A PLACE INSIDE OF ME: A Poem to Hold the Heart

 Congratulations! 2021 Caldecott Honor Book!

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux BYR, 2020

And more praise:

Today Show Best Book for the Holidays
ALA Notable Book for All Ages
ALSC Notable Children's Book
NCTE Notable Poetry Book
Evanston Public Library's Top 100 Great Book for Kids
Nerdy Award Winner for Single Poem Picture Book

and still more:

"A resonant exultation of community and the importance of self-reflection." —Publishers Weekly

"This book delivers positivity, despite the inclusion of police brutality, a Black Lives Matter protest, and a vigil for the dead—all of which affirm the child’s realities . . . A well-crafted, twenty-first-century love poem by two truth-telling Black women artists and activists." —The Horn Book

I am a woman of MANY WORDS, but sometimes I know when to step aside and let others do the talking. As you can see from the stars and quotes above, this is indeed the case when it comes to A PLACE INSIDE OF ME: A POEM TO HOLD THE HEART, written by Zetta Elliott and illustrated by Noa Denmon. This poem is a gift to the world, especially to people like me who forget to slow down to find and feel what is happening deep in our hearts. As the lyrical text and the brilliant illustrations suggest, what we find deep inside is never simple. In these images, those of us who are not Black can begin to recognize the complexity of the hearts of young Black people moving through a world that can be exuberant, but in the next breath become tragic, or trying, or otherwise troubled. The front cover and back images span those emotions and struggles with embracing encouragement and acceptance. 

As with some picture books that directly address specific subjects and issues, (HERE, HERE, and HERE), this book's text and illustrations directly address the daily truths of being Black in America, while inviting white people and others of privilege to begin to glimpse fragments of this reality. We can all benefit as much as the characters in this book from the direct but subdued messages about coping and taking steps to see deeply into our own hearts, 

Please give this one a close look, and take time to absorb it fully. 

Then share it.

But not just during BLACK HISTORY MONTH. 

This actually IS an outstanding choice for February, but please use it all year long. Read Reggie Jackson's article with his thoughts about books and Black History Month HERE.

Mirrors and Windows: Our Most Amazing World

Much is being made (justifiably) of the need to create and circulate books in which people from all backgrounds can find themselves. Of equal importance is that books depicting varied peoples, places, and points of view offer windows to a wider world for individuals whose world experience is narrow.
If this is in some way news to you, please learn more about the discussion and drive by checking into the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS website and resources, here. 

It's not as if excellent books serving these purposes haven't available in the past. The tragedy is that the percentage of such books is vanishingly small, and has remained so for far too long. You'll find documentation of those facts and the decades-long publishing patterns in children's literature in this post from the reliable CCBC, as shared in Horn Book recently. 

In this post I'd like to share and recommend two books, one older and one very recent, that allow ALL readers to explore the world and find themselves along their reading journeys.

Candlewick Pres, 2010

Jeannie Baker is the multi-talented author/illustrator of MIRROR, published in 2010. This still feels like a "new" book to me, but it made its way onto store and library shelves nearly eight years ago. That was long before the current movement for more diverse books was underway. 
Ms. Baker's award-winning art wins praise from many quarters for it's technical and interpretive skill. More importantly, it draws young eyes magically and won't let them go until they have scoured every square inch, commenting and comparing,  turning pages forward and back, again and again.
In this case, her power is magnified by an incredible book design.


MIRROR is meant to be laid open to allow it to reveal, front to back, the English/Western life of a family in a modern urban setting. At the same time it can be read, visually, from back to front, following Arabic literacy conventions. That half of the book depicts the  life of a Middle Eastern rug-weaving family, turn by turn, until they meet the Western family at the center fold and their lives intersect. It's an intriguing and simple-but-brilliant look at the interdependence of all lives, of the many ways in which human commonalities define us even more than differences.


