Jacob's Room to Choose-and our Book to Choose

According to Fran Wilde in the article, “Three children’s authors on the importance of tough topics in young people’s literature,” “Children’s literature has a long history of engaging with tough topics in small and large ways and wrapping them up in adventure” (washingtonpost.com).  Sarah and Ian Hoffman’s picture book, Jacob’s Room to Choose, is no exception. The story follows Jacob and Sophie, two gender non-conforming children, as they go about their day at school. Jacob is introduced as a young boy (according to the pronouns used in the story) who is stereotypically “girly” toting a blonde bob and a green dress, while his friend, Sophie, sports a bouffant Afro and wears khakis and a button-down shirt. When we first read Jacob’s Room to Choose, we thought it was perfect. It challenges gender binaries, so really, what more could we ask for?

Just a bit more. Maybe?

Although choosing to address the issue of gender non-conforming bathrooms in a children’s picture book is an amazing idea, the forced assumptions at the beginning of the book detracts from its overall purpose. The story begins with “Jacob and Sophie loved library time.” (n.p.) The names, however, do not match how the children are arranged in the beautifully rendered illustration by Chris Case. The reader is forced to assume that Jacob is on the left and Sophie is on the right because the names are ordered that way. However, the accompanying image shows Sophie lying on the left and Jacob lying on the right. This misleading pattern continues for a few more pages: “Jacob and Sophie raised their hands (Sophie is again on the reader’s left side and Jacob is on the right).” “Sophie walked through one door./ Jacob took a deep breath and walked through the other.” (n.p.) This time Jacob stands on the left facing the sign that indicates the restroom for boys and Sophie stands on the right side facing the opposite sign. Rather than allowing the reader to make the mistake of mis-identifying the children themselves, the text is arranged in such a way that forces this assumption on the reader. This seems like a missed opportunity for the reader, especially the adult reader, to challenge their own assumptions about gender norms.

One thing Sarah and Ian Hoffman do incredibly well is they refuse to give Jacob a pronoun until the sixth page of the book when Jacob walks into the boys’ restroom: “Two boys were at the sinks. They stared at Jacob standing in the doorway. Jacob knew what that look meant. He turned and ran out.” With the first time Jacob is called “he”, we are provided with the insight that this is not the first time that Jacob has felt uncomfortable going to the boys’ restroom.

This key moment in the restroom can be a very small glimpse into the challenges gender non-conforming children and adults alike may face every day. The author is forced to give Jacob a pronoun when Jacob is within the boys’ restroom, faced by two other boys. Just “that look” is a moment that pulls at us. Jacob knows what “that look” is, he has faced this situation before and appears to be fearful, as he runs out with “his heart pounding”. In this moment, any gender non-conforming person can probably relate to Jacob’s intense fear in this moment.

Later, Ms. Reeves’s activity and subsequent discussion leads Jacob and Sophie’s classmates to consider their own assumptions about where they fit and where the rules say they fit. Ms. Reeves draws a picture of a boy and girl on the board and then asks the question, “‘Are these pictures of what boys and girls really look like?’” the children’s responses vaguely introduces the possibility of non-binary thinking:

“Yes,” said Emily.

“No,” said Sophie.

“Sometimes,” said Jacob. (n.p.)

Emily, who rejects being placed in the boy’s group because she’s wearing pants, still does not understand fully the limitations of strict gender rules outlined in Ms. Reeves’s exercise. Sophie, who rejects performing stereotypical gender norms, gives a different answer. Jacob’s answer, however, offers a third option when he responds, “‘Sometimes,’” (n.p.).

Mike Cadden tells us that “Regardless of the way that a YA novel represents the consciousness of the young adult--by character narration or by external narration that focalizes through young characters--it can produce double-voicedness” (148). In much the same way, Sarah and Ian Hoffman control Jacob’s consciousness in his narrative to create this double-voicedness that both tells what happened and presents a moral. The moral--children like Jacob should be allowed to use whatever restroom they are comfortable using--comes through clearly. However, Jacob’s sadness about not being able to choose is faint and relegated to the background of the story. In the author’s note, Sarah and Ian Hoffman discuss their son, Sam and the purpose behind the picture book. In kindergarten, Sam had waist length hair and loved wearing a pink dress (n.p.). While this author’s note explains the purpose this book, points to a known issue in literature written by adults for children.

