Looking for yourself in a story . . .Aah! Finding yourself. Multicultural children's books

I have said that when I was little I was an avid reader (of course), but interested as I was in the stories I read,  my desire was that there be stories about us, as we are, as 'normal' people. I might now add, in relation to my last post, not necessarily quaint.

Fast forward to my MEd. Study,  “I will not look at books the same way again”: Teachers’ Feelings About the Use of Caribbean Children’s Literature (2003). One of my quotes in the literature was: Pugh (1988) cites Bill Martin Jr. “Without consciousness of how or why ...the reader is forever rummaging and scavenging through the pages for a glimpse of self ...”  Isn’t that what we do?  And if we don’t, is it that we have no concept of self?  We do not expect to find ourselves there. For our children, that would be a pity.

Come with me then. In my constant search for children’s books to read, ( I love reading children’s books), I came across The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Shame and more shame, I had not read him before. But that’s why we all need exposure to other people’s literature. And he is very main-stream, very popular.

So I’m ambling through the book and something catches my eye on p.3, where the young hero describes his father, “He has dark brown skin like mine, piercing brown eyes, a bald head and a goatee  . . . ”

Clearly I’ve misread it. . . .dark brown skin . . .I read it again. Hmm. Then on p. 7 the young hero, along with his father, go to pick up his sister. He says, “You would never believe she’s my sister  . . . she takes after our mom who was white, so Sadie’s skin is much lighter than mine. She has straight caramel-coloured hair . . . .her eyes are blue. I’m serious. . . .”

By now I’m breathless. And so yes, I now realize that the hero is indeed a child of colour; he is from a mixed race family. I say that calmly now, but then I just kept reading and rereading.  Have I really found ‘myself’ in this boy, in this book? Somebody wrote about us, as a hero, in a book which wasn’t identified as an  African American, Black British or Caribbean book? Somebody wrote about us in a ‘normal’ book!

I conclude that the writer must also be at least mixed race. At least! I look him up. He is not. He is a normal Caucasian looking man. He has written a number of books with a base of mythology, which fall into various series. The Red Pyramid  is from the series called the Kane Chronicles and has a lot to do with Egyptology. Fascinating!

The point is, however, if with all of my experience, I was still blown away by finding us in a ‘normal’ book, as the hero, not just one of a group to  be politically correct, much as I welcome that, how do children feel when they find themselves in a book? How do they feel when they don’t?

We have been talking about the need for our children to see themselves in books forever, it seems. However, now I dare to think that there may be a further breakthrough. Tuesday, January 27 is Multicultural Children’s Book Day in the USA. So we join with them in their recognition of this need. Books included here are just some of what we offer.

 Books shown here: Cricket is My Game by Jason Cole from Barbados; Shaggy Parrot and the Reggae Band by Jana Bent and Friends, Jamaica; A Tumbling World . . .A Time of Fire (an E-book on Amazon) by Diane Browne from Jamaica; Drog a Dreggen Story by Hazel Campbell from Jamaica,  and Boy Boy and the Magic Drum by Machel Montano from Trinidad and Tobago.

Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree and a Barbados welcome

Just by chance someone in Barbados saw my Caribbean children’s literature blog and said ‘The next time you are in Barbados can you read at my school?’ Her name is Sarah Venable. I replied, ‘I’m  going to be in Barbados soon’, and as they say, the rest ...  was pure delight for me, and hopefully for my Barbadian hosts. One of the things that Sarah also discovered by chance was that I was the author of Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree, which she had been reading with her group.  Serendipity!

I read at two primary schools, Sharon Primary and Blackman Gollop Primary.

Sarah Venable is at Sharon Primary as a tutor in the National Cultural Foundation’s Writers in Schools and Education Programme. The Principal, Mrs. Pamela Small-Williams, welcomed me warmly and I knew from emails that she was very supportive of my reading for the students. The group of students consisted of  8-11 year-olds. We talked a bit about the similarities and differences between Jamaica and Barbados, and decided that it was mostly a matter of size.

I read a story called Twins in a Twist, (Pearson - Get Caught Reading Series) which I like because it asks the question, ‘my twin or my team?’ These are bright children and they could respond to that challenge. We talked about why I wrote that story. (I have twin brothers; all sorts of things inspire stories). The children had a number of questions to ask me about writing in general, and about Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree in particular. They sang their song from Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree for me, and I loved it. I even had an offer from one young man to publish my books, a thoughtful response to my indicating the difficulties of getting Caribbean children’s books published. And I have every hope that when he grows up he will remember that day and be a champion for children’s stories.

Sarah has written me since then and shared some of their back-stories to Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree. I found this very exciting and will perhaps borrow this technique when reading to children here. Most of all, I enjoyed their enjoyment of meeting a real-life Caribbean children’s author. I would have loved that as a child; and even as an adult, I am thrilled to meet an author of a book I like.

Penny Hynam invited me to the Story Club at Blackman Gollop Primary.  Formed under the aegis of the Barbados chapter of “Be the Change”, the Story Club consists of volunteers reading to the children once a week after school and encouraging visual expression with drawing and colouring in response to the stories. Again I was welcomed by the Principal, Mrs. Joselyn Brewster, who recognized me as part Barbadian (grandchildren are Barbadian, so it follows). The Story Club audience consisted of 5-8 year-olds, mostly boys. Aha! I didn’t think any of the books I had brought with me would hold the attention of this younger, mostly male group. Then it struck me! Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree to the rescue. I became the mango tree with whirling arms for branches, and chanted the song. It was a success.   

