By Rebecca Light
This month at the SCBWI Westside Mingle, our micro community
discussed diversity, spurred by two picture books released in the past
year—both depicting stories of American slavery—A Fine Dessert, and A
Birthday Cake for George Washington.
The initial critical response to these books had our room of
writers both discussing Scholastic’s decision to recall one of the books, and
then talking about how to appropriately introduce challenging topics to
children of picture book age. The feeling in the room was that children age five
and up were equipped to explore difficult topics, so presenting only a seeming
“bright” side of these topics doesn’t seem to be necessary. If that is the
case, perhaps these books exemplified a failure of nerve to tell a complex
story to young people?
The discussion broadened out to our responsibility as
writers. Diverse stories need more representation, so how do we get there? How
does a writer tell a story outside their ethnicity, class, ability, experience,
etc.— while maintaining the integrity of that experience? Is it even their
story to tell? On the flipside, how does a writer resist being pigeonholed to write
only from their one worldview?
Our group offered some suggestions for tackling these
challenges, but agreed it is most important to support diversity by buying and
reading books by writers and illustrators from underrepresented groups. Literature
may be an art form but it makes its way into society as a business. If the
market demands diverse books, publishers will supply diverse books.
If you want to read further, here are a few of the many
links on either the subject of the two picture books mentioned above or on diversity
in kidlit. There are many, many fine discussions and threads on this topic
other than what we have listed here, and it would serve every writer to spend
some time reading them.
Disability in Kid
Lit
Andrea Davis Pinkney – A Proud Slice of History
ShelfTalker – Publisher’s Weekly on A Birthday Cake for George Washington
Roger Sutton of The Horn Book responds to Scholastic’s decision
Andrea Davis Pinkney – A Proud Slice of History
ShelfTalker – Publisher’s Weekly on A Birthday Cake for George Washington
Roger Sutton of The Horn Book responds to Scholastic’s decision
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