Compare Mirror to a very recent release by author/illustrator Matt Lamothe, THIS IS HOW WE DO IT. Rather than explore only two families and cultures, Lamothe selects seven families from around the world to portray and label the intricacies of those similarities and differences through the course of a day-in-the-life. 
He doesn't attempt to weave a storyline throughout their lives. In fact, he chose to shift the positioning of each character/culture instead of locking each in the same orientation on the page. The labeling is still effective and offers an oppportunity for kids to  eagerly challenge themselves, turning back often to remind themselves of who is who and where they live. 

Chronicle Books Canada, 2017

Endpapers do a a great job of showing just how small our world really is. Back matter provides a simple but helpful glossary (in natural, kid-friendly language) to expand on specific terminology from various scenes and cultures. The author's note explains how he was inspired to create the book and describes the complex process he used to assure authenticity for this nonfiction treasure. It's worth a read in and of itself, and the final double spread using photographs of the seven actual families should lead many young readers to explore Lamothe's final notes.

I particularly appreciate these two titles for use in presenting a balanced view of kids and families in far-flung parts of the world. I've shared  some recent  titles here and here that focus on refugees and immigrants.Presenting objective and realistic stories that  share those harsh experiences is essential, but it's all too easy for young readers to develop a false concept: that all "others" are destitute or desperate or seeking to leave their homes. These two titles provide a healthy contradiction to that misperception. They show a variety of daily life patterns in which the children and families are comfortably settled in routines and relationships that feel familiar and safe. In fact, they make the prospect of traveling and meeting people around the world quite appealing. 
We could use more with that attitude at every age, in my opinion.

Voices of Joy, Voices of Freedom

After several posts about some of my "old-timey" poetry favorites, (here, here, and here) let's flip the focus to more-recent  poetry publications. There are plenty of blogs that make this their core mission, including suggested activities and lessons. One example you'll want to know about is THE POEM FARM, by children's author and writing teacher, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.

As for this blog, I've featured poetry collections and reflections in the past, but I'm approaching this series with more frequent and varied poetry posts. In this case I'd like to share two different collections of poems for children by African-American artists. In the first case, the anthology was released in 1991 A quarter century later, in 2016, a book in which the voices of slaves are interpreted was created by author/artist Ashley Bryan.

Scholastic Anthology, 1991

MAKE A JOYFUL SOUND: Poems for Children by African-American Poets, was skillfully edited by Deborah Slier, and delightfully illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu. In the past few years there has been widespread attention to the very real, even urgent, need for books by diverse creators. This collection, released in 1991, decades before that movement, includes poems by African-American authors whose copyright dates stretch as far back as 1956 (Gwendolyn Brooks), 1951 (Langston Hughes), and even 1927 (Countee Cullen). 
In Ruby Dee's introduction she says..."(poetry is)....sharing our most profound and personal living spaces with people who then go from being strangers to being co-travelers on life's marvelous excursions into better understandings. It can lead to action. It can lead to love."
If you are somehow unaware of the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS movement within the creating/publishing/circulating world of books for young readers, this is from their website:
OUR MISSION Putting more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children. 
OUR VISION A world in which all children can see themselves in the pages of a book.

This is often paraphrased as providing ALL readers with books that can serve as both windows and mirrors. 

What I love most about this collection is that the language, illustrations, topics, and emotional experiences are a thousand-percent universal, demonstrating clearly that the human race is the underlying status of all races. Here's an example:

September

By Lucille Clifton

I already know where Africa is

and I already know how to 

count to ten and

I went to school every day last year, 

why do I have to go again?

For every child who eagerly lays out a back-to-school outfit and supplies, maybe even days in advance of school resuming, there are equal numbers of kids who share the sentiment in the above poem. 

With many formal book structures (table of contents, title index, author index, first line index,  and brief bios of poets, MAKE A JOYFUL SOUND should be included in every classroom and home collection. At a minimum, it should circulate out of libraries at a furious pace, leading to additional explorations of original works and collections by the various featured authors.

