teachers, authors and librarians. </p>
<p>However, the new film adaptation of Dahl’s controversial book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6327.The_Witches">The Witches</a>, warrants a fresh look at a recurrent contrast in Dahl’s work: child protection and care on one hand and a preoccupation with child-hatred, including child neglect and abuse, abandonment, and torture on the other. </p>
<p>Dahl himself once admitted <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/storyteller-the-life-of-roald-dahl-donald-sturrock/book/9780007254774.html">he simultaneously admired and envied children</a>. While his stories spotlight children’s vulnerability to trauma, his child protagonists show how childhood can be an isolating but ultimately triumphant experience. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-man-behind-matilda-what-roald-dahl-was-really-like-62810">The man behind Matilda – what Roald Dahl was really like</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Anti-child or child-centred?</h2>
<p>While Dahl’s fans champion his “<a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/born-more-than-100-years-ago-roald-dahls-influence-has-never-been-greater/news-story/dad959661d72dfc0b26054e5bb7e615c">child-centredness</a>” — arguing that anarchy and vulgarity are central to childhood — Dahl’s critics have ventured to suggest his work contains <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5055082-criticism-theory-children-s-literature">anti-child messages.</a></p>
<p>In Dahl’s fiction, children are often described unfavourably: they are “stinkers”, “disgusting little blisters”, “vipers”, “imps”, “spoiled brats”, “greedy little thieves”, “greedy brutes”, “robber-bandits”, “ignorant little twits”, “nauseating little warts”, “witless weeds”, and “moth-eaten maggots”. </p>
<p>With the exception of <a href="https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/characters/children/bruce-bogtrotter">Bruce Bogtrotter</a>, “bad” children are usually unpleasant gluttons who are punished for being spoiled or overweight. Augustus Gloop is ostracised because of his size. After he tumbles into Willy Wonka’s chocolate river and is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EF1zYFHbus">sucked up the glass pipe</a>, he’s physically transformed. “He used to be fat,” Grandpa Joe marvels. “Now he’s as thin as straw!”</p>
<p>From Miss Trunchbull to the Twits, Aunts Spiker and Sponge, and even Willy Wonka, many of Dahl’s adult characters are merciless figures who enjoy inflicting physical and emotional pain on children.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6310.Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory">Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</a>, Wonka not only orchestrates the various “accidents” that occur at the factory, but he stands by indifferently as each child suffers.</p>
<p>In Wonka’s determination to make the “rotten ones” pay for their moral failings, he not only humiliates the children (and their parents), but permanently marks the “bad” children through physical disfigurement. When gum-chewing champion Violet Beauregarde turns purple, Wonka is indifferent. “Ah well,” he says. “There’s nothing we can do about that”.</p>
<h2>Red-hot sizzling hatred</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6327.The_Witches">The Witches</a> is centred around the theme of child-hatred. </p>
<p>“Real witches,” we are told, “hate children with a red-hot sizzling hatred that is more sizzling and red-hot than any hatred you could possibly imagine”. At their hands (or claws), young children are not only mutilated but exterminated.</p>
<p>Indeed, the ultimate goal of The Grand High Witch is filicide: she plans to rid the world of children — “disgusting little carbuncles” — by tricking them into eating chocolate laced with her malevolent Formula 86: Delayed Action Mouse-Maker.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9nlhmJF5FNI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“Witches! They’re real. And they hate children!” The trailer for Warner Brothers’ new adaptation of the children’s classic.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In The Witches, as in many of Dahl’s fictions for children (he also wrote <a href="http://www.amreading.com/2016/08/21/7-obscene-stories-that-will-change-how-you-see-roald-dahl/">adult erotica</a>), authoritarian figures are revealed as bigoted and hypocritical, or violent and sadistic. Primary caregivers are neglectful or absent. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379200/original/file-20210118-17-142iu2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4273.Roald_Dahl">Goodreads</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So the real threats to the child protagonists of The Witches, Matilda and James and The Giant Peach are not monsters under the bed, but adults whose hatred of children is disguised behind a mask of benevolence. </p>
<p>In The Witches, the young narrator initially finds comfort in the fact he has encountered such “splendid ladies” and “wonderfully kind people”, but soon the facade crumbles. </p>
<p>“Down with children!” he overhears the witches chant. “Do them in! Boil their bones and fry their skin! Bish them, sqvish them, bash them, mash them!”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bfg-reminds-us-that-wordplay-is-part-of-learning-and-mastering-language-62788">The BFG reminds us that wordplay is part of learning and mastering language</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Necessary evil</h2>
