Posts Tagged diversity

Diversity in MG lit #5 Refugees

By on December 14, 2018   /   Book Lists, Diversity, For Librarians, For Teachers, New Releases  

I’ll start with a picture book, because MG readers still love them. ME AND MY FEAR by Francesca Sanna is the follow up to her deeply moving THE JOURNEY from last year. Sanna’s new book explores the territory of a newly arrived refugee who wants to get to know her new neighborhood but is held back by Fear–a marshmallow like creature who grows in response to the stress of navigating a new culture. This story felt so honest and real (in spite of the fanciful externalization of fear) I think it will make a great conversation starter.

From the team that created the Artimis Fowl graphic novels comes a book about the North African refugee experience. ILLEGAL by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin and illustrated by Giovanni Rigano is the story of two brothers who leave their small town in Ghana to find their older sister who has already traveled to Europe. The journey is a harrowing one and this is not a book for the tender-hearted reader. Still there is plenty of heart in young Ebo who tries to do the decent and kind thing in increasingly harsh environments. This book moves back and forth in time which I found a little distracting but the art is beautiful and the story is gripping.

REFUGEE by Alan Gratz is an ambitious story that weaves together the journeys of a German refugee in 1938, a Cuban refugee in 1994, and a Turkish refugee in 2015.  This story is well rooted in research but is not based on a the story of a particular refugee. The end matter contains detailed maps of each refugee’s journey and a detailed author note about what in the story is based on real persons or events. It contains suggestions for how to help refugees in your community and in the world. The author will be donating a portion of his proceeds to UNICEF for its relief efforts to refugee children world wide.

 

I’m going to call your attention to one more book which will be out in the first week of January in 2019. WE ARE DISPLACED: MY JOURNEY & STORIES FROM REFUGEE GIRLS AROUND THE WORLD is written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. Did you know that there are more than 65 million displaced persons in the world? Yousafzai shares her own story and the stories of displaced girls like herself that she has met through her activist work all over the world, putting a human face on the refugee experience.

I have chosen to focus on new books in this collection but most public libraries have a resource list of books about the refugee experience for young readers. Here is a list, including older titles, from the New York Public Library,

As always if you have a favorite book for MG readers about the refugee experience, please chime in below. Thank you!

 

Back to Top

Celebrating Multicultural Literature for Children

By on December 12, 2018   /   Articles, Diversity  

I had the honor of presenting at the 34th annual Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for children this past year. This is the longest running event of its kind…focusing solely on multicultural literature for young readers.

The conference was established by professors at Kent State University while the beloved and most honored author of children’s literature, Virginia Hamilton, was alive.

Sixteen years after her death, Virginia would be thrilled that this conference is not only alive and well, but other initiatives are taking place across the country to celebrate and champion multicultural works.

One such event is Multicultural Children’s Book Day, (MCBD) celebrated on January 25, 2019.

The celebration was born out of frustration by two women in not being able to find diverse or multicultural children’s books for their families. Bloggers Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book and Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom took matters into their own hands by creating the event in January 2012.

The mission from the beginning has been to not only raise awareness around children’s books that celebrate diversity, but to also get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries.

“Kids need to ‘see themselves’ in the pages of the books they read,” noted Budayr. “We are determined to not only shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural books available but also offer visibility for the amazing authors and publishers who create them.”

Now in its sixth year, the MCBD online celebration attracts thousands of supporters, over 700 book reviewers and dozens of quality authors and publishers.

There are many ways that educators, media specialists, authors and families can become involved in the initiative and celebrate diverse works with young readers.

Some actionable ideas include encouraging students to bring a multicultural book to share with students in class, creating a MCBD book display in the classroom or library, or focusing on books that address social topics such as poverty, or civil rights.

Children’s book authors (including yours truly!) are supporting the initiative by becoming sponsors, intending to create awareness about our works and to support the cause.

The upcoming January 25, 2019 event promises to be the MCBD’s biggest yet!

To learn more, visit http://www.MulticulturalChildrensBookDay.com

 

Back to Top

So, Why Realistic Fiction?

By on December 5, 2018   /   Articles, Book Lists, Common Core & NGSS, Fiction, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, Teacher Tips  

Realistic Fiction in the Classroom

By Robyn Gioia

A genre that is not front and center in today’s stories of zombie, vampires, unicorns, and fairies is the world of realistic fiction. My class and I recently studied realistic fiction and what I learned was surprising.

The root word “real” in realism says it all. Are the characters regular people? Do they have problems? Do they make mistakes? Do they have real emotions? Do they grapple with pain, feel love, become utterly depressed, or bubble over with serendipity? Is the world real or is it a fantasy world with three moons and purple mountains? If it’s a made-up world, does it follow the rules of physics? If a character walks off a cliff, do they get hurt?

Plot

Probably the biggest element to examine is plot. Is it believable? Although circumstances may be extraordinary at times, is it something that could really happen? How do the characters deal with real problems? Are the solutions something that can really happen?

I noticed my students were so firmly rooted in fantasy, that when we studied our unit on realistic fiction, it took a lot of examination to decide if something could really happen. They argued that a character who miraculously survived a plane crash could climb the highest mountain, and walk a hundred miles to the next village without any food or water.

When I added that there are no super powers in realistic fiction, they stared at me. Then came the explanations. Maybe the survivor was in shape, they said. Maybe this person had a big dinner before the crash. Then the next set of “maybes” became even grander, without text evidence I might add. Maybe someone gave the person a ride. Maybe the person found a bunch of  power drinks. The “maybe” syndrome continued.

After our discussion, things got better. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard the different reading groups asking each other, “Can it really happen and where is the evidence?”

So, why realistic fiction?

This brings us to the question. Why teach realistic fiction when other genres are vastly more popular?

Realistic fiction grounds students in real life. It lets them experience real life situations through cause and effect. It shows them the complexity of problems and how humans might react. It helps them to understand relationships. It helps students see life through the perspective of others.  It shows them how problems may or may not be solved. It exposes them to the vast differences in cultural beliefs and interactions between others.

To sum it up, realistic fiction helps students understand the way life works.

At the end of our study, something I did not expect was a comment from one of my brightest. “I haven’t found any books that I like. But I just learned that I like realistic fiction.” Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled out a copy of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen and settled down to read.

 

Back to Top