You’re probably already familiar with Elizabeth Bluemle’s efforts to engage booksellers and other members of the kidlit community in a conversation about race and books; in addition to her “Elephant in the Room” post on her PW blog ShelfTalker, Elizabeth has recently developed resources for booksellers who want to promote equality within their stores. I intend to cite her efforts in my presentation on Saturday but will hold off on critiquing this latest endeavor, which is to promote “books NOT aimed at educating readers about race.” The goal instead is “finding and sharing the stories of Black, Asian, Hispanic characters doing all the fun stuff their Caucasian counterparts do in books.” Hmm. I guess that means that neither of my books for young readers would be included in this promotional effort.
I really admire this initiative, and have been thinking a lot lately of the serious challenge we face in developing wider markets for books that feature children of color. This is an age-old debate: how do we make members of the majority group care about those of us on the margins? I suppose one approach is to focus on “all the fun stuff” that connects us. Maybe that’s the “wedge” that will open the door just enough for other topics to slip in. Mostly Elizabeth’s strategies are designed to subtly expose a book buyer’s prejudice; if a bookseller describes the book without mentioning race or revealing the cover, then the book buyer must consider why s/he rejected a book that sounded interesting but turned out to be about people of color.
The language we use to booktalk books is very important. I encourage booksellers to handsell books with people of color on the cover the same way they booktalk books with white kids on the cover when talking to white customers: hook them with the story, the character, the dilemmas and adventures. You don’t mention race unless race IS the story. Take historical fiction as a parallel. For many kids, the minute you describe a book as historical fiction, their eyes glaze over. But if you say, “This book is about a girl who gets kidnapped from her home and tries to escape and become a spy,” well, they’re in.
So how would a bookseller describe A Wish After Midnight? “This book is about a girl who gets sent back in time and has to learn how to live in Civil War-era Brooklyn.” Leave out the race riot at the end? Or refer to it only as the draft riot? I guess Wish is a book that would be hard to handsell to a white reader because it is—in large part—“about race.”
Now, I am a realist—really, I am. I know that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. And I have written loads of stories about children playing in snow, and making new friends at school, and learning to respect the environment. Of course, all those stories are as yet unpublished. It’s a Catch-22 for black authors, as Rudine Sims Bishop explains:
Issues of audience are obviously related to issues of content and theme. Many teachers and librarians think books about Afro-American experience are meant for Black children only. In their minds, the Afro-American experience is equated with the hardships and social problems they associate with growing up Black and poor in the city—fatherless home, gangs, drugs, tough or obscene language, police brutality, crime, and so forth. Therefore, they reason, ‘Black experience’ books are so far removed from the experiences of white children as to be irrelevant at best, or too harsh and inexplicable at worst. In the minds of these same people, stories in which such hardships play no role and children face no racially motivated conflicts are not ‘Black experience’ stories at all.
Of course, a book that’s set in the city and features a fatherless, impoverished girl with a drug dealing brother can ALSO be about belonging, community, self-acceptance, and friendship. I’m wary of the “fun versus educational” split; an engrossing read shouldn’t have to be “lite” and/or avoid serious topics of injustice. Race matters, and I’m not sure how much progress we’ll make as a society if we encourage readers to act like it doesn’t—isn’t this like asking people to be “colorblind” and *not* confront difference? Ok, back to my conference papers; more thoughts on this issue to come.
Hi, Zetta. As always, your thoughtful commentaries are wonderful and make me think even more deeply about these issues I’m trying to untangle in my own personal and professional lives. I feel terrible that my post seems to be dividing “fun” from “educational.” It’s true that my emphasis with the LibraryThing collection is on books that aren’t race-issues-driven, and that’s because for a long long time, the ONLY books with brown faces on the covers were books about slavery and the Civil War and later about the Civil Rights Movement, and so readers have become accustomed to equating brown characters on a book jacket with historical fiction. I’m trying to get us past that assumption, not ignore those wonderful books.
