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Children’s and Young Adult Books on Latino Themes

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Depending on where you live, it can be difficult to get advice on children’s and young adult books with Latina/o themes from your local librarian or bookstore.  Even online reviews can be unreliable, depending on who wrote them.

Fortunately, there are several awards offered each year that recognize excellence in children’s and young adult books with Latina/o characters and themes.

For example, the Pura Belpré Awards recognize Latina/o writers and illustrators “whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.”  This year’s Pura Belpré Award winners are, as usual, an excellent group.

The 2011 Author Award Winner is Pam Muñoz Ryan, for her book The Dreamer (Scholastic, 384 pages, grades 4-9).  The Dreamer reimagines the youth of the poet Pablo Neruda, who was born in Chile with the name Neftalí Reyes. The book explores Reyes’s self-discovery as a creative force and the development of his worldview and poetic voice.  This journey of discovery is impeded by Reyes’s domineering father, who wants Neftalí to become a successful businessman instead of an artist. Muñoz Ryan has been lauded for her “lyrical, minimalistic text” and poems in the style of Neruda.

One reviewer at Amazon.com summed up the book’s themes nicely:

Though written for children, it is a story readers of all ages will find much value in: a tale of perseverance and poetry, family and power, art and identity, written in Ryan’s sure and slightly unconventional hand. She asks her audience to ponder with Neftalí questions such as, “Where is the heaven of lost stories? Who spins the elaborate web that entraps the timid spirit? What wisdom does the eagle whisper to those who are learning to fly?” Peter Sis’s drawings that accompany the tale are airy and fantastical — a perfect illustration of Neftalí’s thoughts and experiences.

The 2011 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Winner is Eric Velasquez, for the book he wrote and illustrated, Grandma’s Gift (Walker Publishing Company, 40 pages, grades K-3). Set in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the book traces the details of young Eric’s day as he prepares for a traditional Puerto Rican Christmas celebration with his grandmother, then moves to a trip to the museum to view the work of Diego Velázquez as part of a homework assignment.  Seeing Eric’s fascination with the artwork, Eric’s grandmother gives him a special gift: a set of colored pencils and a sketchbook.< The committee issuing the illustration award noted the way Velasquez’s use of oil on watercolor paper allows for a warmth and depth of detail, and highlighted as well how he uses color and light to mirror the moods of the book’s characters.

The runners-up for the 2011 Pura Belpré prize include the following Author Honor Books:

¡Ole! Flamenco, written and illustrated by George Ancona, (Lee and Low Books, 48 pages, grades 3-5)

This book provides an excellent introduction to Flamenco’s highly expressive form of dancing, singing, and guitar playing. In this book students learn how to move their hands, arms, bodies, and feet to the traditional rhythms of the music. Each aspect of flamenco is explored in detail, as are the origins of the art form in India, North Africa, and the Arab world.  This photo essay also takes the reader to Santa Fe’s annual Spanish Market in July, where we see younger and older dancers perform in the town plaza.

The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cub , written by Margarita Engle (Henry Holt and Company, 160 pages, grades 6-12)

In the middle of the nineteenth century, women and girls in Cuba didn’t have the freedom to roam. Yet when Fredrika Bremer visits from Sweden in 1851 to learn about the people of this magical island, she is accompanied by Cecilia, a young slave who longs for her lost home in Africa. Soon Elena, the wealthy daughter of the house, sneaks out to join them. As the three women explore the lush countryside, they form a bond that breaks the barriers of language and culture.

90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis (Roaring Brook Press, 304 pages, grades 4-7)

When Julian’s parents make the heartbreaking decision to send him and his two brothers away from Cuba to Miami as part of Operation Pedro Pan–which moved 14,000 children between 1960 and 1962–the boys are thrust into a new world where bullies run rampant and it’s not always clear how best to protect themselves.  The book was inspired by Flores-Glabis’s own experiences as a child in Operation Pedro Pan, and features well-developed characters and a fast-moving story.

The Pura Belpré committee also honored these runners-up with Illustrator Honor Books awards:

Fiesta Babies, illustrated Amy Cordova and written by Carmen Tafolla (Tricycle Press, 24 pages, grades preK-3)

Young children will enjoy the rhythmic, rhyming text that accompanies this cheerfully illustrated book. Featured in its pages are babies and toddlers of various skin tones, as well as the material culture of Mexican-American celebrations, including serapes, sombreros, piñatas, coronas de flores made from crepe paper, and papel picado.

