Reflecting on Children's Literature

Before taking this class, children’s books were collecting dust on my bookshelf at home, a distant part of my life that were only called to my attention during moments of nostalgia. Now, I look at children’s books quite differently than I did before, and they are always on my radar as more than fond memories of my childhood, but rather as important representations of our society and crucial tools for educative liberation and reform. Throughout this class, we have investigated the many elements of children’s literature in which we need to be concerned, primarily, content, interpretation, and access. From our discussions and readings, I have taken notice of the severe lack of representation in the content of our children’s book. In addition to representation, something most concerning to me was the use of stereotypes to portray characters and lifestyles of people of different races and genders. One particularly useful aspect of the class came when we explored pedagogical options that could work to engage critically with books like these in a classroom setting. Learning how to use outside texts and sources as well as critical discussion topics helped me to see ways in which we can use these close-minded texts as learning tools.
Studying banned books led me to understand just how sensitive our society can be, and the ways in which subjects can quickly become taboo and controversial. This discussion proved to me even more than before the difficulty of introducing alternative texts into our children’s lives. Furthermore, through our community observation investigation, I was taken aback by the lack of availability of children’s stories presenting diverse subjects and characters. Our discussion and analysis of our observations only served to emphasize to me the difficulty of creating a population of liberating children’s books and the many structural obstacles we must confront in order to do so, especially overcoming corporate interests. One important lesson I learned was that one of the most important goals in making alternative children’s texts more accessible is to create a public demand for them. In conclusion, children’s literature has become, to me, a social issue, and teaching strategies for critical literacy is a key aspect of education reform, in my opinion. I hope to continue to keep the ideas and lessons I’ve learned in this class with me as I continue to study education and education policy in the future.

Differences in my Counter-Narrative

I found the counter narrative text writing to be surprisingly challenging, but also refreshingly liberating. One difference I made in my story was to change the racial makeup of the main characters. I wanted to make them more identifiable to children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds than the traditional, white Cinderella characters. Therefore, I chose an African-American male figure as well as a Latina female character. Also, I wanted to represent an inter-racial couple, as couples like this are not often seen in children’s stories like these. Another goal of mine was to challenge typical gendered norms, that is, for example, I wanted to have the girl character wear baggy, comfortable clothes rather than a form-fitting dress, and I wanted the “shoe” to be a sneaker rather than a glass slipper. This eliminated the feeling of daintiness one may get when reading the original Cinderella story and challenged what it means to be feminine. Finally, a difference that was important for me to make was in the nature of the conclusion and the idea that happiness comes with ascending social class. I attempted to reverse this idea by having the rich, wealthy character come to live with the character of the lower social class, so as to give the idea that happiness comes from loving someone else, not from becoming someone of high social status. Through these changes, I attempted to create a counter narrative that more children could relate to while opening their minds and definitions of gender, social class, and happiness.

Research in the Community Commentary

Bookstore and Library Observations

Throughout the past few weeks, I spent time in Borders in Friendship Heights as well as the DC Public Library in Cleveland Park. I spent quite a lengthy amount of time in the bookstore and in the children’s section especially, and became extremely frustrated by my inability to find what I was looking for. I was able to compile a weak list of about 7 books that addressed issues of gender, racism, alternative families, or other social issues after searching for a very long time. It was nearly impossible to find any books that even had non-white characters appear on the cover. There was a large section of Dr. Seuss books, which tend to address social issues including The Sneetches, which I thought was important, but also not unusual as these books have been widely circulated over many years. I was, however, able to find a copy of And Tango Makes Three in the science section. Furthermore, I noticed while I was there that there was a Spanish speaking family looking at the Spanish book section, which was a positive characteristic of the bookstore, however, I thought of the numerous different languages that might be spoken by people living in the area and how those languages were not represented.

