Children Make Good Teachers
Okay, these particular people are VERY white.
Sometimes we need people to help us look at our own work with new eyes. Children are especially good at this. They don’t come with automatic reverence (assuming that something is good because it’s been published, or won a medal, or been labeled a classic.) And they have that special brand of ruthless honesty, particularly when they are related to us.
This can be a helpful, as when my daughter pointed out to me that all of the people in the illustrations of Imagine a Night are white.
“What?” I said. “No way!”
I grabbed the book. We looked through it together. And of course she was correct. Sixteen illustrations in that book and not a single one of them showed a person with something other than pale skin.
Well, maybe it’s just a coincidence? Maybe the companion books, Imagine a Day and Imagine a Place, show more variety?
Nope. A total of forty-nine pieces of art in all three books, and not a single person with a significant amount of melanin.
My immediate reaction was to explain that this was not my fault. I did not paint the images (the illustrator did that). I did not select them for the book (the editor did that). The book is not narrative or sequential, so I was concentrating hard on each image individually as I wrote the poems that went with them, not thinking as much about the book as a whole.
But I bit those thoughts back. They are true, but they are not particularly relevant here. Because I may not have been able to change the illustrator’s paintbrush or the editor’s choices (I was brought onto this project quite late, after the selections were already made), but I certainly could have done one thing.
I could have noticed.
Imagine a Night was published in 2003. It’s still in print. I’ve read it aloud hundreds of times. I’ve used it in countless school workshops. And I never noticed that there is not a single person of color in the entire book. How could I not have seen?
If all the people in the art had been male, I bet I would have noticed.
My own blind spots continue to amaze and dismay me. Thanks to the people who keep helping me see what I should have seen myself, but did not. I can’t change this book, but I can try to do better in the future. I can try to notice more. And once I’ve noticed, I can try to take action.
Read MoreThe Man, His Work, and Its Impact–The Dr. Seuss Controversy
Not one of Dr. Seuss’s finer moments. He did get better.
Maybe you’re not up on what’s going on with Dr. Seuss? For details of the current controversy, check out this and this.
I was going to post my thoughts, but I have to take a back seat to Grace Lin here: she says everything that needs to be said, thoughtfully and wisely and eloquently.
A few highlights:
We know that Dr. Seuss’s early career is filled with creations of racist propaganda. He drew horrible stereotypes against Jews, African-Americans–you name it…. However, as time passed, Geisel began to regret his earlier images. It is widely accepted that his beloved book, “Horton Hears a Who!” was his way of apologizing for his earlier art….That is what makes Geisel a good man and artist. Because he was willing to grow from his original mindset, realize the harm the his work could do and get better.
No artist deserves to be judged and dismissed on the basis of one work or one image. No artist gets to be judged and idolized only on the works he or she would prefer to be selected.
Read More
The Secrets the Seven
Living descendants of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence recite it!These folks seem like characters from The Secrets of the Seven. If we cast the movie, this is what it might look like. (Except we’d need to add in some kids, of course.)
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews