Chapter 11, Diverese Perspectives in Children's Literature.

     In this chapter I took a deeper look at how culture is transcended into literature.  The general popular perspective that books were written in in the middle 1900 were that consistent with the predominate white culture. This means children were only exposed to racially mainstream characters. The characters and plot of these stories were morally aligned with one generally excepted insight, leaving those students that did not fit into"mainstream" with out the ability to identify with a strong character.  I don't need the text to tell me how vitally important it is to a child's full development that they are immersed in a variety of experiences. A truly diverse literature library provides a wonderful way to take the entire world and bring it into the four walls of your class, giving students a magical journey through through different countries; race; traditions and beliefs. It also provides a platform to introduce a variety of disabilities and other controversial social issues such as sexuality and religion. Opening our student eyes to the world around them with out having to leave the room sounds like a no-brainier but many would argue that introducing students to cultures and perspectives different from theirs is to "risky" to do at school.
   
     I admit, I too have found myself wandering where is the invisible line drawn. Is it a wonderful book or a "risky" book?  How do I know that the books I feel provide our students a multicultural exposure, will not be viewed as controversial by others?   Surprisingly to me, our text states on page 310,  that there very few  "safe" children's books out there. Almost every book has an underlying theme.  Researcher Vivian Yenika-Agbaw wrote in 2003 only permitting students insight that fall within their own culture would "exclude too many voices and experiences, hence depriving our children of the opportunity to understand facets of our humanity."  So I am taking the stance of the result of the rich exposure outweighs the concern of the controversial concerns.  Table 11.1 on page 310 provides the following additional reasons for sharing "risky" books:

• It promotes critical thinking through text to self and text to world style discussions
• It promotes the value of diversity and difference through exploring  multiple perspectives
• It encourages cross-cultural perspectives

Books within the diversity genre are placed into three cultural specificity ranges:

• Culturally Neutral--includes diverse characters but the topic is not on culture or diversity, it is about something different. Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.

•  Culturally Generic--the book does focus on it's diverse character, but, few details differentiate the given culture(s) from the American culture. Emma's Rug, by Allen Say.

• Culturally Specific--includes specific and authentic aspects of culture that define the characters, plot and theme portrayed. Dragonwings by Laurence Yep

Wanting to find a list of recommended multicultural books and see how many I have of those recommended I came by this wonderful website. This Reading is Fundamental website provides book lists for students pre-k through 5th grade.

"Little one, whoever you are, there are little ones just like you all over the world. Their lives may be different from yours, and their words may be very different from your. But inside, their hearts are just like yours."

                                                                          ~ Mem, Fox, 1997