Blog Posts

'The Wren'

26/12/2015

Carol Ann Duffy's Christmas poem this year, The Wren-Boys has sparked much interest in the old custom of 'going on the Wren'. Most Google searches state that it is an obsolete custom, but in Kerry where I grew up (and some other parts of rural Ireland) it is very much alive.

Like many other Irish celebrations, it is one based on layers upon layers of custom...

Nowadays, The Wren is celebrated on St Stephen's Day (the feast day of first Christian martyr) but the tradition has no links with St Stephen and most likely was originally celebrated on the Solstice (only a few days earlier after all). In fact, the Wren was venerated in Irish mythology as a wise and clever bird who outsmarted the Eagle to be named King of the birds. The story goes that the birds decided to have a competition to elect a king. The winner was to be the bird who flew highest and the Eagle was confident of winning. However, the clever little Wren perched on the Eagle's back and when the Eagle reached the highest point, the Wren came out of hiding and flew higher.

In Celtic mythology, the wren was also the symbol of the old year. The tradition of chasing and killing a wren then parading it round the locality while singing and dancing, collecting money for its burial, makes sense in this context.

This association with older mythology (in fact, the Irish word for wren dreolín suggests an association with Druidic practice, the name meaning 'druid's bird') was a troubling one in Christian times. So, it is thought that, in order to clamp down on the custom, new stories were invented including one that St. Stephen, hiding from his enemies in a bush, was betrayed by a chattering wren. The wren, like St. Stephen, should be hunted down and stoned to death. This and other stories attempted to make the wren an object of scorn versus veneration. The result is a hodge-podge that makes little sense:

The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,
Although he was little his honour was great,
Jump up me lads and give him a treat.
Chorus:
Up with the kettle and down with the pan,
And give us a penny to bury the wren.

In later years bunches of feathers and pretend birds were attached to poles with ribbons instead of an actual bird, which were then carried round the locality accompanied by singers asking for 'a penny for the Wren' (though rumors persisted that the Wren boys would return in the night and bury a dead wren in the garden of anyone who was less than generous - something which would bring them bad luck for the coming year). The money collected would be pooled to fund a party traditionally called a join.

When we 'went on the Wren' we collected money not for a party but for a local youth club. What interests me is how much of a carnival it was, and the strong emphasis on disguise (something not really mentioned in Google searches). There was a strong tradition of men dressing as women and many wearing night clothes.
It was also traditional to 'go on the wren' in the next town or village along rather than your own and even then we all had to agree to pretend to be from somewhere else (we pretended to be from Toornafolla).

(left) Brian Pembroke & (right) Anna McQuinn On the Wren 1985
Setting out from O'Mahony's house, Castleisland, Co Kerry

(left) Brian Pembroke & (right) Anna McQuinn (in the background, in his pyjamas) Cormac O Mahony On the Wren 1985, Flanagan's, Brosna, Co Kerry

(left) Lyn, (centre) Dan Lynch & (right) 'our treasurer' Colm McQuinn
On the Wren, Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick, 1985

The ebb & flo

8/6/2015

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Ebb and Flow:
the advances and retreats in the battle
to make children’s books more inclusive and diverse
IBBY Belonging Conference 2014

I was very happy to be introduced at the IBBY conference by Ann Lazim of CLPE and IBBY as a writer, publisher and campaigner – since entering children’s publishing in 1991 I’ve worked hard to make children’s books more inclusive. In fact, very recently I was called a ‘diversity superhero’ by Letterbox Library… (I googled 'female superhero' and I was a bit shocked at what I found, frankly - but that’s a rant for another day*).

...which is not to say I didn't play with them in Photoshop...

I never envisaged that I would grow up to be described as a diversity superhero – I was born and grew up in a small town of about two thousand people on the west coast of Ireland – about as far from multi-cultural, diverse London where I now work as you can get!

I went to a tiny school with only 29 pupils – this is the entire school plus some concerned parents:

I was a reader from very young – I devoured books (and anything else within reach that I could read including the back of the Corn Flakes packet at breakfast …).

Most of the books we had were imported from England, so my reading was peopled with girls called Hilary, Gwendolin, Pamela and Penelope (I’d never heard this name spoken aloud and in my head she was always Pee-ne-pole!).

Then someone gave me Walter Macken’s Flight of the Doves.
I will never forget it.

Two young children run away from an abusive step-father in London to try to find their granny in Galway.

I so remember when I came to that bit – I’d heard of Galway – in fact I’d even been there! Suddenly, the book felt real rather than just the wonderful imaginative escape it had been up to then. Someone like me (who said Mammy, and strand and briars…) was in a book!

My love of reading led me to read for a BA in University College Cork, then a post-graduate qualification in Education, then an MA (a feminist reading of the Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho).

