The New Springtime With Visiting Scholar Michelle H. Martin And Say Goodbye To That Famous White Tailed Bunny

What better way to complete last year’s amazing children’s literature scholar, Dr. Michael Heyman's theme, with this Spring’s visiting Scholar Dr. Michelle H. Martin. It appears that rabbit hole is working its magic once again, and the library is the place to be between the end of winter and the first week of Spring—saying out with the old and in with the new. 

(Scroll down to find the details to this not so curious event!)

Last week, the SDSU Love Library held a special event in honor of a missing and recently found Alice mural. The unveiling of the mural took place on Tuesday in the plaza of the Love Library. There were the most festive treats before the audience was moved by the speeches of Dr. Gale Etschmaier, Ed.D. (Dean of the SDSU Library)—who gave the audience context of how the mural project came about and what connection the library had to it; Dr. Carole Scott, Ph.D (faculty emeritus and former Dean of Undergraduate Studies), who read from Lewis Carroll’s text in an energetic and beautiful tone; and Seth Mallios, Ph.D (Anthropology), who gave a moving speech about the project’s significance within SDSU’s own history. After the decorative treats were consumed, the NCSCL followed the library faculty, SDSU faculty, our generous donors, and other SDSU students to Hardy Tower where we found the hidden rabbit hole, and, my was it a sight to see.

And of course, if you were with us last year, you know the visiting scholar covered the topic of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the brilliance that resides inside nonsense literature. This seamless transition to this year’s visiting scholar is one we could not have planned better ourselves. After a year filled with that little white rabbit that has stolen our hearts away, we are ready to move forward into a new topic that is quite present in our society today.

Dr. Martin’s research interest cover topics in children's and young adult literature, as well as African American children's picture books, art in picture books, and sexual development in children's literature. Her numerous publications include: “Let Freedom Ring: Land, liberty, literacy and lore in Mildred Taylor” appearing in Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature, “African American” appearing in Keywords for Children's Literature, “'He's so sweet': Bon-bon buddy, literary child of Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes” appearing in Children's Literature Association Quarterly 35.3, “Pioneers of the Genre: Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes, and the 'roots' of African American children's literature” appearing in Embracing, Evaluating and Examining African American Children's and Young Adult Literature, and her book out of Routledge Press titled Brown gold: Milestones of African-American children's picture books.

Dr. Martin will be giving an amazing and unforgettable lecture that is a must-see to bring in this new Spring season. With the way politics are taking place currently in our society and the amount of hope that we must continue to hold for our children and generations to come, we encourage all to come witness this inspiring scholar.

TALK INFORMATION:

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)

Images from last week's Alice mural unveiling:

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.

How the NCSCL Remembers Harper Lee

It is always a sad day when a significant children’s literature author passes, and this week was a sad one when we said good-bye to Nelle Harper Lee. Going under the penname of Harper Lee, she will always be remembered as an American author who wrote one of the most recognized titles in the United States and showed the world what living in the South was like.

Of course made famous by her Pulitzer–Prize-winning book To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee is  an influential author who taught us about racial inequality and injustice during our grade-school years—the book is still widely part of the American elementary education curriculum. Since its publication, the book has been translated in 40 languages and continues to sell in record numbers.

But what about this novel read by a young audience makes it so profound? One scholar Gregory Jay states: “The consensus interpretation of the novel, generally confirmed by how it has been taught in schools, focuses on the moral lesson of empathy as the cardinal virtue and urgent program of racial liberalism”—but that is not all. Jay states that not only is this novel a prevalent didactic tool of antiracist morality, but “Recently, this consensus has been interrupted by critical analyses of ‘sexual otherness’ in the novel and its many sly ways of subverting gender normativity.” He comments that perhaps there is more behind the stereotyped portal of blacks, and objectification of their subjectivity demonstrates another command of the white, heteronormative, dominant culture that comes from looking at the “destabilization of heterosexuality,” a close reading that looks beyond the more common anti-racist campaign.