Me, Frida, illustrated by David Diaz and written by Amy Novesky (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 32 pages, grades K-3)

Like a tiny bird in a big city, Frida Kahlo feels lost and lonely when she arrives in San Francisco with her husband, the famous artist Diego Rivera, who was painting murals for the Pacific Stock Exchange. It is the first time she has left her home in Mexico. And Frida wants to be a painter too. However, as Frida begins to explore San Francisco on her own, she discovers more than the beauty, diversity, and exuberance of America. She finds the inspiration she needs to become one of the most celebrated artists of all time.  Booklist described the book’s charcoal and acrylic paintings as “glowing with warm, vibrant colors” that combine to “create distinctive, statuesque people within imaginatively conceived landscapes, cityscapes, and interiors.”

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 32 pages, grades K-3)

If you know the story comparing the city mouse and country mouse, this book will be familiar to you, but it has a delightful and educational twist: we see the parallel yet contrasting lives of cousins living in the U.S. and Mexico. So, while Charlies takes the subway, plays in fallen leaves, and eats pizza, Carlitos rides his bike, plays among cacti, and makes quesadillas. Tonatiuh incorporates stylized forms of ancient art from the Mixtecs and other cultures of Mexico.

Sesame Street and radical acceptance

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I grew up with Sesame Street.  As a child, I loved the colorful sketches and songs, and pretty much any scene that had a Muppet in it, but especially if it featured my then-favorite, lovable, furry old Grover.  (Today I’m more of a Cookie Monster fan.)

These days, when I watch Sesame Street with my 5-year-old, I enjoy it for a completely different reason: its gospel of radical acceptance.  Long before Lady Gaga had her hit “Born This Way,” Sesame Street preached both self-acceptance and acceptance of others, no matter what their attributes or quirks.

I think this is, at heart, what troubles conservative critics of the show. Here’s the latest attack on Sesame Street; it’s expressed during a panel moderated by Sean Hannity, and it aired on FOX on June 1:

Ben Shapiro comments on Sesame Street

I was especially interested in these bits of the conversation:

Ben Shapiro, author of Primetime Propaganda: I talked to one of the guys who was originally at Children’s Television Workshop originally, and he said that the whole purpose of Sesame Street was to cater to black and Hispanic youths who don’t have reading literature in the house.  There’s kind of this soft bigotry of low expectations that’s automatically associated with Sesame Street.  If you go on the Sesame Street website, it talked about ‘when you’re bringing up your child, make sure that you use gender neutral language. Make sure that you give your boys dolls and make sure that you give your girls firetrucks.

Ah, there’s so much to unpack here, isn’t there?  First, it’s too easy to dismiss a desire to cater to underprivileged children of color as a “soft bigotry of low expectations.” If we look at the actual history of Sesame Street‘s founding, we find the show was the first to be structured entirely on sound educational research.

Sesame Street was (and is) driven by data, not sentiment

For anyone interested in the history of television, in children’s informal learning, or just in the story of how the first children’s educational television developed, I highly recommend G is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street.*  In the first essay in the book, Edward Palmer (an early member of the Children’s Television Workshop staff) and Shalom Fisch tell the story of how CTW and Sesame Street came to be, and they emphasize how thoroughly the show relied on research rather than on some liberal agenda or sentiment:

What distinguished Sesame Street (and, to a lesser degree, the contemporaneous Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) was the combination of narrowly focused and expertly planned educational curriculum, its attempt to forge the most effective possible methods of televised teaching, and its accountability to bring about rigorously measured educational results.

That isn’t to say that Sesame Street isn’t a product of a particular historical era; it very much is, and Palmer and Fisch explain how the confluence of the Civil Rights movement, greater government interest in and funding of education, and the rapid growth of public broadcasting led to the development of the first show of its kind.  Specifically, they write,

CTW’s sole initial mandate was to create, broadcast, promote, and evaluate an experimental educational television series of 130 hour-long programs that would seek to advance the school readiness of 3- to 5-year-old children, with special emphasis on the needs of youngsters from low-income and minority backgrounds.

Palmer and Fisch cite research studies of the era, including those by Benjamin Bloom (1964), Carl Bereiter (1966), and Martin Deutch (1965), which taken together showed that:

  • greater than fifty percent of “a child’s lifetime intellectual capacity” is formed by age 5;
  • beginning in first grade, low-income children of color tested substantially lower than their white, middle-class peers;
  • this education deficit continued to grow after first grade; and
  • upon achievement of a basic level of literacy, children’s and adults’ opportunities for employment, as well as other opportunities, are vastly expanded.

CTW, Palmer and Fisch explain, “could not determine which group of children would cross that line [of literacy achievement] first, [but] it could—and did—aim to ensure that the maximum number possible would do so.”  With 97 percent of households in the U.S. owning a TV, and most of them within the broadcast range of a public television station, CTW had the opportunity to improve the educational levels of millions of preschool children.