This was the late 1980s, years before Ireland’s Celtic Tiger and so, like a quarter of a million other young people leaving the country every year I became an economic migrant, leaving for England in 1988.

I had decided that I wanted to work in publishing. My teaching qualifications were not recognized in the UK and in any case I’d become interested in publishing, and in particular in feminist publishing while studying for the MA.

The first thing I joined was Woman in Publishing – in those days, we couldn’t search the internet, and WiP had an extremely useful directory, ran courses and other events to help women in publishing to network and progress. I also bought Rolling their Own and In other Words.

What amazes me now, looking at these, is the amount of feminist publishers and magazines and pamphleteers there were (including the wonderful Older Feminists’ Newsletter and the Older Lesbians’ Newsletter – there’s one for all the 20 somethings who think they invented feminism!!) I know some have been replaced with blogs and other internet forums, but sadly, many have gone…

You can see from my little annotations how many I applied to and, while I didn’t get called for any interviews, I was heartened to be invited in for advice and a chat more than once.

In fact, it was my teaching qualifications and experience that got me my first job – as an editor with NFER-Nelson (where I worked for two years and edited the UK’s first SATs). I felt that if I got some solid editorial experience, I could then do another round of applications…

1990
Letterbox Library Conference –
Equality and Diversity in Children's Books

Then came my Damascus moment. I don’t quite know how I came to hear about it, but I went to a Letterbox conference.

Hearing all the passionate speakers I realized that while it might be exciting and invigorating to work in feminist or academic publishing, it would be publishing, so to speak, for the converted. But, if I were to move into children’s publishing, I would have a chance to influence young minds and perhaps to help create the feminist readers of the future!

And so began a course of reading which brought together my two passions: child development and politics.

I started with Untying the Apron Strings
edited by Naima Browne & Pauline France
OUP, first published in 1986.

It presented arguments and research to challenge ideas of biological determinism, quoting from Archer 1978, Griffiths and Saraga 1979, Bland 1981, Maccoby and Jackline 1974, and Fairweather in 1976.
Looking at them again now, I particularly love the comment on page 52:
        ‘given the theoretical criticisms of biological
        explanations it is surprising to find so many
        people still continuing to promote such ideas.’ (my italics – this was in 1986!).

In Other Words - Writing as a feminist
edited by Gail Chester and Sigrid Nielsen
(Hutchinson) 1986
was also a huge influence.

Caroline Halliday’s chapter – I tell my 3 year old she’s real… writing lesbian-feminist children’s books was particularly influential.

"Reading a bedtime story is not as calm as it used to be.
Not if you are a lesbian mother with a daughter who as a disability.
A child needs to find her/his self, her likeness in the books she uses, not some patriarchal notion of the ‘normal’ child…Writing for children in this context demands thinking out and expressing the most exciting politics I can manage, to present positive and accurate images of children and adults with disabilities… and at the same time reduce the racism and class stereotypes."

I love that she names the ‘stereotypes of physically perfect, white, middle-class children who live with mum and dad’ as a ‘patriarchal notion of what is normal’ (as opposed to the apolitical justifications which are routinely trotted out nowadays – we were confident about our political language in 1986!). Halliday also said she wanted ‘men to write and present alternative images of themselves and boys’ lives, to the macho, role-playing stereotypes of Tarzan, or, daddy out washing the car.’

She went on to say, ‘Feminist children’s books must show the multiracial society in this country, in which children and woman live in different classes and are affected by race and class divisions. The books must explain how people live in different ways here and all over the world…’

This challenged my thinking. I regarded myself as someone whose feminist politics fed a desire for equality across class and race, but I had not given as much thought to the effect of stereotypical images on the development of young Black children as I had, for example, thought about their impact on young girls.

So began another tranche of reading. Reading Into Racism – bias in children’s literature and learning materials by Gillian Klein (Routledge 1985) being first among the books I devoured.

Klein presented evidence from studies that showed that providing Black children with positive role models (both real people and in books) led to a positive shift in self -image. She also describes how Black children were quite capable of reading but had little motivation to read when they didn’t see themselves or their experiences reflected in the books they used.

Klein helpfully provides references to resources, reports and articles for teachers by ILEA, CRE and NUT.

She talks at length about two librarians (p20) who began to respond to the mismatch between ethnic minority readers and the books that were available in Britain in the 1970s. Janet Hill and Judith Elkin provided bibliographic information on children’s books that took account of racial and cultural diversity to enable teachers, librarians and others working with children to find these books.

But they also highlighted the dearth of material available and, with others, set about improving the supply and creating demand. Klien notes that Judith Elkin ‘had far more to choose from in her 1983 series of six articles for the journal Books for Keeps: ‘Multicultural books for children’.