Also, as seen in Graeme Dunphy’s article “Meena's Mockingbird: From Harper Lee to Meera Syal,” post-colonial reading of Lee’s works have allowed new books that deal with childhood experiences surrounding racism, such as Anita and Me, the opportunity to show a way of overcoming obstacles of oppression through its narrative. Dunphy connects the titles stating, “The world is seen through the eyes of a young girl as she is growing up, and the strength of both authors is the skill with which they parody their respective juvenile vernaculars” (643). Dunphy turns our attention, as readers, to the innocence and naivety presented within a youthful and inexperienced narrator’s perspective. This allows each book to present the reader with harsh sociological challenges that, through the eyes of a child, suggest the irony of how books can teach diversity and respect for all through such a perspective—a demonstration of childhood innocence as a segue into the harsh realities of society.

And while there are many interesting ways to look and talk about Lee’s historic and influential work, the fact remains that there is a sense of timelessness that one finds with To Kill A Mockingbird and the lessons on empathy that it attempts to promote. So maybe not all didactic texts are taking away from the childhood experience, because what Harper Lee’s work does is expose childhood innocence as a way of productively working through social issues and pushing for positive and open-minded outlooks into future generations.

Notes:

Dunphy, Graeme. "Meena's Mockingbird: From Harper Lee to Meera Syal." Neophilologus, 88.4 (2004): 637-659.

Gregory, Jay. “Queer Children and Representative Men: Harper Lee, Racial Liberalism, and the Dilemma of To Kill a Mockingbird”. American Literary History. 2015. 27: 487-522.

Voice Your Language 2016 — Juan Felipe Herrera Pays SDSU Another Visit

SDSU and students in the Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education hosted the second annual Voice Your Language forum on February 12, 2016. Voice Your Language is a grassroots organization dedicated to recognizing the dual character of language as both “a means of communication and a carrier of culture and identity.”  

Among its guest speakers this year was 21^st Poet Laureate of the United States Juan Felipe Herrera and the first Latino to hold the position. Herrera acknowledged the long-standing issue of accessibility when it comes to children’s books, especially those aimed at multilingual or ethnic families. These are books that harness plots, images, and characters with diverse experiences that need to be told and read across America.  But the problem is that “books are not accessible to everybody,” as Herrera explained. What attracts us as readers and parents to certain books are the colorful, beautifully appealing pictures, which then become a double-edged sword for families with limited incomes. The more beautiful the book, the glossier the pages, the more expensive it is to buy. And that is only a fragment of the obstacles multilingual students face in the classroom.

But Herrera has a few ideas for overcoming these obstacles. “Have your students [in the classroom] break through the paper. Write on the other side all the whys,” Herrera suggested, as a way to shed the negative stereotypes attached to being multicultural and bilingual. Educators should have them physically break through the paper with all the reasons aimed at them to hold them back: because they can’t do it, because it’s shameful, or because they speak Spanish.

At the end of the event, Juan Felipe Herrera stayed to sign books and gave each of the people that came to see him a little bit of his time to chat and expand on the topics touched on in the talks. We, here at the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, would like to thank Mr. Herrera for attending San Diego State University this year and voicing his opinion and knowledge about how multilingual educators, citizens, and learners can imagine the future of multilingualism in schools.

And for this great picture! 

The Fairy Tale of Love Day's Simulation

With the hallmark day of love approaching, there are usually two groups of people that begin to emerge. The first group are those who love being in love, buying things for those they love, and waiting to get that special treat from the person they love; while the second group are the ones who say bah-humbug to another corporatized holiday.

The Disney corporation has most certainly assisted in this holiday’s grandeur with all the “happily ever afters” and “true love’s kiss” ideology—an over-exaggerated romance aimed at young audiences but still capture that “Aw, how sweet” from the adults that continue to buy these films for their children. Disney is also partially responsible for the perceived realities of gender roles, marriage, and love through so many of their early feature length animations—what Jean Baudrillard of course defines as the simulacra. But perhaps it goes back further than Disney, to the beginning of publishing fairy tales—tales of oral tradition that resonated with folk culture making its way into fancy, upper-class parlors and salons merely as prizes of entertainment.