A Caitlin Dlouhy Book
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016

Then there's FREEDOM OVER ME: Eleven slaves, their lives and dreams brought to life by ASHLEY BRYAN.  "Brought to life by" is a perfect description of this creation by multi-award-winning author/illustrator Ashley Bryan. 
In his author's note, Bryan describes having acquired a collection of slave-related objects. He chose one from among them-- a legal document that outlines the estate of a man named Fairchilds.
Bryan drew from the very spare content in that document, one which referred to enslaved people as "boy" or "girl" regardless of age, one which enumerates those lives as possessions in the same categories as cows, cotton, and hogs. Each human life was listed with a name and price, but no other reference to age or description or special talents were described. 

That spare content and Bryan's knowledge of history became the foundation for eleven portraits, ones in which he infused life into those who had no control over their own destiny. He then studied and listened to the persons he had envisioned, imagining their daily lives and inner voices. Documents and clippings of those times are embedded within the free verse voices and images of those lives. 

So, one very recent collection dips further back in time, and an older anthology rises to prove itself timeless and timely in a pro-diversity landscape. Both merit attention, sharing, and some eager encouragement. 

Celebrate this NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK by seeking these out in a library near you, then thanking those library workers for the amazing ways in which they keep old and new books alive, waiting to reach you when you arrive.

Protection for Future Generations: Reading Widely

One of my earliest posts after launching this blog was focused on my lifelong belief that the potential for a better future rests with our youngest citizens- of this country and of the world. In that post,  History Repeats, Picture Books Heal, (here), I referenced the lyrics to that SOUTH PACIFIC song, You've Got to Be Carefully Taught.

Image: We Need Diverse Books

"You've got to be taught

To hate and FEAR

You've got to be taught from year to year

It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear

You've got to be carefully taught."

Mass media/social media are frighteningly effective at teaching young people precisely this polarization, which reinforces a victim/victor mentality, helplessness, anger, zero-sum resolutions, and a "them vs us" view of life. This has been so effective, in my opinion, because it's fully immersive, surrounding small humans with vitriol. 

My hope for combating those messages lies in providing equally immersive experiences with openmindedness, generosity, selflessness, and, above all, empathy. Lending another a hand doesn't weaken us, but strengthens both, and even those who view the action. That's already happening on several fronts, including Ellen Degeneres's  long-running "BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER" campaign, as well as the broad coverage of massive outpourings of love and support in the Women's March and protests of travel bans. 

An ideal immersion experience for young people is found in reading, in the empathetic process of losing ourselves in the lives of others. This happens in many ways, but two are worth considering more closely. We readers are strengthened by recognizing ourselves in characters and experiences that reflect our own lives. Even more powerful, though, are the opportunities to "walk in another's shoes" when those shoes, or sandals, or bare ground paths lead us far beyond our individual, limited experiences. When we make those journeys we realize that there, too, we can recognize ourselves.

The Washington Post ran an important article about proactively teaching/leading middle grade readers to a more inclusive and empowering approach based on KINDNESS. 

From www.readbrightly.com

But this is a blog about picture books. We, as in "mainstream Americans", seem very open to reading stories of European immigrants, ones that reflect our own more distant immigrant pasts and feature characters who resemble us in physical and cultural ways. Sadly, this attitude has played out in the book-producing industry in the past, resulting in fewer selections for adults to actively share or for young readers to discover on their own. 

That has begun to change in recent years. You can explore a few of those more recent releases (here). Sometimes the focus of the books is subject-specific, and in other cases the books merely portray universal stories with images and details that reflect the wide world in which we live. An ever-expanding community of authors, illustrators, agents, editors, publishers, and industry professionals are actively working to expand the quality diverse literature available through #We Need Diverse Books (#WNDB). Check it out. 

Every voice matters.

In an effort to support and expand Muslim voices, to allow young people to see themselves in the lives of ALL others, agents Cindy Uh and Clelia Gore launched a challenge to other agents for open submissions by MUSLIM authors. Read more about their campaign here, and please pass on the information to those you know who may feel their stories are unwelcome, or only suited to a narrow market.  

Every voice matters.

Every story matters.

Shape positive values and views of the world one book at a time.

Everything (and EVERYONE) Is BEAUTIFUL, In Its Own Way!