This groundswell of research, consciousness raising and demand for better material was garnering a positive response. Publishers like Frances Lincoln, A&C Black, Gollancz, Magi, Soma, Tamarind and Child’s Play published strongly diverse lists and even mainstream publishers like Penguin and Puffin made a real effort, as described in Books for Keeps. In September 1988, their News section celebrated Puffin’s ‘three new booklists’: Equality Street (multi-cultural listings); Ms Muffet Fights Back (non-sexist listings) both compiled by Susan Adler, an Equal Opportunities Librarian, and Special Needs (compiled by Beverley Mathias, Director of the National Library for the Handicapped Child). These were listings (under the three headings) of books published or about to be published by Puffin.

I was lucky to be part of this wonderful momentum as I got my first job in children’s publishing in Child’s Play at the end of 1991.

1991
In 1991, also following that life-changing Letterbox conference, I joined The Working Group Against Racism in Children’s Resources. Sitting alongside Verna Wilkins, Nandini Mane, Abiola Ogunsola, Steph Smith, Eileen Brown, Asha Kathoria, Rita Mitchell, Lorna Stoddart, Robert Roach and Felicity Weitzel (among so many others who gave of their time) I learned so much.

1993
Guidelines and Selected Titles 100 Picture Books
chosen by the Working Group Against Racism in Children's Resources

In 1992, we came to the conclusion that, in addition to campaigning against racism (Little Black Sambo was still widely distributed at the time), the time had come to celebrate publishers who were producing books we would be happy to promote to schools and libraries. We set about producing Guidelines and Selected Titles and were thrilled to hit a magic 100 books we were happy to stand by.

The introduction to our publication in 1993 pulled together some of the research and arguments for the importance of inclusive non-biased books for children; we included the criteria we had used; and included a checklist which had developed out of our reviewing so teachers and librarians could use it for future reviews. We were disappointed that so many of the books were American imports, but felt happy that the momentum was moving in a positive direction.

The publication was a great success. It pulled together in one place what was available, and teachers and librarians could be confident that the selected books had been vetted by a diverse group.

The Working Group was invited by publishers, editors, teachers and many others to give workshops based on the selection, and on the criteria, and the book collection itself was available for use at conferences, courses etc. In fact, it was so successful that we followed it with a second, up-dated publication in 1996 with an introduction by James Berry.

Between 1991 and 2002 my own working life had also been moving forward. I had freelanced for Verna Wilkins at Tamarind, worked at Victoria House Publishing in Bath, at Readers Digest and at Frances Lincoln. In 1995 I was asked to start a new list for DeAgostini Editions and it was wonderful to be able to start a fresh list that I hoped could be inclusive from the beginning.

The list was successful, but the Italian owners decided to shut it down after only two years.
The Sales Director and I did a management buy-out in 1997 (a learning experience in itself) and started Zero to Ten publishing, which in turn was bought by Evans Brothers.

In 2002 I was made redundant and in 2004 started my own small imprint Alanna Books.

2004
Cultural Diversity & Publishing is in the news

2004 saw another resurgence of focus on the lack of diversity in publishing.
The Bookseller magazine in association with the Arts Council of England and decibel carried out a survey and published the results in a report called In Full Colour -Cultural Diversity in Book Publishing Today.

Nicholas Clee introduced the report with a leader called Diversity makes business sense. He argued that ‘the moral arguments for cultural diversity are backed by strong economic incentives’ pointing out that the advertising industry estimates that ‘Black and Asian communities have an annual disposal income of £32bn.’

He went on to say that ‘the book industry is much engaged at present with the project of “expanding the market” and that publishing would have to adapt (by becoming more diverse) in order to reach changing audiences.

This message, that publishing needed to get more diverse not just because it was the right thing to do, but because it would lead to commercial success, was, I thought, a great step forwards.
It seemed that we’d won the moral arguments and now the commercial ones too - it kicked into touch any counter arguments that diversity was a ‘nice to have’ luxury.

A less rosy picture was painted by Are you simpatico? by Benedicte Page. In it, Andrea Levy argued that despite successes of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, ‘Black writers need to be better than their white counterparts to be accepted for publication.” The article also bemoaned the fact that publishers are happier with novels that deal with issues of race, effectively ghettoizing writers.

The Bookseller report was followed swiftly by the launch of the Diversity in Publishing Network (DipNet) to tackle the issues raised by the report.

2006

March 2006 saw the launch of my first title as Alanna Books (a small inclusive list launched by a small Black Girl called Lulu.

The timing seemed perfect – for, shortly afterwards the Bookseller had another report, this time focusing specifically on children’s publishing called, Books for All Diversity matters: growing markets in children’s publishing.

Despite the rather odd cover (Wake up to a new Britain – like these children had just appeared out of nowhere!) it full of interesting articles.