<p>Although the violence present in Dahl’s work can be easily perceived as morbid, antagonism towards children is a necessary part of Dahl’s project. </p>
<p>The initial disempowerment of the child lays the groundwork for the “underdog” narrative. It allows downtrodden children to emerge victorious by outwitting their tormentors through their resourcefulness and a little magic.</p>
<p>Initially, violence is used to reinforce the initial “victimhood” of the child, then it is repurposed in the latter stages of each tale to punish and overcome the perpetrator of the mistreatment. </p>
<p>James’s wicked aunts get their comeuppance when they’re squashed by the giant peach. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1fZg0hhBX8">The BFG</a>, kidnapped orphan Sophie emerges as the unlikely hero, saving herself and exerting a positive influence on her captor.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/29LDBdpNMRc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In Taika Waititi’s reading of James and the Giant Peach, the spinster aunts are played by the Hemsworth brothers.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dahl’s fiction is perhaps considered dangerous for a different reason: it takes children seriously.</p>
<p>The author dispenses humour alongside his descriptions of violence to create a less threatening atmosphere for young readers. Children revel in the confronting depictions even while being shocked or repulsed. Dahl — perhaps drawing on <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/07/11/the-candy-man">childhood trauma of his own</a> — creates a cathartic outlet for children to release tension through laughter, especially at situations that may tap into the reader’s experiences of helplessness. </p>
<p>Such fiction provides children a means of empowerment. Seeing themselves reflected in literature can be an important part of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275953249_Child_Life_Specialists_Use_of_Bibliotherapy_With_Grieving_Children_How_Books_Can_be_Used_to_Aid_Emotional_Expression_Meaning_Making_and_Healing">a child’s processing of adversity</a>.</p>
<p>Dahl’s work raises important questions about the safety of children, encouraging them to find their power in the most disempowering situations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152813/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
He called them ‘stinkers’ and ‘nauseating little warts’, but author Roald Dahl’s characterisation of children as vulnerable is necessary for them to ultimately triumph.
Kate Cantrell, Lecturer, Creative Writing & English Literature, University of Southern Queensland
India Bryce, Senior Lecturer — Human Development, Wellbeing, and Counselling
Jessica Gildersleeve, Associate Professor of English Literature, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150669
2020-12-28T09:01:12Z
2020-12-28T09:01:12Z
Five ways to help your child develop a love for reading
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373632/original/file-20201208-14-1m21oan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4692%2C3700&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-girl-reading-book-smiling-wearing-1718134816">Maya Afzaal/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A love for reading can be hugely valuable for children. The benefits of leisure reading include increased <a href="https://www.academia.edu/885031/What_reading_does_for_the_mind">general knowledge</a>, a positive impact on <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/berj.3180">academic achievement</a>, enhanced <a href="https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/2013_04_11_free_research_-_childrens_and_young_peoples_reading_in_2012_cyEveGL.pdf">reading ability</a> and <a href="http://ijflt.com/images/ijflt/articles-december-2017/Research%20Art%201%20Vocabulary.pdf">vocabulary growth</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, research suggests that time spent reading for pleasure could be a key indicator for the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/school/programmeforinternationalstudentassessmentpisa/33690904.pdf">future success</a> of a child – even more important than their family’s socio-economic status. It is therefore not surprising that many parents are interested in getting their children hooked on books.</p>
<p>But certain reading practices used by parents and teachers could end up putting <a href="https://theconversation.com/you-could-be-putting-your-child-off-reading-heres-how-to-change-that-118409">children off reading</a>. On the other hand, though, there is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269399537_Building_Communities_of_Engaged_Readers_Reading_for_pleasure">compelling evidence</a> that children who may not want to read for pleasure can be influenced to take it up.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/294520">My PhD research</a>, which explored the reading habits of a group of children in a book club aged between nine and 12, uncovered ways to entice children to develop a love for leisure reading.</p>
<h2>Read aloud (and make it exciting)</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.stevelayne.com/go.jsp?t=author&g=professional">Reading aloud</a> fosters a love of books in children, and helps children get hooked on books as they associate reading with pleasure. </p>
<p>My study supports this. Each day, a staff member at the book club read aloud to the children. Most of the children said that they enjoyed being read to, and that having someone read to them stirred their interest in the book. A boy in my study said his parents regularly read aloud to him when he was little, and that this led to his love for reading. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Father reads to small daughter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373637/original/file-20201208-19-je1zfz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reading aloud in an animated way can help build children’s love of books.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-black-father-daughter-reading-book-1077765305">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, some children pointed out that how books are read aloud could affect their enjoyment of the reading. It is important that the reading be done in an enthusiastic way that children find engaging.</p>
<h2>Ensure access to books</h2>
<p>Children who have easy access to engaging texts <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED521656.pdf">do more reading</a>. </p>
<p>Although there were a few exceptions, the children in my study who had many reading materials at home and at school did more leisure reading and were more engaged readers than those who had challenges in accessing books. A little girl said she loved comics but could not get hold of them easily. She believed she would do more reading if she could readily get the books she liked. </p>
<p>Parents who may not be able to buy books for their child could take the child to a public library and assist the child in borrowing books. Another option could be downloading suitable free e-books for children to read.</p>
<h2>Create a space for reading</h2>
<p>It is important to establish a comfortable space and <a href="http://www.aidanchambers.co.uk/readingenviro.htm">conducive atmosphere</a> for reading as well as set aside time for leisure reading. </p>
<p>The reading engagement of the children in my study was affected by environmental factors such as noise, heat, disruptions, and uncomfortable seats. The findings also show that children are likely to read happily and for a longer time when they are in a reading environment. </p>
<p>To enable children to fully engage with and take pleasure from reading, parents should create a comfortable and quiet space for reading. This could be as simple as a corner in a room which could be decorated as the reading space. This will encourage children to pick up a book and spend some time in the reading corner.</p>
<h2>Let children choose books</h2>
<p>In my study, the children better enjoyed reading and did more leisure reading when they chose their books. When forced to read a book selected by a parent or teacher, they did not always enjoy the reading and sometimes did not read the books. A girl complained that she usually did not like the books her class teacher selected for leisure reading. “Sometimes I manage it, sometimes I don’t read it,” she said. Other children had similar complaints. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Little boy picking a book off a library shelf" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373644/original/file-20201208-18-rsatce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children are more likely to read books they choose themselves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-choosing-childrens-reading-book-shelf-598172687">Denise E/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://cdn.literacytrust.org.uk/media/documents/2008_07_20_free_research_-_interesting_choice_review_2008_FfPOxNX.pdf">freedom to select books</a> leads to a positive attitude towards reading, better engagement with the book, and a more enjoyable reading experience. </p>
<p>Additionally, children should be allowed to read whatever materials <a href="https://cprtrust.org.uk/cprt-blog/requiring-reading-for-pleasure/">they find interesting</a>, be it comics, magazines, or poetry. Doing otherwise may reduce their potential to engage in recreational reading.</p>
<h2>Talk about books</h2>
<p>Having <a href="https://researchrichpedagogies.org/research/theme/booktalk-and-recommendations">discussions about books</a> is another way to spark children’s interest in reading and in books. However, these should centre on books that might appeal to the child rather than on the books you as an adult find engaging. </p>
<p>Many of the children in my study said that book discussions with parents, friends, and staff members of the book club had led them to read certain books. Some of the them reported that they enjoyed reading the books recommended by one staff member or the other. </p>
<p>Children who may not be interested in reading will have subjects and topics that they are excited about, such as sports, movies or animals. Discussing books on a topic or subject that the child finds exciting will likely whet their appetite for that book.</p>
<p>When children find reading fun and enjoyable, they are likely to repeatedly spend time with books, become engaged readers, and gain the benefits of leisure reading.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isang Awah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Children who may not want to read for pleasure can be influenced to take it up.
Isang Awah, Project Manager in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.