They go on to say, “Sam’s interests were a mix of traditional ‘girl’ things like ballet, make-believe, and art, mixed with traditional ‘boy’ things like knights, castles, and dinosaurs, Clinically, children like Sam are called gender-nonconforming; we liked to call him a pink boy--the male equivalent of a tomboy” (n.p.). As soon as we read the author’s note, we began to feel wary about the wording. This reduction of their child to a clinical definition and immediately casting Sam out as “not a traditional boy,” though most likely not intentionally, enforces a gender binary. Sam wears dresses, therefore; he is immediately categorized as an “other” instead of simply a child.

(SS)

(KT)

Works Cited

Hoffman, Sarah, and Ian Hoffman. Jacob's Room to Choose. Magination Press, 2019.

Cadden, Mike. “The Irony of Narration in the Young Adult Novel.” Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1 Jan. 2009, muse.jhu.edu/article/249865/pdf.

Wilde, Fran. “Three Children’s Authors on the Importance of Tough Topics in Young People’s Literature.” The Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/04/09/three-childrens-authors-importance-tough-topics-young-peoples-literature/?utm_term=.7bda654513fe.

Down the Rabbit Hole with the Lewis Carroll Society of North America Spring Meeting

On Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 San Diego State University had the privilege of hosting the Lewis Carroll Society of North America’s Spring Meeting, and we loved falling down the rabbit hole together. Fans and scholars of Lewis Carroll and literature alike came together for exciting talks including Kathleen Krull’s discussion of the writing and publishing of her children’s picture book “One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll”. Some familiar faces to the SDSU campus popped up in Dr. Joseph Thomas’ talk on Shel Silverstein’s “Alice” poem and Dr. Philip Serrato’s talk “It’s Not Easy Being a Girl in Heteropatriarchy.”

Kathleen Krull detailed her process of researching, writing, and publishing her picture book, “One Fun Day with Lewis Carroll: A Celebration of Wordplay and a Girl Named Alice”. After falling in love with Alice in Wonderland as a child, she wrote an entire children’s book about Lewis Carroll’s Life utilizing Carroll’s nonsense words, evoking nostalgia for the whimsical language characterizing Alice in Wonderland. 

Dr. Thomas discussed Shel Silverstein’s “Alice” poem. The symbols of childhood and play within the poem depends greatly on the knowledge of Carroll’s original Alice in Wonderland. The final lines of the poem truly stood out: “And so she changed, while other folks/Never tried nothin’ at all” (Silverstein, 1974). Another poem he discussed was Silverstein’s “The Missing Piece”, a poem about an almost complete circle rejecting his perfectly fit piece. Dr. Thomas argues that this questions the idea of perfection and “wholeness” by reversing the standards of a “happy” or “fulfilled” life (pardon the pun), much like how Alice is learning to accept more of the incongruous aspects of life.

Dr. Serrato’s “It’s Not Easy Being a Girl in a Heteropatriarchy” upended traditional readings with a gothic reading of Alice’s in Wonderland. Under the guise of a simple children’s fantasy tale, Dr. Serrato brought to light recycled gothic features such as the beloved White Rabbit being a symbol of repressed trauma, and Alice inhabiting the specter of seeing motherhood as fearsome and unnerving. You can say I am never looking at my favorite childhood book the same again.

The meeting concluded with a visit to the once-lost Alice in Wonderland mural hidden on our very own SDSU campus. This beautiful mural was found under layers of paint and restored by Dr. Seth Mallios and his dedicated team, and we are so lucky to have a historic piece that artfully represents the impact that Carroll has had on past SDSU students.

We had so much fun and we hope we get the opportunity to host the Lewis Carroll Society of North America Again!