In Challenge of the culture club Verna Wilkins of Tamarind said the difficulty was not in teaching Black and other minority ethnic children to read, but in getting them to continue to read when ‘they cannot identify with the material they are presented with, or because the book’s context and curriculum exclude them’. While this was not news to those of us actively campaigning in the area, it was progress to see it in a mainstream trade journal.

Verna Wilkins also spoke about the dozens of manuscripts submitted to her publishing company by parents telling her that ‘they haven’t found suitable books, so they have attempted to write some themselves.’ This issue of demand outstripping supply was also raised in Young and Demanding.
In fact Jenny Morris owner of the Lion and the Unicorn bookshop said ‘the interest in publishing that kind of book for the general consumer market has almost disappeared’ naming ‘a few brave publishers such as Frances Lincoln’ as continuing to publish culturally diverse books.

I remember reading this in disbelief – 25 years on from the librarians Janet Hill and Judith Elkin first raised the issue of demand outstripping supply and a) we’re still here and b) it seems we’d already peaked and I’d missed it!

What was positive was development and growing maturity of that demand. It seemed to me that not only was demand outstripping supply, but that young readers were looking for a more complex, nuanced, mature and sophisticated read than what was on offer.

Young teenagers (themselves growing up in diverse classrooms) who were interviewed by the report bemoaned the mono-ethnic approach of books that focused on one race or culture. As one teen eloquently put it, ‘we’re not integrated enough in books – publishers aren’t letting us mix in.’

Literary agent, Jennifer Luithlen, spoke highly of Bali Rai’s work as appealing not just to Asian children but to all British teenagers. Another teen in The culturally diverse young article added, ‘the reason why people don’t want to read ethnic writers is because they think they’re going to drone on about racism’ echoing the comments in the previous report by Benedicte Page about publishers expectations that BME writers should only write about BME issues.

The Bookseller report was followed swiftly by plans for a Books for All initiative to run the following year. Booksellers agreed to devote store space for BME writing during May and June 2007.

So, while I was disappointed at the need to restate some, by now, very old arguments, I was VERY excited that the book industry seemed to be accepting the commercial as well as the moral arguments for inclusion and taking positive, practical actions. It seemed to me that the Books for All campaign was limited in its one-month duration, but it was hoped that this would be a pilot for future initiatives.

I was also excited that the demand of readers was growing and maturing – it seemed to me that important as consciousness-raising was, there was a growing appetite for books which were what I would call naturally diverse and inclusive; which were not about race or focused on minority issues but rather had regular stories which just happened to feature a BME character or family. For me, it had always been important that BME children (and girls and LGBT characters and those with disabilities) had a right to be in any story (and to be the hero).

Then in June 2006 the Arts Council organized the Diversity Matters conference.

2006 - Diversity Matters Conference

There were talks and panel discussions and workshops including one, ironically called
25 Years On: What are we still doing here?
A conversation on diversity
with author and publisher Verna Wilkins of Tamarind
and bookseller Kerry Mason of Letterbox.

For, welcome though the conference was,
it was 15 years since that Letterbox conference in 1991, and over 30 years since those demands from the two heroic librarians.

It was valid to ask why were we still having the
same discussions…

And this, ladies and gentlemen, can I point out was 2006. Yet here we are again almost another 10 years later – talking about the right to be included.

Of course it’s not wrong to have this discussion, in fact, sadly, it is very necessary. But my question to you is - What can we do to make sure we’re NOT having the same debate in 2024?

I have some suggestions:

First, know your history

We have been fighting for the right of children to see themselves in books and so feel that they belong since at least the 1970s. We’ve done the research and…

• we already know babies are aware of and negatively affected by bias from as early as 18 months;

• we already know that not seeing themselves in literature negatively effects children’s motivation to read and learn, their self esteem and their mental health;

• we already know that narrow ‘norms’ offered in literature also damage ‘non minority’ children, limiting their dreams, imaginations and their capacity for empathy and understanding;

• we already know that publishers are not ‘charities’ and cannot publish uncommercial titles however worthy but we also know that demand continues to outstrip supply and that there are lots of customers for inclusive books;

• we already know that the argument that books with pink glittery (able-bodied, white, straight) princesses / blue macho (able-bodied, white, straight) heroes is “just what children want” is spurious;

• we already know that we’re not asking for bland, politically-correct, inoffensive stories about beige children set in some ‘ideal world’ in grey covers;

• we already know that we just want books that have a range of characters that reflect the real diverse world we live in;

There have been volumes and volumes of studies and reports and articles and books and blogs explaining and defending and proving over and over and over and over and over…

So I think we can safely stop explaining and arguing and defending and proving…

We already know!

We need to act!