I was pleased to find an extensive list of public libraries in DC, seeming to me that most people living in the district have access to a neighborhood library. In terms of where I went to do my observations, I was in Friendship Heights and Cleveland Park. These were places that were most accessible to me because I live in northwest DC, and these locations likely affected my findings as they are relatively rich, white, privileged areas of the district. My time in the library was less frustrating, though I found similar trends in terms of noticing an obvious lack of diversity in covers and themes. This library, like the bookstore had a copy of And Tango Makes Three, among other books addressing such themes. I also found a book by Lesléa Newman, author of Heather has Two Mommies, called Daddy, Papa, and Me telling the story of a family with two fathers and a child. Therefore, my library-going experience made me feel a little bit better about the accessibility and diversity of children’s literature available. The contrast between the library and the bookstore is interesting, especially because it makes us think about those in control of these entities and what their motives are.

In order to add contrast to my observations, I also explored Busboys & Poets’ book section. This store was located in a neighborhood that was quite different than the one in which Borders was located, as it was in the U street area on 14th street, which may have been why I found more variety there. While it does not have quite an extensive children’s section, I found that this bookstore had books on clear display that had children from all different backgrounds depicted on the cover. Busboys & Poets prides itself in encouraging a diverse clientele, which might explain why it has books that might cater better to children from all perspectives and walks of life than those found at Borders. It is interesting to me to find that book selections can differ based on the population the store or library will cater to.

Overall, my observations taught me a lot about the types of books that are available for kids in bookstores and libraries in the city. It led me to think about my own interaction with children’s literature, making me realize that within an isolated classroom environment, when we are searching for books with such topics, we may be able to find them. If a family is not specifically looking for a book on certain themes that they may identify with, however, they will not be likely to just pick it off the shelf, as their availability is few and far-between. We must make these types of books more common so they are more likely to make it into a child’s hands.

Websites in Children’s Literature

After an extensive search, I have listed five examples of websites I found focusing on children’s literature and contributing to the conversation about critical literacy.

http://www.carolhurst.com/- Carol Hurst and Rebecca Otis provide on their site a variety of ways in which to understand different aspects of children’s literature. They offer reviews of children’s books, lists of subjects and themes in the literature, as well as links to further resources.

http://www.plcmc.org/bookhive/- This resource provides an extensive comprehensive list of children’s books with corresponding reviews and uses colorful, kid-friendly graphics. The list of books includes an “African American” and “Multicultural” section.

http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/- This site, sponsored by Rutgers University, contains numerous links and sections helping us to explore special areas in children’s literature. Two unique sections are “History of Children’s Literature” and “9/11 and Children.”

http://www.kidsreads.com/- This interactive website contains several resources to help kids and parents explore children’s literature, including lists of books, new releases, reviews, podcasts, and trivia.

http://mgfx.com/kidlit/- This KidLit website is child-friendly, giving children an opportunity to submit their own literary creations to be published on the internet. This site gives children an outlet to be creative and share ideas with each other, while adults may find it useful and interesting in understanding children’s literature. This is a different twist on children’s literature, but I think its originality is worth noting.


These websites are only a sampling of the many resources in the Internet for exploring children’s literature. Something that was striking to me was the number of websites that are meant to be “kid-friendly,” which is a reflection of an age in which kids are increasingly computer proficient. In some ways, websites like these suggest more agency for kids, who can search for and find the boys that they want to read without having to depend on parents to do it for them. Something positive I noticed was the number of multicultural books and issues addressed on these sites, something that was in contrast to my experience looking for such books in the community.


Representations in the Media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XbFE6xy39g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_889542&v=8NZyhWbkZW8&feature=iv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAmEiT5FBH4&feature=related

Something that struck me was the way in which children’s literature and fairytales are used to sell products that only adults would buy. Above are two examples, one to sell a Microsoft product, and one for a cell phone. I think we can infer from this the importance of these stories in our social psyche; even as adults, we can relate to the messages and images in these stories. Children’s literature, then, is relatable to everyone, no matter the age. The market recognizes this and is attempting to exploit it.

Children’s stories help to construct our values and understanding of the world as they have a special focus on a lesson or moral. Additionally, when we are children we are still undergoing the process of socialization, and the stories and social forces that touch us shape our identity and ideas. Therefore the stories we read, as we are children stay with us for our entire lives and shape our social interactions, thus proving the importance of observational activities such as these and our quest for critical literacy.