Teachers ask me time and time again for contemporary multicultural books that are funny or are fantasies, etc., and that’s why I created this resource. But I have been troubled by the exclusion in that collection of books like A Wish After Midnight and so many other fantastic books where race is a major factor in the story. I absolutely want to read and share and sell those books, too, of course. (I do think those books are better marketed to teachers and librarians than some of the lighter fiction, which is why people often know about the historical fiction but not the contemporary stuff.) I’ve thought about including a section in the LibraryThing collection for those books, but don’t want to confuse people. Thoughts are welcome!
Please don’t feel terrible, Elizabeth!! You’re doing such wonderful, brave, important work, and there aren’t any easy answers as far as I can tell. As Em points out, readers’ tastes vary so there will be some who *want* a different perspective and there will be those who don’t. Handselling is very intimate in a way, b/c you really have to know the person or intuit their likes, dislikes, and potential prejudices…I think your strategies are great–display diverse titles in the store, read widely, and focus on selling the “universal” aspects of a good story. I have yet to flesh out my own concept of progress; I do worry that small steps may end up preserving the status quo, and as a writer/educator that’s definitely not my goal. That said, you can’t force people to read a book that might be “good for them”–well, teachers can assign such books, but a bookseller doesn’t always have the chance to follow-up after recommending a challenging title. It would be great if more bookstores had book clubs that *did* discuss provocative books; sometimes a reader will reject a book b/c they’re anxious or uncomfortable, but reading it with their peers might help somewhat. Mostly I want people to consider what it means to promote *only* those books that don’t require readers to engage with racial/cultural difference and/or social justice. I, too, am weary of the endless Civil Rights Movement books, but don’t want readers disengaging from racial discourse b/c it’s easier to read stories about people of color who are “just like me.” I’ll keep thinking about it, but please do keep doing what you’re doing!
I think the best way to sell a book like AWAM to diverse audiences is to highlight the book’s diversity. The book is about race and I don’t think that should be downplayed. I would have been much less likely to pick up the book had I not known that it was about race. I think for some they may be most sold on the love story, some on the time travel aspect, some on the historical focus, and for me I also loved the contemporary fiction section of AWAM. So you can pick and choose how you describe the book given your target readers, but I can’t imagine leaving race out of the description when it figures so prominently in the plot. I think the danger is not in selling a book as being about race, but in selling a book as being for a particular race exclusively (I’m thinking of that article that Nikki Grimes wrote recently where a librarian expressed to her that she wished that she had more black students to share Grimes’ work with).
Good point, Em. I feel like we need to do some serious market research in order to find out why you read the books you read; what in your education, personal history, aesthetic preferences leads you to WANT books with diverse perspectives? What were the stages that led you to this point of being open to a book that’s explicitly about race? We can’t necessarily force everyone to walk the same path, but we could potentially target folks like you instead of banging our heads against the wall put up by folks who will reject a book based on the protagonist’s race.
Thanks for opening this conversation, Zetta. I applaud what wonderful people like Elizabeth are doing. She’s on the front line for change. But I think it’s essential that books about race — and history — be included in the call for more titles too. It’s unfortunate that many people think that most of the books being published by African-American authors are about those topics. It’s not true. I know picture books the best, so I’ll speak about that area.
Consider the picture books of authors like Angela Johnson, Natasha Tarpley, Irene Smalls, Jerdine Nolen, Sharon Dennis Wyeth, Cheryl Willis Hudson. I can go on and on. Many, if not most, of their books celebrate the every-day lives of African-American kids and in the case of some of Nolen’s titles, even include fantasy. Check out resource books like the Black Books Galore! Guide to Great African-American Children’s Books, sites like The Brown Bookshelf. You’ll get a truer picture of the diversity of what’s being created.
Just as our kids need contemporary and slice-of-life stories, they need ones about what it means to be an African-American child in this country too. That’s part of their experience that shouldn’t be overlooked just because issues dealing with race make some grown-ups uneasy.
At times, I feel there’s a backlash against these titles and historical ones and I wonder where it’s coming from. I don’t think it’s kids leading the charge. I went on a field trip with some children recently to the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro and Stagville Plantation in Durham. In both cases, most of the children (1st-3rd graders) had little-to-no knowledge about slavery or civil rights. But when the picture books were read about kids living in those times, they were amazed and talked about the freedoms they enjoy now that others couldn’t have back then.
