Inspiration for Neverland to Become Center for Children's Literature

Have you seen the article Peter Pan's Neverland could become forever-land? Here's an excerpt.

For the teenager James Matthew Barrie, the sloping, terraced garden overlooking a gentle river was an enchanted land where he and his friends became pirates, clambered over walls, built hideouts and scaled trees in the sunshine.

But the back garden of Moat Brae, a late Georgian villa in the rural town of Dumfries, became more than a playground for the aspiring novelist and playwright. Thirty years later, it inspired Neverland, the magical kingdom where Peter Pan and Tinkerbell flew into battle against Captain Hook, an adventure that captured the imaginations of millions of real-life children.

Now, nearly 140 years after JM Barrie played there as a boy, the mansion and gardens are to be transformed into a national centre for children's literature, after the derelict and decaying building and its garden were saved from demolition by a local trust.

Read the article in its entirety at The Guardian.

Are Children's Books So Black and White?

In today's Guardian book blog you'll find a post entitled The eternal allure of good v evil. The subtitle reads "The larger-than-life, black-and-white morality of children's books is a relief for adult readers tired of ambiguity."

**Shaking head** Hmmmm... Really?

Here's how it begins.

Children, like dogs, see morality in black and white, their monochrome perspective reflecting the heated simplicity of the playground ("He started it!", "It's not fair!"). Before they're old enough to concede, sullenly, that life's not fair and start reading the latest contenders for the Booker, young readers immerse themselves enthusiastically in extravagant, epic quests: viscerally satisfying showdowns between good and evil in which you emphatically don't have to see the other fellow's point of view.

Williams is writing about epic quest novels here and discusses some of her favorites from childhood. Pullman and Rowling are also mentioned. While I understand what she's trying to say, I find it simplistic to say that children's/young adult literature is so cut and dried. And lacking ambiguity? Please! Yes, there is the theme of good vs. evil, but sometimes it's not easy to tell which team folks are playing for. Fantasy books today are not as black and white as they seem. And as to not seeing the other fellow's point of view? I have a "Trust Snape" t-shirt (thanks Leila!) that says otherwise.

On Buying/Reading Children's Books at Any Age

In today's Christian Science Monitor is an article by Jayne Hanlin entitled Books for 'children of all ages'. It begins:

My friend and I are both retired elementary school teachers, so my recent purchase surprised her.

"You mean you bought a children's book for yourself?" she asked. "I have started getting rid of mine by giving them to my grandchildren."

But I am not ready to part with mine quite yet. My library of children's books represents an integral part of me, transporting me back to the days of my own childhood as well as those of my sons and grandchildren. I indulge myself by reliving experiences as I read these books through the years. And I long to add more memories.

It's a lovely piece. Do take some time to read it in its entirety.

November Carnival is Here!

The November Carnival of Children's Literature is now up. MotherReader asked bloggers to share tips, suggestions, advice, and lessons learned from all areas of kids’ lit, and boy, did they respond. Head on over and check it out.

Reconsidering Ten Little Rabbits - Evaluating Books From the Viewpoint of Other Cultures

Imagine you are a teacher looking for counting books for your classroom. You want to include books that showcase a range of diversity, so in your search you come across a book that not only "celebrates Native American traditions" (from the publisher's description), but one that has been noted in the following ways.

Best Books

• Adventuring with Books: A Booklist for Pre-K-Grade 6, Tenth Edition, 1993
• National Council of Teachers of English
  
• Recommended Literature: Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, 2002; California Department of Education
  

Awards, Honors, Prizes

• ABC Children's Booksellers Choices Award Winner 1992 Picture Books
  
• International Reading Association Children's Book Awards Winner 1992 Younger Readers International
• National Association of Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) Winner 1991
  
• Redbook Children's Picturebook Awards Winner 1991
  

Chances are, with these honors behind it and the recommendation of school librarians and state sanctioned reading lists, you would be persuaded you to use this book in instruction.

Published in 1991, Ten Little Rabbits, written by Virginia Grossman and illustrated by Sylvia Long, is ostensibly a counting book that introduces rabbits in dress and activities typical of Native American tribes. However, the book does little to refute the stereotype that all Native Americans are alike.

Why am I rehashing the issues surrounding this book? I am working on a piece about using children's literature in math instruction, rigorously reviewing books in my collection and on suggested reading lists, and thinking deeply about what it means to include books that represent peoples and ideas outside of mainstream (dare I say white?) American culture. Have you any idea how hard it is to find a counting book that highlights African American children (there are lots set in Africa, but few of black children in the U.S.) and their experiences? The same is true for Native American children.