We cannot allow children's reading, development, imaginations and dreams to be limited by narrow revenue categories however convenient and successful they are for retailers. While the industry regards inclusive or diverse books as not commercial they are pushed off the shelf by the ‘easy sell' of pink glitter / adventure stories. So, while ours might be a political campaign, it is fought in a commercial arena and money talks...

This was brought home to me last year by the storm which erupted over The Independent’s book reviewer Katy Guest’s decision to no longer review books which had ‘for boys’ or ‘for girls’ in the title (this was in support of the Let Books be Books campaign). Wow was she attacked! Scrolling through comments, what saddened me (aside from the violent nature of the attacks) was the amount of energy and space and time people spent defending the need to for diversity, arguing about biological determinism… I though, ‘you know, we don’t need to do this… we already know…’

(What I did suggest was that to counter all those who threatened to never buy the Independent again, anyone supporting Katy should not limit themselves to tweeting support, but should go out and buy the Independent that Sunday – buy two copies! You can read my blog about it on http://www.annamcquinn.com/blog/heads-above-the-parapet). I felt we needed to put our money where our mouths were and show the Independent that its editorial policy had customers.

So what can you do?

1. Read:
look at your own reading choices and any that you have influence over
(children, colleagues, students, family, customers…);

2. Buy:
if the industry thinks there isn’t a market, we have to show them
(give more diverse books as presents, at Christmas, as donations…);

3. Order:
If your local bookshop or library or school doesn’t have the (diverse) book you want, don’t just get it elsewhere, order it, demand they stock it (if it's a school, donate it)! (Otherwise they may never realise that there's a demand).

(The #WeNeedDiversBooks campaign in the USA asked all librarians attending the American Library Association conference to ask at every publisher’s display what diverse books they were offering);

4. Recommend:
(to friends, family, colleagues, in blogs, on Twitter…);

Did I say buy already? You can't expect other people to buy you book/publish books you like unless you buy them yourself. We authors can't eat tweets.

And you can start today, right here, right now.
My hero, Arthur Ashe has a phrase which I turn to when I feel defeated by the enormity of the task:,
                           Start where you are.
                        Use what you have.
                        Do what you can.

Each one of us has to start with what we can do
and if we all change one thing we can make a difference.

Thank you.

Works cited
Archer, John (1978) Biological explanations of sex-role stereotypes. In Jane Chetwynd and Oonagh Hartnett (ed) The Sex Role System. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul (pp.4–17).
Bland, Lucy (1981) It’s only Human Nature?: Sociobiology and Sex Differences. Schooling & Culture, vol. 10 (pp.6–10).
Bookseller in association with Arts Council England and Decibel. In Full Colour. Bookseller, March 2004.
Bookseller. Books for All. Bookseller, June 2006.
Browne, Naima and Pauline France (1986) Untying the Apron Strings: Anti-Sexist Provision for the Under Fives (Gender and Education). Milton Keynes: The Open University Press.
Cadman, Eileen, Gail Chester and Agnes Pivot (1981) Rolling Our Own: Women as Printers, Publishers and Distributors (Minority Press Group Series No. 4). London: Minority Press.
Chester, Gail and Sigrid Nielsen (ed.) (1986) In Other Words: Writing as a Feminist (Explorations in Feminism). London: Hutchinson.
Fairweather, Hugh (1976) Sex differences in cognition. Cognition, vol. 4, no. 3 (pp.231–80).
Griffiths, Dorothy and Ester Saraga (1979) Sex differences and cognitive abilities: A sterile field of enquiry? In Oonagh Hartnett, Gill Boden and Mary Fuller (ed.) Sex Role Stereotyping. London: Tavistock (pp.7–45)
Klein, Gillian (1985) Reading into Racism: Bias in Children’s Literature and Learning Materials. London: Routledge.
Maccoby, Eleanor Emmons and Carol Nagy Jacklin (1974) The Psychology of Sex Differences. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.
Macken, Walter (1968) Flight of the Doves. London: Macmillan.
McQuinn, Anna (illus. Rosalind Beardshaw) (2006) Lulu Loves the Library. Slough: Alanna Books.
Radcliffe, Ann (ed. Bonamy Dobrée) ([1891] 1966) The Mysteries of Udolpho (Oxford World Classics). Oxford University Press.
Women in Publishing (1980?) Directory. London: Women in Publishing.
Working Group Against Racism in Children’s Resources (1983) Guidelines and Selected Titles: 100 Picture Books. London: WGARCR.

Afterward
(While this was a historical review of the ebb and flo of the advances and retreats in the battle to make children’s books more inclusive and diverse, my views on changing one thing are highly influenced by not just Arthur Ashe but also the Action Steps arising out of the CBC Diversity event
A Place at the Table in the US last year. As a publisher, I felt that if I knew that everyone who attended (and those to whom they spread the message) did their best to enact any of the steps, then I could be more confident of finding a market for my books. And I could hopefully also persuade any less confident publishers that change was in the air and that they too could be confident to take a risk in publishing something that wasn't the safe, lowest common denominator).

