Ethnic Literary Traditions in American Children’s Literature

249 Pages·2009·1.198 MB·English

by  Michelle Pagni Stewart, Yvonne Atkinson (eds.)

Ethnic Literary Traditions in
American Children’s Literature
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Ethnic Literary Traditions in
American Children’s Literature
Edited by Michelle Pagni Stewart
and Yvonne Atkinson
palgrave
macmillan
ethnic literary traditions in american children’s literature
Copyright © Michelle Pagni Stewart and Yvonne Atkinson, 2009.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61875-6
All rights reserved.
Elizabeth Gargano’s essay was fi rst published in Children’s Literature Quarterly
31, no. 1 (2006): 27–39. The chapter appears here with permission of Johns
Hopkins University Press.
First published in 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the
rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division
of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,
company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-38142-5 ISBN 978-0-230-10152-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230101524
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-P ublication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Macmillan Publishing Solutions
First edition: December 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Wayne, Ryan, and Nathan
For Donald, Eric, Daniel, and Aaron
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 D o Dick and Jane Still Live Here? Reading Children’s
Literature as Ethnic Literature 1
Yvonne Atkinson and Michelle Pagni Stewart
Section I American Indian Literature 9
2 L istening to the Loon: On Finding the Ideas
for My Books 11
Joseph Bruchac
3 S urvival through Stories: An Introduction to
Indian Literatures 17
P. Jane Hafen
4 O ral Narrative and Ojibwa Story Cycles in Louise Erdrich’s
Birchbark House and Game of Silence 29
Elizabeth Gargano
5 Alive and Well and Reclaiming Their Cultural Voice:
Third Generation Native American Children’s Literature 45
Michelle Pagni Stewart
Section II African American Literature 63
6 The Cadence of Language: An Interview with Julius Lester 65
Yvonne Atkinson
7 “ Way Down in the Jungle Deep, the Lion Stepped on
the Monkey’s Feet”: An Introduction to African
American Literature 71
Yvonne Atkinson
8 T rauma and National Identity in H aitian-A merican
Young Adult Literature 83
Katharine Capshaw Smith
viii ● Contents
9 For All My Children, or Approaching African American
Children’s Picture Books 99
Neal A. Lester
Section III Asian American Literature 115
10 On Finding a Home 117
Cynthia Kadohata
11 F oreigners Within: An Introduction to Asian
American Literature 123
Traise Yamamoto
12 A cts of “Desicreation”: Urban Space and South Asian
American Identity in Tanuja Desai Hidier’s Born Confused 135
Melinda L. de Jesús
13 Examining History: Representing War in Asian American
Autobiographies for Children 147
Rocío G. Davis
Section IV Latina/o Literature 163
14 W riting on Violence and Healing for Young Audiences:
An Interview with Rigoberto González 165
Tiffany Ana López
15 A rt, Activism and Community: An Introduction to
Latina/o Literature 171
Tanya González
16 Confl icting Inclinations: Luis J. Rodríguez’s
Picture Books for Children 191
Phillip Serrato
17 R eading Trauma and Violence in U.S. Latina/o
Children’s Literature 205
Tiffany Ana López
Sources for Further Study 227
Notes on Contributors 241
Index 245
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all of the contributors to this collection for their
work, their patience with the process, and their dedication to the project.
We received much encouragement from colleagues in children’s literature
who saw a need for a project such as this one, and we appreciate their sup-
port: Anne Phillips, Christine Doyle, Naomi Wood, and especially Katharine
Capshaw Smith.
Many thanks to Michelle Martin for her editorial feedback. We also
want to thank Rebecca Coleman and David Smith for assistance with the
bibliography and indexing.
We appreciate the patience from our families who more than once heard,
“Not now—I’m working on the book!” We wish to thank Michelle’s
brother, Michael, for a crash course in contract law, Yvonne’s husband, “The
Donald,” for the photography and layout of the cover art, and Larry
Barkley for being our sounding board and voice of reason.
We are also grateful for our colleagues at Mt. San Jacinto College, espe-
cially our offi ce mates in the English Department.
For Yvonne: from the airport in Ontario to New Orleans to NYC to
“Yvonne’s room” down the hall, the journey of our friendship has been one
adventure after another. Thank you for coming into our lives and adopting
“the boys”—all three of them!
For Michelle: thank you for keeping this project alive, holding down the
fort, and listening to me gripe about indexing.