We need more children’s book stories of all kinds about people of color — not just those that fall within a certain category. As a mama, I want my kids to have books that show their dreams and adventures today, stoke their imagination and reflect the trials and triumphs of the past too.
I feel as though the point of my post is going a bit awry here. I need to say that I believe books dealing with racial issues are CRUCIAL to kids — providing, as Mitali Perkins so simply and beautifully puts it, both mirrors and windows. Those books, the ones that touch on the very foundations of identity and belonging, are the kinds of books that become touchstones for readers and help them build a sense of self and an understanding of others. They are also rich in humor and adventure and wonder. Beautiful, beautiful books. Important books. I am not trying to direct readers away from them, just to draw attention to the others, in addition — to give readers no excuse to not read about characters of color.
It’s definitely not an either/or situation–I think we ALL want a wide range of stories that reflect just how varied and rich the black experience really is. And different audiences will have different needs and expectations. Kelly has suggested putting together a list of African American “classics”…I wish we didn’t need so many categories, but that’s how the industry works and we just need to make sure publishers are producing titles in all those categories and that customers can easily find them.
I think its very important for kids to know there are stories with kids of color that have nothing to do with race. Some young readers may only associate kids of color characters with assigned reading and historical fiction.
Elizabeth, I agree once bookseller establishes a good track record with customers, they will be more open to buying books with kids of color in the future.
I left the above comment at Bluemle’s blog didn’t want anything to get lost in translation.
There still aren’t enough contemporary novels with kids of color, so I can certainly see the need for them to be highlighted.
For me, mentioning the race of a character when the book isn’t about race, is a case by case basis.
When I handsell Alvin Ho, I never say Alvin Ho is Asian American.
However if I was handselling Chameleon, I would say its a coming of age story featuring four African American boys, not its a coming of age story of four boys.
Thanks for chiming in, Doret. It does seem to change on a case by case basis.
I think it’s important to have all kinds of books with diverse characters. We had The Snowy Day for a long time but it was the rare one. We certainly need lots of books about regular things happening to children of color, along with the historical fiction read by white kids and all sorts of kids. It’s something that can be seen and worked on from many angles, as your commentors have shown.
Right now I am reading Sundee T. Frazier’s The Other Half of My Heart. It’s about twins born in a mixed marriage. One girl looks white and one looks Black. They go down south to enter a Miss Black Pearl contest in their Black grandmother’s hometown. It is full of normal girls stuff, friendship, loyalty, growing up stuff, and also the tremendous emotional upheaval the girls go through as the world reacts to their appearance. Reading this book could possibly be an eye opener for someone who has never considered white privilege, and also maybe a comfort to a child who lives with racism on many levels. It is engaging, fun, challenging book. The sensational interest angle could hook some folks who would otherwise never read a book about race. i am enjoying it immensely. I’d love to see more books open a discussion of race with stories and writing like this.
Hey, Andromeda! Again, I’d like to come up with a survey to understand your path to reading multicultural books…from The Snowy Day to Sundee Frazier. I’m ok with “baby steps” so long as they do ultimately lead to serious consideration of books that openly address the issue of race.
I wanted to share this link with you. Someone made a post with all the books in 2010 in YA with AAs on the cover. http://jacketwhys.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/the-faces-of-10/
And I do want to see more ‘lighthearted’ poc books for teens and middle school students. I want to see us portrayed in paranormals, mysteries, chick lit, romance, etc. Our books don’t need to be completely serious all the time. I love the light hearted books that end up having a surprsingly poignant message.
And for the record I don’t really like the term ‘poc’ either. 🙂
Hey, Ari–thanks for that link! What term would you replace PoC with? It works for me. Oh, by the way–I gave you a shout out in my conference presentation yesterday; a black mother stood up and asked for more books for her 14 year old daughter…I told her to go to Reading in Color and check out our list…
I’m not sure what term I would use. But I think it can be taken too literally sometimes. I don’t know. I don’t like minority either (even if it’s true) so I’ll stick with poc. I think multicultural is a bit exclusive because people only use it when talking about books by/about poc and yet it should cover anyone from a different culture.
Thanks for the shoutout! I wish you were going to the conferece in New Mexico for YALSA