After afterward - the campaign described above went on to become the amazing #WeNeedDiverseBooks

* I rant so much I have a whole extra website for it here

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Multicultural Children's Book Day

27/1/2015

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The co-creators of this unique event are Mia Wenjen from Pragmatic Mom and Valarie Budayr from Jump Into a Book/Audrey Press. Their mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these types of books into classrooms and libraries.

I have long been a campaigner for and champion of more inclusive diverse books for children, so when I came upon information about this event I joined up immediately. When you campaign so hard for publishers to publish diverse books and work hard to create them, it is such a thrill to join forces with those who want to promote them and let all those people longing for diverse books know what's available.

As part of this great project, one children's book was assigned to one blogger, who has to give an honest review.

My allocated book was My Fingerpaint Masterpiece by Sherrill S. Cannon.

Sherrill S. Cannon of New Hope, Pennsylvania, is now retired and travels the country with her husband in an RV, going from coast to coast to visit their children and grandchildren, sharing her books along the way. Most of her books try to teach something, like good manners and consideration for others. All of her books are also part of a fundraiser for both imbullyfree.org and CureJM Foundation.

As a former teacher, Sherrill obviously understands the importance of children seeing themselves in the books that they read. For me, this has to include books which are not about color or culture - so
I was really pleased to see that in a story about art, Sherrill worked hard to make sure lots of different children were included.

Sherril tackles a complex subject of perception and self esteem. In my experience, young children are very uninhibited in their approach to art - they love color and pattern and the mess and fun of creating pictures. Then at about eight or so years old, they begin to feel under pressure to draw pictures OF something and can quickly get frustrated if the work on the page does not look like what's in their head. We adults don't help by constantly asking, "what is that?" rather than asking open-ended questions or commenting on the wonderful colors of the drawings.

The young narrator (we never see him/her, but just hear his/her voice) of this story gets frustrated when he/she can't capture their idea of his/her dog on the page and never manage to finish their picture. Sherrill authentically captures this frustration in the young narrator's voice.
The picture gets accidentally blown into a near-by art dealer's store and is submitted for an art prize. While the judges are no clearer as to what the picture is of, they praise its color and depth, texture and brush strokes and award it first place. All is going well until that is, the narrator explains that it is the work of a child. The judges don't believe it could be a child's work and the narrator thinks that since it's not the work of a 'real artist', it should not be in the gallery but 'at home on our fridge'.

For me, the author is a let down by her publishers here as I was left a little conflicted by the message of the book - I think a skilled editor would have teased apart the quite complex issues and utilized Sherrill's knowledge and experience in the classroom to come to a more satisfactory conclusion.
This is probably the editor in me coming out! Other reviewers have nothing but praise for the lessons that can be learned from this charming rhyming story.

Co-hosts of this amazing project are: Africa to America, All Done Monkey, The Educators’ Spin on It Growing Book by Book, InCultural Parent, Kid World Citizen, Mama Smiles , Multicultural Kid Blogs,
Sprout’s Bookshelf

All this reading and reviewing would not have been possible without the support of the very generous sponsors:
Platinum Sponsors: Wisdom Tales Press, Daybreak Press Global Bookshop, Gold Sponsors: Satya House, MulticulturalKids.com, Author Stephen Hodges and the Magic Poof, Silver Sponsors: Junior Library Guild, Capstone Publishing, Lee and Low Books, The Omnibus Publishing. Bronze Sponsors: Double Dutch Dolls, Bliss Group Books, Snuggle with Picture Books Publishing, Rainbow Books, Author FeliciaCapers, Chronicle Books Muslim Writers Publishing ,East West Discovery Press.

MCCBD is also partnering with First Book to offer a Virtual Book Drive that will help donate multicultural children’s books through their channels during the week of the event. We want to help get diversity books into the hands of kids who most need it and now we have a way to do it! The Virtual Book Drive is LIVE and can be found HERE.

MCCBD has collaborated with Children’s Book Council to highlight wonderful diversity books and authors on an ongoing basis all year.

The MCCBD site is here and you can find extended information here.

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Librarians in vegas part 3

6/8/2014

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Las Vegas (June 26–July 1) was the venue for the 2014 American Library Association Annual Conference attended by 18,626 librarians and exhibitors. To get a flavour, you can look at the Publisher's Weekly photo essay and this short video which sums it up better than I could...

A relentless program of speakers, book-buzz sessions, meetings, poster sessions, informal discussions and author signings means that the conference is all about learning and networking and reviving and replenishing. The library system in the US does not seem to me to have had quite the same hammering as it has been getting here in the UK in recent years (though school library services do seem to be struggling more than some other areas). So, while librarians of course struggle with budgets and shortages, they are inspiring in their enthusiasm. They may have been wilting in temperature nearing 110 degrees, but their spirits were high!