Sesame Street was not founded, as Ben Shapiro claims in his book and in his interview with Hannity, on low expectations and bigotry.  It was founded, rather, on sound research into children’s learning, and its charge was to improve the educational readiness of all children (since children of all backgrounds would be in the broadcast area of the show), but with a special interest in providing additional support to children whose parents were unable, for whatever reason, to provide them with a first-class preschool education.  The long-term goal was to help people rise out of poverty by giving children the early start they needed to develop as much intellectual capacity as they could by age 5.

But wait. . . there’s more

From the Hannity interview:

Sean Hannity: The values of young people today scare me.  Cause we’re robbing them at easrlier and earlier ages of their childhood.  They know more, they do more.

Kirsten Haglund: It’s very concerning.  They have an access to more media at a younger age than at any other time of our nation’s history.  And what you’re also seeing is more parents at work, away from their children, not monitoring what they look at. . .

Hannity: I grew up watching Green Acres and Andy Griffith.

Shapiro: Yeah, before the shift.  That was before the shift.

“The shift”?  The shift from portrayals of an era that existed only in white American nostalgia to. . . what?  Television diversified its content and practices so quickly during the four decades following the first broadcast of Sesame Street that I’m not really sure what “the shift” signifies, other than “not rural or suburban whiteness.”

The interview continued with comments about how artists (including those involved in television production) are more liberal than the rest of a society.  (I don’t buy that, but I’ll let it stand.)  I immediately thought of how totalitarian regimes try to purge intellectuals and artists from their states.  Ken Blackwell, however, identified a different target of such governments.

Ken Blackwell: If you look at any big government regime, any authoritarian, totalitarian regime, they attack two basic intermediary institutions–the family and the church.  And that’s what’s happening in our culture right now.  And it sets up an appetite for governmental largesse, government becomes the family. . .

Yes, because helping 3- to 5-year-old children establish greater intellectual capacity, with the long-term goal of ending cycles of urban poverty, is clearly an attempt to replace the child’s actual family with Big Brother.

The next couple of excerpts, however, deliver the coup de grâce:

Hannity: Liberals. . .feel like they can circumvent the values of parents when they go to school, teaching ’em things that they themselves are teaching the opposite of.  They don’t do the basics, reading, writing, and math. . .

If liberals don’t like the basics–reading, writing, and math–why has the Obama administration embraced so much of No Child Left Behind, which focuses on reading and math?  Why is the administration, along with conservative congresspeople, trying to defund programs like the Teaching American History grants that strengthen the teaching of history in K-12?  Apparently Hannity thinks teachers are having kids watch video productions of the Communist Manifesto and whatever Judith Butler has written lately.

Haglund: But it’s a basic difference in worldview, in that usually liberals and people on the left, secular humanists, believe that human nature is ultimately good.  Whereas conservatives believe it’s not. . .

Did you catch that last bit?  Let me quote Haglund again: It’s a basic difference in worldview, in that usually liberals and people on the left, secular humanists, believe that human nature is ultimately good.  Whereas conservatives believe it’s not. . .

I would go further and say that, in my observations of television pundits, bloggers, newspaper columnists, conservatives believe that humans who are unlike themselves are especially possessed of a nature that is ultimately not good.  These pundits are not going to accept as moral or worthy of a broadcast platform anyone whose vision of the U.S. differs from their own.  These unacceptable people clearly are the ones who are responsible for “the shift” in television, for the move away from Andy Griffith and toward Sesame Street.  (Never mind all the corporations that conservatives court are the ones putting the real crap on TV.)

These folks could benefit from a good dose of radical acceptance, and particularly acceptance of the people whose lives have been made better by Sesame Street, who relied on the program to give them a crucial intellectual start in life.  It’s time to sit Shapiro, Hannity, Haglund, Blackwell, and others of their ilk down in front of a season of Sesame Street.  They need to learn to listen, to trust, and to have empathy.  And I suspect Elmo, Abby Cadaby, Grover, Cookie Monster, Ernie, Bert, Big Bird, Telly, Rosita, Snuffie, Baby Bear, Oscar, Zoe, Alan, Chris, Maria, Luis, Leela, Bob, and all the other cast and crew of Sesame Street could help them learn the kind of empathy and radical acceptance of others that might make for a more productive civil discourse.

* The Kindle Edition of the book is less expensive, and you don’t need a Kindle to read it; just download the free Kindle software for computers or mobile devices.

Unique holiday gift idea #3: Bilingual poetry

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Did you know that the first year of a child’s life is a critical period for establishing fluency in a language?

Don’t freak out, however, if the children in your life weren’t babbling in two languages before they could walk.  There are developmental changes in the brain around puberty that may make learning language a bit more difficult, but that doesn’t mean children and adults of all languages can’t become proficient in one more more foreign languages. Bilingualism hasn’t been shown to cause any long-term delay in the development of English-language skills, even for students enrolled in language immersion programs at school.