One of the most important aspects of the current climate surrounding children's literature is the wide recognition that books for every age need to be considerably more representative of the population at large than they have been until now. The general public is becoming more aware of active efforts within all levels of the  publishing world to generate a universe of books for ALL kids and to support ALL those who create them. The best possible site to learn more about these efforts is the organization WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS. I hope you'll click through and explore it. 

As you would expect when dealing with a massive and traditional industry, change does not come overnight. What's exciting, though, is that CHANGE really IS coming. One example is a picture book release that might well have made it into print before this movement  but now should be met with genuine fanfare, for good reasons.

Running Press Kids, 2016

BEAUTIFUL is written by Stacy McAnulty and illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff. Its very simple text frames long-standing expectations for girls from a fresh perspective. You know the kind I mean:
"Beautiful girls have the perfect look."

McAnulty  relies on the illustrations to display the ironic and humorous intent of her statements and illustrator Lew-Vriethoff  does not disappoint.

Interior spread, used with permission

For example:

"Beautiful girls smell like flowers."

Interior spread, used with premission

Or: 

Beautiful girls know all about make-up.

These lines and all of McAnulty's text parrot the all too familiar expectations of society, absorbed at all too young an age. In this book they take on a more inspiring interpretation with the full-speed-ahead, no holds-barred participation in life demonstrated by these beautifully diverse little girls.

I'm curious about the pitch-line McAnulty must have used to convey the clever irony of her text. This is one of the best examples of the magical symbiosis of image and text in the picture book format. Lew-Vriethoff's vibrant, dynamic young girls would leap off the pages except that these characters are so fully engaged with their own fantastic activities and with each other that they can't be bothered to worry about  those holding the book in their hands. Their energy, independence, and acceptance of themselves and others are an inspiration to anyone, any gender, and any age. 

Whether this picture book came about due to rising consciousness about diversity within the publishing community or if it had been a work-in-progress for decades that finally found its publisher match, it is long overdue and should be a welcome addition to collections in classrooms, libraries, and homes. That includes putting this one into the hands of older readers, including adults who've lost touch with the limitless nature and potential of children who happen to be girls. 

Just ask yourself how often a girl-child's image is posted on social media then generates comments focused on many of these entrenched labels: She's so... beautiful, sweet, lovely. Could we all take a moment's reflection before reverting to those responses and encourage less superficial and stereotypical labels? She's so... curious, energetic, athletic, clever, friendly?

See what others think about this concept book when you check out other stops on the blog tour welcoming these beautiful girls into the world of books:

BEAUTIFUL blog tour

8/29 Flowering Minds

8/30 Kids’ Book Review

8/31 My Word Playground

9/1 Stacking Books

9/2 Unpacking the POWER of Picture Books

9/3 MomReadIt

9/5 Enjoy Embrace Learning

9/6 Geo Librarian

9/7 A Foodie Bibliophile

9/8 MamaBelly

9/10 Diapers and Daydreams

9/11 The Late Bloomer’s Book Blog

9/12 Unconventional Librarian

Trauma and Racism: Picture Books Open Hard Conversations

My intended audience for this blog is adults, although nothing in it would be off-limits to younger readers. I wish I could say the same for the non-stop coverage of current events on mainstream and social media. 

Many adults I know find themselves overwhelmed by the events and by the graphic coverage and commentary. Just imagine the impact of this exposure on young people, and that includes teens and preteens, not just preschool and elementary age kids.

Images of trauma, threats, hate speech, and stereotyping surround us all. It's clear that even adults often lack the filters and analytic skills to sort and process fact from opinion, truth from exaggeration, partial truth from more complex realities. 
Young people need to pass through developmental stages to separate reality from fantasy in normal times. In the current social and political climate they are particularly in need of support and direct, guided discussions with trusted adults. The Washington Post  has this article entitled: HOW SHOULD PARENTS AND TEACHERS TALK TO KIDS ABOUT POLICE VIOLENCE. The frequent tragedies portrayed in the news float atop the political language we witnessed so far during this election year. It's frightening but likely that this may only be a prelude to what's to come in the fall, but effects are already evident. (THE TRUMP EFFECT IN SCHOOLS). 