At the Bologna Bookfair last year, chatting to Martin West of Troika books, he was telling me about a wonderful and regular Chinese customer of his who always seemed slightly amused at Martin's enthusiasm for the books he was presenting. One year, when this gentleman arrived at Martin's stand, he opened the conversation by asking, "Well, Martin, what are you passionating about this year?"

I think this is a most fabulous word, and never does it seem so appropriate as when describing a group of enthusiastic librarians - boy, do they passionate! And there's nothing like a tribe of book lovers gathered in one place, passionating, to raise your spirits.

Saturday

Kirsten Cappy with Hazel Mitchell ALA 2013

I kicked off my conference with lunch at a nearby Ethiopian restaurant with Kirsten Cappy the energetic owner of Curious City - a children's book consulting company. Now, I say, 'nearby'... In Vegas, in 110 degree heat, only things that are within 100 meters can be regarded as nearby. Though we'd arranged to meet there, I got a frenzied call from Kirsten suggesting we take a cab. It was only about two blocks away, but we would have melted!

One of the many projects Kirsten is involved with is the Portland I'm your Neighbor project which uses children's books to build bridges between "new arrivals" and "long-term communities".
The Portland project uses nine books in particular which were the focus of a 2013 city-wide read and I'm thrilled that my My Friend Jamal is one of the nine.

Kirsten Cappy, Anne Sibley O Brien & Lanie Honda

We actually did meet at ALA last year, and I had a long conversation with Kirstin's IYN colleague, Anne Sibley O Brien, but due to 'convention brain' we didn't recognize each other! So, it was brilliant to finally meet. We're hoping to work together on some more books with Annick Press in Canada (publishers of My Friend Jamal). It was great to kick off the convention with an intense debate about books featuring "new arrivals", the difficulties in writing about issues without creating an "issue" book, the challenges of representing communities and the danger (to steal Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's phrase) of a single story. We covered a lot of ground over Beg Wot and injera (not least because our Ethiopian taxi driver got caught up in a World Cup match on the TV and couldn't be dragged away until it was over!

After lunch I checked in with the fabulous team at Charlesbridge: Meg Quinn (Director, School & Library Markets - no relation unfortunately) and Donna Spurlock (Director of Marketing supremo).
Of course, this is when the photo for Publisher's Weekly gets taken - when I'm still hot from the 12 foot walk from the taxi to the Convention Center!

But there are always some talented but extremely nice people to meet on the Charlesbridge booth. It was great to be introduced to Rafael Lopez, illustrator of (among many books) the wonderful The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred (by Samantha Vamos who I was lucky to meet at last year's ALA). He explained his amazing painting technique to me (he works really really slowly) but if I told you I'd have to kill you (or he'd have to kill me... or something).

Anna McQuinn, Meg Quinn, Rafael Lopez

Unfortunately, Hazel Mitchell wasn't there either this year, but I was thrilled to be able to look at an advance copy of her Imani's Moon (written by JaNay Brown-Wood) - such a lovely book.
Who was there was Don Tate (illustrator of The Cart that Carried Martin, written by Eve Bunting) who I met a little later, but then he too was rushing off to something or other. If there's a problem with ALA it's that you meet so many interesting people that you really want to get to know better, but you have so little time to get to chat. But even in those few moments you can make a connection, find the person's website, start corresponding and then, maybe next time...

For me, it was time to rush back to the hotel to meet Suzanne Bloom and Yolanda Scott to finesse our presentation for the next day's Book Buzz.

SUnday

Next morning, en route to BookBuzz, there was just time to visit the Lee & Low booth to pick up my #We need Diverse Books badge. Lee & Low have been publishing diverse books since 1991 and from the outset felt strongly that it was important to have books with contemporary settings that reflect how people live today rather than 'multicultural' folktales about exotic people from distant lands - so I'm a fan. They have been very active in the #we need diverse books movement and had a great flyer/poster with an action plan for more diversity (which I managed to lose). I'm going to try to locate it - check back here later for links.

Lee & Low's publisher, Jason Low, also hosted a Book Buzz session Moving the Needle: Diversity in Children’s Books and How to Make a Difference. I loved Jason's emphasis on moving forward (rather than getting stuck in the 'there are not enough diverse books' place). Jason said, "we need to get from Diversity 101 stories—stories focused simply on the lack of diversity in children’s books, in very basic terms—to Diversity 102 stories, which address both the complexity of the problem and the range of possible solutions."