Remember, too, that bilingualism has benefits beyond the second language.  Children who are learning a second language, or acquiring two languages simultaneously, may also exhibit earlier reading, better problem-solving skills, and higher scores on both the verbal and mathematical sections of the SAT than monolingual students.  Bilingualism also opens the doors to a broader spectrum of careers.

Why this gift matters

As you can see from the benefits discussed above, children benefit tremendously—in both the short and long term—from learning a second language.  By setting a child on the path to bilingualism, or encouraging a child who is already on that path, you are enabling the development of crucial intellectual and social skills. [Read more…] about Unique holiday gift idea #3: Bilingual poetry

Book reviews: Please, Puppy, Please; Everywhere Babies; and Red or Blue, I Like You!

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Ephelba asked if I planned to review books on The Multicultural Toybox. The short answer: yes! My toddler’s collection of books mostly features animals (which, yes, I know can be racialized in disturbing and subtle ways, and perhaps I’ll write about that later), but there are a couple of fabulous books I read him frequently that I wanted to feature because they’re relevant to this site’s theme. I’ll head to the library soon to scout out some more promising children’s books that feature people of color and/or lessons about culture, or you can recommend some to me in the comments (hint, hint!).

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First up: Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee’s book Please, Puppy, Please. I was suckered into buying this book because of the illustrations by the ultra-talented Kadir Nelson. Rich, detailed, and evocative, the illustrations depict two young children who grow increasingly frustrated with the antics of their puppy. (Check out this wonderful photo of the Lees presenting the book to kids at a reading.)

The book has received much praise elsewhere for its depictions of the children and the puppy, but what most interested me was the archtypically suburban setting for the action. In popular culture and in children’s programming such as Sesame Street (as well as in everyday life), African Americans are so frequently associated with urban settings that I found refreshing the African American children’s frolicking through their decidedly middle-class suburb, with its large yards, generous blue sky, trimmed green lawns, telephone poles and lines, fenced backyards, well-maintained homes, and meticulous border gardens planted with calla lilies.

Less engaging is the text, which consists largely of variations on “Please, Puppy, Puppy, please!” That gets old quickly, even with varying intonation. Still, the illustrations make up, in my opinion, for the lack of interesting text.

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Everywhere Babies is one of my absolute favorite children’s books. Each page features a new set of actions or a new stage of development for babies; the book covers the first year of an infant’s life. My favorite page spread features a sidewalk scene in which more than 30 people—including babies—interact. The page features friendships and families of all kinds, including what could be interpreted as gay and straight couples, as well as multiracial families. The illustrations, by Marla Frazee, who illustrated one of my other favorite children’s books, Woody Guthrie’s New Baby Train, are lovely, and in the case of this page spread accompany the lyrical text, “Everyday, everywhere, babies are carried–in backpacks, in front packs, in slings, and in strollers / in car seats, and bike seats, and on Daddy’s shoulders.” Everywhere Babies is a must-have for any multicultural, queer-friendly home library.

 

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Red or Blue, I Like You! features red monster Elmo and his new friend Angela, a blue monster. Before reading the book, I was worried it was going to be heavy-handed, with a didactic message about how although we look different on the outside, we’re all the same inside. But no–the book transcends that cliché, focusing in on how we shouldn’t make assumptions about the habits and tastes of people from other cultures, nor should we fear unfamiliar cultures, but rather meet people (or monsters) quite literally where they live. But the book also offers parents plenty of opportunities to have conversations with their children about their own neighborhoods. For example, when Elmo visits Angela’s house in hwe homogeneous neighborhood, he asks, “How come all the monsters in your neighborhood are blue? Where are all the different-colored monsters we have on Sesame Street?” Angela shrugs and says she doesn’t know. Once inside Angela’s house, her brother and his blue friends ask Elmo if he wants to watch the TV show Supermonster with them. When Elmo says he’d rather play with Angela’s train set (go Train Girl!), her brother replies, “I thought all red monsters loved that show!” Both young monsters learn that they enjoy each other’s cuisine, as well as like the same activities.

Elmo is clearly made uneasy by the homogeneity of Angela’s neighborhood, so it’s no surprise that Angela is taken aback by the incredible diversity of Sesame Street’s denizens. But she soon learns to welcome this diversity, joining her new friends in welcoming a mixed-monster (red mom, blue dad) family to Sesame Street. Overall, the book presents a nice tale that offers plenty of points for discussion of perceived cultural differences and neighborhood diversity.

What are your favorite multicultural (or otherwise diversity-themed) books for young ones?