School Library Journal recently posted this list of recommended titles for young adults and mature middle grade readers. (Here) I've read every one of these titles and I urge adults to read them, share them, discuss them. Several are particularly valuable in their use of distinctly different voices and points of view regarding a single news event.

When I saw that post I knew I'd want to share a list of picture books for younger readers. Not that I haven't featured important titles on these topics in the past, including this post on non-fiction titles from 2013. Check it out for stories of Jackie Robinson's courage in breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball and  Satchell Paige's demonstration of quiet confidence and superior skills despite his exclusion. 

Several valuable concepts can be developed and discussions launched with these and the other titles I'll suggest in this post.

Racism and unequal treatment aren't new, but progress has been made. Keeping in mind that these two anecdotal/biographic profiles document the reality of the 1930s and 1940s in this country, compare that to the reality of our  eight-year-olds who have never NOT known a black president of the United States.
We are changing, and so are the books available to kids. I'll turn to my readings of fiction picture books for the Cybils Awards for some recent releases. Each is worthy for any purpose, but are ideal for discussions surrounding current events. 

Chronicle Books, 2015

Trauma and destruction can be spawned by Mother Nature as readily as by human nature. One book that incorporates the power of individual effort (AND ATTITUDE) through good times and bad is award-winning MARVELOUS CORNELIUS: HURRICANE KARINA AND THE SPIRIT OF NEW ORLEANS, by Phil Bilder. (Check out the awards here)
Of all the books I read and considered in the past year, this one stays with me for many reasons. For an extensive review and comments, check my post from earlier in the year, here. This is just one paragraph from my Goodreads review:

"This book bounces, sings, captures a city and culture as if it is character itself, and shifts scenes throughout, from the earliest pages where the grittiness is transformed by the touch (and hard work) of Cornelius to sparkling and appealing. Eventually, the overwhelming destruction of nature's force is countered by the binding and building of a community, inspired by the spirit of Cornelius." 

If you haven't seen it yet, a short video clip made by the mother of triplets suggests that this kind of day-to-day personal interaction, appreciation of service, and celebration of daily work continues to build (and rebuild) communities. It only takes a few minutes, so please watch it here.

Kids Can Books, 2015

One question I ask kids (of any age) and now ask my friends when hard conversations are involved is this: Whatever you FEEL, or KNOW, or BELIEVE, or FEAR about what you've seen, in person or on media, try this thought experiment:

1. Do a real or mental "rewind" of the event. 
2. Find someone in the event you are certain you could NOT EVER imagine yourself to be, someone too "different" to understand.
3. Now picture yourself as the sister-brother-mother-child-cousin-best-friend of that "other".  
4. Take a moment and allow yourself to feel how well you do know them, love them, want the best for them.
5. Then replay the event, mentally or via media, and focus on that "other", feeling and reacting as you would if you cared. Loved.

MY FAMILY TREE AND ME, written and illustrated by Dusan Petricic, is a quirky and touchingly comic approach to exploring and sharing a diverse, wide-ranging family who have the most important thing of all in common-- they love each other.

Here's some of what I said about it in my review on Goodreads: 

"This is a valuable option for anyone working on family tree projects, as well as viewing diversity within extended and immediate family members. The centering of the full family tree with father's side and mother's side extending to the left and right pages is an original and strongly conceptual design. There are numerous visual subplots woven into each illustration, and the individuals are both realistic and caricatures in ways that make this family both "specific" and universal."  Of the many titles I might have shared this one came to mind based on that exercise I described above. Perhaps real and full acceptance of "others" will only come when each and every one of us can see ourselves as somewhere on such a diverse and quirky family tree. We live in a time of finding "leaves" on our ancestry trees and having DNA tests reveal our world-spanning genetic natures. In truth, we are ALL members of a quirky, diverse extended family, if we can just extend our imaginations and hearts wide enough to feel it. These suggestions barely scratch the surface, so I welcome others in the comments.