The second half of their club meeting was to draw something from the story. Now I had forgotten how good a story Sweet, Sweet Mango Tree is. (I say this humbly). It is part of the Doctor Bird Reading Series. I had also forgotten, until I started reading it again, some of the details of the ending. In the end, Ben, who is a lazy, greedy man, who had been asking the mango tree for food and other essentials and getting them, oversteps the mark, and asks for money, money, money. The mango tree rains money down on him and covers him totally. He is never seen again. Traditional folktale ending for greedy people, eh! My young  listeners asked what happened to him. What should I say?  It’s one thing to read it, so you can wonder about it; quite another to have the author give you a definite answer.   ‘Why not draw the ending?’ I said. Well there were various endings, but mainly, Ben used all the money to get a big house, a big car, a big plane and even to become a rock star.  Modern times!

Stories help our children to utilize their imaginations. They soon find out that they too can write stories set in their own environment. They see that their lives can also be in stories. What a wonder! I enjoyed being in both schools. I was delighted to meet their principals, clearly both outstanding ladies. I enjoyed meeting the ladies who volunteer for these reading programmes in schools.  I consider myself very fortunate that Sarah Venable stumbled upon my blog.

What struck me, and what I hope also strikes you is, here is a story written in Jamaica finding a place in Barbadian schools. I’m sure there are many stories from all the various territories that can find a place in other schools in our territories.  So let’s do that, eh. I don’t know how, but one never knows.

 (Photos are from both schools, courtesy of Penny Hynam - Blackman Gollop Primary, and Cheryl Hutchinson - Sharon Primary.  I try not to show the faces of my young listeners so it may seem like the pictures are mainly of me, but I hope that you get the idea of what a great reading time we had.  Please note the extended arm in air, no doubt a branch of the mango tree.)

Despatches: First draft of YA novel completed and an e-book of adult short stories on Amazon

First draft of next YA novel completed. Aha! Of course I planned to write another blog right after the last. However, this time I have an excellent excuse. I was writing! Yes, I was! I was writing the first draft of my next time travel book which I started about a year ago, I believe (hush!). It was bothering me so much that I had not got past the first few chapters. So now I wrote frantically, stopping only to eat, sleep, etc. supermarket, bank and so on. And  then plop into the bed cross-eyed to watch TV for relaxation. I think I got that done in about a month. Lovely! However I still have things to reconcile; still lots of work to be done: time line - Is it dark in this scene, or not? If it’s not dark how are you going to see them by light shining on them in the dark? If it’s already dark then how are they going to see that next aspect from the air …? (important scene).

The conversation with myself continues. Which character turns out to be the villain? Hello! Why? (you’d think I’d know by the end of the first draft, and of course I do). So give us the rationale. Oh! and what is the purpose of that character, now that you’ve given most of her lines to another character, because you were going to cut her from the story, and now you’re not sure you want to anymore?  So when did they discover the blueprint so they could fix the machine? Oh really?  

Not to mention real structural aspects like: Too much dialogue here and there? Is it moving the story along, or is it slowing it down? Too much narrative/explaining/ background here and there? Can we break it up and give this info in some of the dialogue? But didn’t you say the dialogue was slowing the pace? So time out to have someone read it and for me to work on something else, like this blog, while I wait for insights to appear. It’s a scary but interesting/stimulating time in the process.

Enlightenment, validation from trip to Barbados. Watching school videos of the grandchildren (no, this is not a grandchildren story); the older is 7 and ¾; the younger, 6 next month. Of course, since the older one went  to 'big school' first there is more of her in plays, etc. We see her doing all sorts of things, dancing, playing the recorder, etc. She is  suitably delighted and gracious, as only first children can be. (We always belong!). The younger cannot see himself in the videos. He walks away, sad, face screwed up,  arms folded, to show that even though he is hurt, he still has some dignity. “Come!” we say, “See you here!” He returns but is  so upset he cannot see himself in the school play. We have to stop the video and say, “See you there! See you there!” He laughs with heartfelt delight at the discovery that he is also in the pictures. “It’s me! It’s me!” All is well.

The purpose of this anecdote? Well it came to me, this is what happens to a child when they cannot see themselves in books. This is what we do to Caribbean children when they do not see themselves in books. Do we wonder then that solving of our problems is so difficult? How do you solve problems if you don’t exist? A new insight comes to me even as I write this. Is it because the gatekeepers did not see themselves in books that they do not see its importance, that they fear it? Are they really only comfortable with the books of the colonizers, old and new, or the books that the developed countries tell us are acceptable? Scary thought! If so, hush! We cannot tell the gatekeepers. It will make them angry with us, ... and you know what that means. (This last sentence may just be a carry over from the sci-fi YA novel, of which first draft mentioned above. The mind is like that, as you know.)

An educator recently read Island Princess in Brooklyn, and liking it, asked: Is this book in the schools? Why isn’t it in the schools?  

A children’s writer publishes a book of adult short stories: This I did, and it’s called The Land in the Purple Evening, and is an e-book on Amazon. My friend, Hazel Campbell, who is also a published author of  adult short stories, put an e-book on Amazon last year. I was supposed to do so from then, but I didn’t. Hesitation! Procrastination! So it was an achievement to finally have it done. The book is under the name Diane Aiken Browne, to make some distinction between that and the children’s stories. It will probably only cause confusion.  Some of the stories have been published already in anthologies or journals. The purpose was to see if putting a book on Amazon can work  for us in the Caribbean, and it has got two nice reviews. I haven’t done much marketing on social media, mostly because I feel shy. I sent out the announcement, using my address book, and that caused me enough anxiety. Anyway, I will continue to press on with the technology of today’s world. I hope to be able to put out a children’s as an e-book also, to see if it works. Before Christmas! Really? And the artwork isn’t even given out yet, and it’s September. Ah my friends, what can I say? I press on.