That
the vast majority of titles published for children in English are
about 'white' children has recently become an issue, with campaigns
conducted over social media (Flood, 2014).
Diversity
is an issue for three reasons.
Reality
is diverse
Today's
classrooms are diverse. Teachers need to teach about 'difference' in
a way which is comfortable for everyone (Smith-D'Arezzo, 2003) but
where is the diverse children's literature which facilitates this?
(Pirofski, n.d). The cycle self-perpetuates: if children can't find
books about themselves they believe they can never become authors
(Flood, 2014).
Identity
Children who are 'different' in whatever way are made to feel
isolated when they can't find themselves reflected in their books
(Flood, 2014). This is borne out in converse:
Jane: it's “difficult to identify with characters who aren't
like me”. She enjoyed 'Does my head look big in this?' but read it
from “the outside looking in” rather than being “inside the
novel”.
Understanding
of 'other'
Stories
help equip children to challenge and reject discrimination (St.Amour,
2003).
What
to do about it?
Illustrations
help; cataloguing a batch
of Oxford Literacy
Readers recently,
I noticed that some had
pictures of children of different ethnicity even though ethnicity
was irrelevant to
the text.
A
skilled author should be able to weave
significant messages into
the story in a non-didactic manner (Smith-D'Arezzo, 2003).
Lizzie doesn't
like books which read like a 'pity-party'. She liked the 'Outcasts'
because the 'disabilities' were embedded in the plot. “It's
better when you discover about someone being short-sighted because
they can't do something, than having it spelled out like you have to
take notice of it.” Mary liked Percy Jackson: “All those ADHD
kids – you realise they can't help it – but it just got
mentioned.”
Lizzie
and Mary picked up on Frank and Leo being ethnically
different (Percy
Jackson) – but neither
remembered that Hal, ('Outcasts'),
is of mixed parentage until
Charles pointed it out. They
said that's what they like about Flanagan: “it's not obvious”.
To
ensure that the hidden message gets across children often need
guidance from adults; stories read
in class are
chosen for the
message (Smith-D'Arezzo, 2003).
Kitty:
“hated Helicopter Man!” For
her the issue of
schizophrenia had drowned out much of the story – read in English
class – and a chorus of groans suggested that others shared her
view.
Morris
Gleitzman, who also takes on “issues”, has their approval –
because he's “fun to
read”.
(Charles:
didn't like 'Blabbermouth' as much because – if you haven't guessed
- it was one they had to do in class.)
Another
way of propagating
diversity
is via
translations.
This is very
much a
one-way street – English originals are translated much more
frequently than books are translated into English
(Thomson-Wohlgemuth,
1998).
Lydia
has seen this reflected in
the School Library where roughly 50% of fiction
is in German – but of that 50%, translations
account for over a third.
Children
will fight difficult language if the story is reward
in itself
but
with
foreign languages
there are also
cultural contexts
to contend with (Thomson-Wohlgemuth,
1998).
Kitty
is glad she can read fluently in two languages because it gives her
access to more than two cultures. She used Reuter's 'Buster' trilogy
as an illustration – through the story of this fundamentally
dysfunctional family she believes
that Denmark has an
enlightened attitude to “problems. People smoke, and the father is
drunk and Buster is really weird and he does get picked on, only you
feel somehow it is all just okay and normal.” On
top of all this, Buster's sister has a limp – but you only find it
out by reading between the lines.
Translations
are made to widen a child's international awareness but it is easier
to translate texts from
similar cultures;
in cases where the two backgrounds are very different translations
often veer away from the original to become more accessible. Even
where cultural backgrounds would seem to be very similar there are
differences that
have to be explained: eg
UK's 'tea-time' versus
Germany's 'Kaffee-und-Kuchen' (Thomson-Wohlgemuth, 1998).
Children
are the recipients of literature that has been filtered by market
forces, teachers and parents – who
'want the best for children' and to 'protect childhood innocence'.
Isn't that just, as Thomson-Wohlgemuth (1998)
says, because they really want to inculcate their social values?
Literature
is important to children – but they should be allowed to enjoy it,
rather than having our
messages forced
on them didactically. Just
make sure they have a diverse collection to choose from!
Topic: Diversity; Activity: Interview a child
The children
'interviewed' for this activity are Library Monitors in my school
library or enthusiastic readers. Jane, Lizzie, Mary, Kitty, Lydia
and Charles are students from Years 4 to 9 (aged 10 to 15, names
changed). They are all of European descent as far as I know, although
I suspect that one might be via South America; three of them were
born in Australia, only one has spent all her life here. They all
have a working knowledge of two or three languages – but
understanding the meaning of a word is not the same as having a
cultural experience of a word: bush, forest and Wald all mean a more
or less uncultivated area of trees and shrubs but the vision and
emotions conjured up by the words, in their own language, in
Australian, English and German people is of quite different, and in
my opinion not interchangeable landscapes.
I did not
formally interview the students as experience has shown me what
Fasick (2011) says is true: children are often eager to please by
giving the answer they think is wanted. Instead their input comes
from a number of conversations held with them about books and reading
over several weeks, conversations which arose naturally out of their
chosen loans and reading preferences. It should be noted that our
school is bilingual German-English and is very small indeed.
Fasick, A. (2011). From boardbook to facebook. Children's
services in an interactive age. Santa Barbara, Ca: Libraries
Unlimited
Flood, A. (2014, May 2). 'We Need Diverse Books' calls for more
representative writing for children. The Guardian. Retrieved
from
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/01/we-need-diverse-books-campaign-children
Pirofski, K.I. (n.d.) Race, gender, and disability in today's
children's literature. Ed Change [Web site]. Retrieved from
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/literature2.html
Smith, D'Arezzo, W.M. (2003). Diversity in Children's Literature: Not
Just a Black and White Issue. Children's Literature in Education,
34(1), 75-94. DOI: 10.1023/A:1022511917336
St.Amour,
M.J. (2003). Connecting Children's Stories to Children's Literature:
Meeting Diversity Needs Early Childhood Education Journal,
31(1), 47-51. DOI:
10.1023/A:1025136802668
Thomson-Wohlgemuth,
G. (1998). Children's literature and its translation. An
overview. (Master's thesis).
Retrieved from
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g.i.thomson/gaby-thomson/ChL_Translation.pdf
Books
referred to by the students:
Randa
Abdel-Fatta Does my head
look big in this? (2005)
Elizabeth
Fensham Helicopter Man
(2005)
Bjarne
Reuter: So einen wie mich
kann man nicht von den Bäumen pflücken, sagt Buster
(1987),
Das
Ende des Regenbogens
(1988) & Küss
die Sterne (1988) (Dates
refer to translations)
John
Flanagan Outcasts
series (2011 and still going)
Rick
Riordan Percy Jackson
series (2005 and still going)
Morris
Gleitzman: Two
weeks with the Queen
(1989) (AIDS
and homosexuality)
Morris
Gleitzman: Toad
series
(2000, 2003, 2004, 2008)
(how
we treat animals
Morris
Gleitzman: Boy
overboard (2002),
Girl underground
(2005) (refugee
children in detention)
Morris
Gleitzman: Once
(2006) ,
Then
(2009) Now
(2010) & After
(2012) (the
holocaust and its
aftermath on individuals and
their families)
Morris
Gleitzman: Blabbermouth
(1993)