I was one of those teachers who eagerly bought Ten Little Rabbits upon the recommendations of librarians and instructors. I never really thought much about the message sent by this book when I first read it. I saw possibilities in the last pages for using the blanket images for studying patterns, symmetry and shapes. However, in 1995 I read the article "What's Wrong with Ten Little Rabbits?" in the children's literature journal The New Advocate. Reading Theresa McCarty's short review was like receiving a slap in the face. I wondered how I could have been so naive and so quick to accept a book about another culture without subjecting it to a more critical review.

The answer is, I didn't know any better. (A poor excuse, I know.) I have since learned that it is difficult, if not impossible, to evaluate what you don't know. While I hate having to rely on members of the Native American community to help me make these judgments, I know that I will never have the depth of knowledge or background necessary to accurately evaluate instructional materials that draw heavily from Native American history and storytelling.

So how do I evaluate books of other cultures? I currently use several resources to guide my selection of pieces for instruction. One is Donna Norton's Multicultural Children's Literature: Through the Eyes of Many Children. I find this short volume to be particularly helpful in applying evaluation criteria and identifying stereotypes. A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children, edited by Doris Seale and Beverly Slapin, is an enormous and comprehensive volume that not only includes author reviews from A to Z, but also a range of essays that provide a wealth of information about Native Cultures and insights into reviewing works about Native peoples. This is not an easy book to read and at times, the anger in the reviews can be disconcerting, but it is valuable and educational nonetheless. I also read the following blogs for very helpful information and reviews.

• American Indians in Children's Literature by Debbie Reese
• Black Threads in Kid's Lit by Kyra
  
• Mitali's Fire Escape by Mitali Perkins
• Paper Tigers Blog a Pacific Rim Voices Project
  

Ten Little Rabbits still remains in my teaching collection, but not in the way it was originally intended. I now give the book to students (all preservice and inservice teachers) and ask them to review it for use as a counting book. Then, once all the glowing reviews are in (and they are all glowing), I hit them with the McCarty article and watch the blood drain from their faces. They are shocked, astounded and embarrassed -- all feelings I know well. From here we proceed to talk about why this book is not a resource we should use for instruction, and then push on to discuss how we can be more thoughtful evaluators of books for children. It's a tough lesson, but one that works well, and while my teachers learn new strategies, I learn right along with them. What more could I ask for?

Fighting Disappointment

In January of each year I plan the fall schedule for my department. As chair, I generally teach just two classes each semester. In the fall I teach Integrated Curriculum Methods. This is a course that looks at the integration of science and social studies in the elementary curriculum. This course and Foundations of Mathematics Instruction are my favorites. I have been planning for the fall 2007 semester since fall 2006 ended. No, really, I have. My recent foray into blogging and connecting to this fantastic world of the kidlitosphere has given me so many ideas that I am busting at the seams with excitement.

Sadly, today I learned that there is only 1 student registered for Integrated Curriculum Methods for fall, and that it will be canceled. Sigh. I am so disappointed, in part because this would have been the last semester to teach the class in this form. You see, we are beholding to the State Department of Education and must often reconfigure our curriculum to meet "licensure competencies." In addition to regularly updating to meet new licensure regulations, we often revise our program based on input from teachers and administrators in the local school divisions. We are currently in the midst of a major revision to meet not only national accreditation standards (TEAC), but also to meet the demands of a new credit system at the University. Beginning in the fall of 2008, we will move from a credit-hour system (courses of 3 or 4 hours) to a unit system (a course is a course is a course, where each unit requires 10-14 hours of work each week, to include seat time). All this means that we are preparing for major curricular changes to come, and that my teaching load will look quite different in another year.

I will be required to offer an independent study for my lone student, though I can't imagine at this point what it will look like. I may try to find a classroom teacher who is exemplary in the teaching of science and social studies and ask him/her to allow my student to spend time in his/her classroom. (Oh Mary Lee and Monica, I wish you were in VA!)

I suppose another part of my disappointment is that I will not have an outlet for sharing books with my students this fall. Since I won't be teaching Children's Literature this summer it will be a long wait. The class I will be teaching this fall is Secondary Curriculum Methods, and believe me, there won't be much room here for sharing my ideas. Perhaps you can imagine the looks on the faces of these students when I suggest reading aloud in middle and high school classrooms. I see these frowns in my sleep, and they make me sad.

My greatest disappointment, however, comes from knowing that I will be traveling to China with the express purpose of developing instructional materials to share with practicing and future elementary school teachers. Alas, it seems I will have a rather long wait before I will be able to unveil my work.

Alright, enough wallowing in self-pity. Thanks for listening to me share my disappointment. I will now need to think about ways that my blog can help fill this void for me in the fall. Perhaps I shall devote a large portion of my entries to focusing on literature for social studies instruction. Hmmmmm . . . lots to think about here.