(SS)

For a video of Dr. Joseph T. Thomas's talk visit https://youtu.be/iARmr-wmwNo.

Works Cited:

Silverstein, Shel. Where the Sidewalk Ends. Harper Collins Publishers, 1974.

Yale Grads Looking for Children's Poetry: Join StoryTime and Make a Difference!

Have you ever wondered how you can help change the world? It all starts with an idea, and this idea is truly revolutionary. This team of Yale graduates created an innovative way to allow families across the globe access to literature for children! They have pinpointed a direct way to give children and parents the ability to read with their children- through text messages.

In our society, cell phones are a part of our augmented survival, beyond water and food many families depend on their cell phones. It is through this avenue that this awesome team of teachers and entrepreneurs created a new way to give people access to books. While many families might not be able to get to public libraries, afford children's books, or have access to the Internet, they have cell phones and because of this, StoryTime has discovered a way to reach these families and close the gap. Exposing children to literature at an early age is vital to their development and StoryTime has done their research, this program has already proven to be incredibly valuable. Not only is their program three hundred times cheaper than shipping books, it has been shown to dramatically improve early literacy.

Take a peek at their YouTube video that describes in detail exactly what StoryTime is all about!

This is one of the various ways YOU can become a part of something important.
Here is how you can help!
They are looking for people who are interested in joining their new team and creating content through poetry. This includes things like writing poems and stories, working with their team of illustrators and listening to feedback to continually improve their innovative project. You can find them on their website www.joinstorytime.com to find out more. This is a great opportunity to not only have your poetry and stories heard but also make a lasting impact on the world.

Lynching 101: the NCSCL 2016 Visiting Scholar's Lecture

Lynching 101: Young Adult Primers on the Murder of Emmett Till

The NCSCL 2016 Visiting Scholar's Lecture

Event Details: 

WHO: Michelle H. Martin 

University of South Carolina

Date: Wednesday, March 23rd
Time: 5:00-6:30 pm
Place: Love Library-Leon Williams Room(430 & 431)

In her article, “Narrative Tensions: Telling Slavery, Showing Violence,” in Ann Lawson Lucas’s edited volume The Presence of the Past in Children’s Literature (2003), Paula Connolly articulates a common tension in children’s books—particularly picture books—that depict violence.  She says:

Clearly the problem in publishing picture books about such issues derives from the specific age range of the books’ intended audience: to erase the violence of such events would be to mitigate the atrocity itself, yet including violence could easily alienate or terrify very young children.  For example, in retelling U.S. slavery, how does one portray—in pictures and for such a young audience—scenes of whippings, murders, rapes, and the forcible separation of families?  In short, how does one tell the truth? (107)

Telling the truth—gruesome and unspeakable as it is—is precisely what Simeon Wright does in Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till (2011), what David Robson does in The Murder of Emmett Till (2010), what Marilyn Nelson does in A Wreath for Emmett Till (2005), what Chris Crowe does in Getting Away with Murder (2003) and what Stephen J. Whitfield does in A Death in the Delta: the Story of Emmett Till (1991).  Unlike the picture books of which Connolly writes, these texts are primarily for young adults.  But like the picture books, these texts do have illustrations and deal with emotional issues that are unusually difficult for their intended audience.

These texts differ widely in terms of their format, their use of visual images, the reading level of the text as well as their approach to telling the ugly details of the lynching of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi in 1955. Yet they all offer some compelling answers to the questions that Connolly raises about the depiction of violence in literature for young people.  This presentation will explore a number of versions of the Emmett Till story in an effort to uncover strategies the authors use to maintain historical veracity while addressing young people about a topic that horrifies even most adults.  Despite their generic variety, all of these texts employ visual and/or textual confrontation, stark juxtapositions, and social and historical contextualization that help readers make sense of the era in which Emmett Till lived and died. 