Historically, both oral and literary fairy tales were used to overcome the terror of bestiality and barbaric forces that challenged “free will and human compassion.”  The way the protagonist overcomes, changes, or improves a terrifying villain or situation into fortune, happiness, or tranquility shows the way socio-psychological mechanisms become accepted as ideologies that define what is right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and grotesque. Jack Zipes points out that it is the sense of wonder in these functions that distinguishes fairy tales from other literary works that transform them into agents of ideology. Wonder quoted from The Oxford Universal Dictionary, “the emotion excited by the perception of something novel and unexpected…” can also be linked to a fantasy of utopia that becomes like a memory within the emotions created by these stories (When Dreams Come True 1–4).

Among the first popular publications of fairy tales were the collections written by the Grimm Brothers, and like Charles Perrault, they wrote down folk tales passed down orally over generations. One Grimm story that is interesting to look at for its innuendos on following dominant social practices is “Clever Hans.” This story demonstrates the dominant ideologies working to oppose anything that suggests the grotesque or folk culture—anything acting out of upper class sophistication. The story was written as a dialogue between the characters, which provides a unique view of only the characters without external forces, which exposed more of the childlike innocence Hans’s character brings. Hans is a symbol of what becomes of someone who cannot understand or follow social norms, which presents them as an adult that is not ready to do adult things in society—a character perhaps highly relatable for children.

The dialogue goes like this:

Hans's mother asks, "Where are you going, Hans?"

Hans answers, "To Gretel's."

"Behave yourself, Hans."

"Behave myself. Good-bye, mother."

"Good-bye, Hans."

Hans comes to Gretel's. "Good day, Gretel."

"Good day, Hans. Are you bringing something good?"

"Bringing nothing. Want something."

Gretel gives Hans a needle.

Hans says, "Good-bye, Gretel."

"Good-bye, Hans."

Hans takes the needle, sticks it into a hay wagon, and walks home behind the wagon.

"Good evening, mother."

"Good evening, Hans. Where have you been?"

"At Gretel's."

"What did you take her?"

"Took nothing. Got something."

"What did Gretel give you?"

"Gave me a needle."

"Where is the needle, Hans?"

"Stuck in the hay wagon."

"That was stupid, Hans. You should have stuck the needle in your sleeve."

"Doesn't matter. Do better."

The story continues in the same patter of dialogue that is silly, and the reader is entertained by his “stupidity.” Hans goes to Gretel several more times and returns with items she gives him but always does what his mother tells him to do with the previous item. In the last part of the story, Hans brings Gretel home like a calf and ties her in the barn, because that is what his mother had told him to do that with a calf he had previously brought home. His mother tells him he has done wrong and to cast friendly eyes on her. The last lines in the story read: “Hans goes into the stable, cuts out the eyes of all the calves and sheep, and throws them in Gretel's face. Then Gretel becomes angry, tears herself loose and runs away. She is no longer Hans's bride.” 

Gretel’s character symbolizes the dominant culture, the normative ideologies that expose others who do not learn to docilely follow along, and Hans’s character perhaps represents the grotesque realism of Carnival—a symbol that acknowledges the child and uncivilized. Together the couple demonstrates how these worlds cannot exist together. The last statement shows that working against the “real” social order, one will only be left alone to suffer the loss of a loving spouse—ideology’s mode of interpellation. Hans loses a bride because assimilation is required of an individual in order to exist within the world where social order dominates the average lifestyle. In Hans’s story, he cannot grasp the logical adult order which defines him as more of an outcast or still too childish. His character demonstrates a failure in basic development that society relies on to maintain the dominant culture and the apparatuses that support it. Those who do not accept basic ideologies become laughing stock, the Scrooges or ones who wear black on Valentines day, but this only shows how the judgments of the dominant social order simulate its own aesthetics and ideologies to keep making “true love’s kiss” at the end of “happily ever after” such a desirable thing.

Notes:

• "Clever Hans" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
• Jean Baudrillard Simulations
• Jack Zipes Wiki