Julius Lester's Speech on Children's Literature

One of my regular blog reads is A Commonplace Book, written by author extraordinaire Julius Lester. It links to another blog called Olio, a place where he puts material that simply doesn't fit into his other sites. He recently posted the text of a speech he gave at the UMass Perspectives in Children's Literature Conference. Here is an excerpt:

Only those of us passionately involved with children’s literature seem to understand one simple but profound fact: If we are going to have a nation of literate and articulate people, they have to become avid readers long before they become adults. The child who does not like to read becomes an adult who will not read.

You can't imagine how wonderfully insightful this speech is. (Oh, sure you can, it's Julius Lester.) Go now and read the speech in its entirety. Really. Go!

More on Science Books for Kids

Thanks to Elaine over at the Blue Rose Girls blog, I have found a new blog to follow. It is the Science Musings blog of Chet Raymo. I'm a science geek at heart, so I love this stuff, but for those of you with an interest in books, you should definitely check out these entries from last year.

In the first entry, Kid Lit, Raymo writes:

Science is an attitude toward the world -- curious, skeptical, undogmatic, and sensitive to beauty and mystery. The best books for children are the ones which convey these attitudes. They are not necessarily the books labeled "science."

In the second entry, Kid Lit - Part 2, Raymo shares excerpts from Randall Jarell's book The Bat-Poet.

Both of these are extraordinary pieces on the wonder and value in using children's literature as a springboard to science. Don't miss them!

Thank You, Grace Lin (or Why Multicultural Books Matter)

I taught a class last summer called Choosing and Using Children’s Literature Across the Curriculum. While we focused most of our efforts on choosing books to augment the teaching of math, science and social studies, we spent a fair amount of time discussing and reflecting on the need to include books in the curriculum that help students develop understanding of other cultures. I know, this is where I lose people. In fact, there are those who have argued vehemently that this should absolutely not be a criterion by which we select and evaluate books. But alas, for me, this is so important. Classrooms today just don't look the way they did 30 years ago (or 10 years ago), so the books we select shouldn't look the same either.

Let's look at some figures from Virginia. The most recent LEP (Limited English Proficient) data includes this information:

• Since 1996, the number of LEP students in Fairfax County alone (outside D.C.) has TRIPLED from 10,000 to 30,000 students.

• In the 05-06 academic year, the number of LEP students enrolled in Virginia public schools was 78,216. This year (06-07), the number of enrolled LEP students is 86,392.

Our schools are changing, and to meet the needs of all students, shouldn't we use materials that reflect the experiences of ALL students? Imagine what school would be like if you never found yourself reflected in the curriculum in any way? What must that be like?

When I graduated from high school there were fewer than 10 African-American students in my class of 375, and probably fewer Asian-American. Were it not for my 9th grade social studies instructor, I never would have studied the countries of Asia and Africa. I exchanged letters with a Japanese penpal (the old fashioned kind you know, on very thin paper with cool air-mail stamps and envelopes), learned about making and flying kites, counted in Swahili, and did so many other cool things that I can attribute my love of learning about other countries, cultures and people to Mr. Lind and this class. All positive notes aside, I had to wait until high school to learn these things, and if I were from another race or culture, I would have spent my entire school career until this point reading and learning only about white Americans. How do we ever teach children to develop cross-cultural understanding if we don't start when they are very young? As I said, I grew up in different times, and boy, have times changed.

One of my favorite books to use for studying topics in science and social studies related to the world population is If the World Were a Village by David Smith. Since 6.3 billion is a difficult number to understand, the author scales important world statistics down to a village of 100. Using this smaller number allows us to see how the world's peoples, religions, and resources are then distributed. Here are some things students learn:

• If the whole world were a village of 100 people, 61 would come from Asia, 13 from Africa, 12 from Europe, 8 from South America, Central America (including Mexico) and the Caribbean, 5 from Canada and the United States, and 1 from Oceania (an area that includes Australia, New Zealand and the islands in the south, west, and central Pacific.

• In the global village there are almost 6000 languages, but more than half of the people speak these 8 languages - 22 speak a Chinese dialect (of these people, 18 speak the Mandarin dialect), 9 speak English, 8 speak Hindi, 7 speak Spanish, 4 speak Arabic, 4 speak Bengali, 3 speak Portuguese, and 3 speak Russian.

• In the village of 100 people, 32 are Christians, 19 are Muslims, 13 are Hindus, 12 practice shamanism, animism and other folk religions, 6 are Buddhists, 2 belong to other global religions (such as Baha’i faith, Confucianism, Shintoism, Sikhism or Jainism, 1 is Jewish, and 15 are non-religious.

I could go on here, but these figures stand for themselves. Do we really need any other reasons to think about our teaching in a more global context? This is why multicultural children's books matter.

I am inarticulate when it comes to discussing these matters, so I'll let someone far more talented explain why this is so important. Thank you, Grace Lin, for saying this so eloquently. Please read Why Couldn't Snow White Be Chinese? for a strong argument for helping children from all walks of life find themselves in books.