Michelle Martin

Bio

Michelle Martin has been the inaugural Augusta Baker Endowed Chair in Childhood Literacy at the University of South Carolina in the School of Library and Information Science since August 2011, where she teaches courses in children's and young adult literature to undergraduate students in the education department and graduate students in the School of Library and Information Science. Prior to this position at USC, she taught for 12 years in the English Department at Clemson University. She holds a B.A. from The College of William and Mary (1988), an M.S. in Outdoor Teacher Education from Northern Illinois University (1991) (which she considers her Girl Scout degree), and a Ph.D. in English, specializing in Children's and Young Adult Literature and Composition, from Illinois State University (1997).

Martin published Brown Gold: Milestones of African-American Children's Picture Books, 1845-2002 with Routledge in 2004 and co-edited (with Claudia Nelson) Sexual Pedagogies: Sex Education in Britain, Australia, and America, 1879-2000 (Palgrave, 2003). Michelle has published articles in The Lion and the Unicorn, Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Sankofa: a Journal of African Children's and Young Adult Literature, and Obsidian III, among others.  She is currently working on a book-length critical examination of the collaborative and individual works that Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes wrote for young people during their friendship and collaborative working relationship that lasted from the 1920s until the 1960s. Its working title is Dream Keepers for Children of the Sun: the Children¹s Literature of Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes.

I See London I See France, I See No Ones Underpants- Musings Inspired by Dr. Joseph T. Thomas

  

Everyone remembers those fun rhyming songs from the playground that were silly and almost wrong to say in front of adults. Like “Ms. Susie Had a Steamboat” and that part when she, wait, was it sat on a piece of glass? It’s funny to think that many of us have these songs stored away in our own childhood minds.

In Poetry's Playground: The Culture of Contemporary American Children's Poetry by Dr. Joseph T. Thomas, the idea arises that potty words are so much more than that—begging the question: where does The Adventures of Captain Underpants lie in all this?

In his prologue, Thomas discusses the ideas of laughter in reference to Bakhtin’s theories behind what makes Carnival so magical. He states that there are two types of laughter. One type would represent the lying, fake, and deceiving laughter that is tied to judgment, done out of fear or habit. The other type would be this free spirit and not-judged laughter that is allowed in this exclusive space of Carnival (11).  

Going back to those fun yet “gross” playground rhymes that children sing only to one another links a mechanism to avoid punishment from the adults—a space where laughter can really be seen as the childhood experience suppressed and hidden away from the adult world. Since free laughter, or “carnival laughter,” comes in when ideological forces are at bay, it creates its own images and symbols away from the rational and structured “real” world (11). However, this idea of free laughter is restricted to spaces where everyone enjoys a sense of non-judgment, which is perhaps what makes the child reader so curious and enthralled by The Adventures of Captain Underpants.

Written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, The Adventures of Captain Underpants is a series about two fourth graders that live in a very Carnivalesque world, filled with words like poopie pants, great granny girdle, and turbo toilet. Here it appears that there is a sort of satire that exists in a place where kids are encouraged to read and are also allowed to read “naughty” things that shouldn’t be said in the adult world. 

But, as Bakhtin brings up, satirical laughter might actually have negative connotations that come along with it (12). Since children express themselves and learn to read through these funny words, they must still learn when and where adults will find these potty topics appropriate and when not.  Children, perhaps unknowing of what they are really saying, will experience a time where they may say, “You’re a poopie pants,” in the wrong place and feel an embarrassment that comes with it. Here is where a satirical laughter is used—a way that allows passage into the “mature world.” So then Professor Pippy P. Poopypants can adultly be equated to those who brown nose to get people to do what they want—adult appropriate humor.

 

When we really think about it, containing the Carnivalesque to a space of free expression only allowed at Halloween, Marti Gras, Pride, and Disneyland, suggests that adults feel compelled to still experience things that are deemed childish and grotesque. Like The Adventures of Captain Underpants, these children’s playground rhymes may display grossness, but on the other hand, seem to be a symbol of free expression before judgment and suppression take over that adults swoon over.

Notes:

Poetry's Playground: The Culture of Contemporary American Children's Poetry. Wayne State University Press: Landscapes of Childhood Series, 2007.