One of Jason's big announcements was that Kirkus Reviews will be seeking to diversify their reviewer pool, and that several other major review publications have expressed an interest in doing the same. Diverse reviewer pools mean that books can be evaluated for cultural accuracy and that reviewers bring a wide range of perspectives to the table.

In the absence of Lee & Low's action poster, CBC Diversity has a fantastic action plan - something everyone can follow regardless of what part of children's publishing they work in. To read more about the evolution of the #we need divers books campaign from hashtag through viral campaign to Incorporated Non-profit click here and here and for a round-up of the articles that got the ball rolling click here.

Book Buzz
At 11.00 sharp we were off: Yolanda Scott Editorial Director extraordinaire at Charlesbridge (who were hosting the session), Suzanne Bloom author and illustrator extraordinaire (whose books I have the honour of publishing in the UK) and me - Early Ears, a Book Buzz session on choosing books for the youngest readers .

We kicked off at the young end and talked about what might be a suitable topic for a good board book - not shapes (arghhh - what toddler who is just learning to say Mama and juice can attempt rectangle?!)

And especially not wrong shapes- a ball is a sphere not a circle!!!!

My pet peeve out of the way, we moved on to Yolanda's peeves (books with no story arc)...
and more of mine - words out of context and out of scale...

I mean, look - how is it helpful for a young child to learn the word 'blossom' and look at an image of a branch not attached to a tree? And why is the rabbit three times the size of the lamb? (I know you know it's smaller in reality - but a small child looking at a book does not bring world knowledge to the experience! Give me patience!

Fortunately Suzanne was there to buoy us up with examples of wonderful language and visual literacy...

And Yolanda talked about the commercial issue around making board books work and we did finish with some books which, though very simple, had nice story arcs...

Yolanda Scott, Suzanne Bloom, Anna McQuinn

It went without saying (kind of) that all the books were inclusive and diverse...

Then it was back to our respective Publishers' booths for signing:

Where else would you get photo-bombed by your editorial director??

Mara Price, Anna McQuinn

I was really thrilled when Mara Price came to have a book signed - she was one of the writers I mentored during Highlights Foundation Writers' Conference in Chautauqua in 2008. We worked on her text Grandma's Chocolate and she has since had it published. It was SUCH a thrill to meet again and to be able to celebrate such a success!

After a busy day, there was only just time to change, have a quick chat with the ever-enthusiastic Ilse Crane from BookStop then we were off to the Newbery-Caldecott Banquet. So exciting! I am really grateful to Kerry McManus and the team at Boyds Mills Press for having me along and thrilled to end up sitting next to one of the authors of one of my favourite books, Busy Fingers - Wendie C. Old (published, of course, by Charlesbridge).

Proceedings were opened with a wonderful speech by Star LaTronica, President of ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children - a division of the American Library Association).

Dazzled by her speech, not everyone realized that her (made) shoes were equally dazzling! Even more dazzling than those she wore to meet Obama, I think (but I'm more a book than a lego fan).

Dinner was interspersed with breaks for video clips - some of the best were of the honorees talking about when they got the call from the Caldecott committee. The funniest had to be the one from David Wiesner (for his book Mr Wuffles);

Then were were treated to two amazing acceptance speeches from Brian Floca winner of Caldecott Award for Locomotive and Kate DiCamillo winnder of the Newbery Award Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (illustrated by K.G. Campbell). Kate diCamillo's speech was really moving, and you can red it here.

It was tragic to have to head for bed to prepare for tomorrow when I wanted to mingle...

Monday

Charlemae Hill Rollins (1897-1979) was a Chicago librarian and author who was dedicated to improving the image of African Americans in children's literature. She served as an advisor to authors, teachers, and publishers, encouraging them to disregard negative stereotypes and honestly portray black culture and history.

Rollins's role in elevating the status of African Americans in children's books earned her many awards including the Coretta Scott King Award in 1971. In 1974 Columbia College, Chicago awarded Rollins a doctorate of humane letters, and three years later the Chicago Public Library dedicated a room in her name at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library*.

In her memory, the ALA's Library Service to Children division presents the Charlemae Rollins President's Program at its annual summer conferences. So you can imagine how honoured I was to be invited to speak at the 2014 program.

I was extremely nervous, but we were made so welcome by Brandy Sanchez & Rachel Payne
Co-chairs of the Program Planning Committee and ALSC president was quick to set us at ease.

Then we were off! Starr LaTronica set the scene... and Rachel Payne introduced Amy Dickinson...

Amy Dickinson is AMAZING! Author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Story of Surprising Second Chances, she writes the syndicated advice column, Ask Amy, which is carried in over 150 newspapers and read by an estimated 22 million readers daily.

She really knew how to reel the crowd in - beginning with a funny piece on Librarians in Vegas, then moving to her childhood, tracing the development of her love of books...

...leading to her advocacy work, not least of which is her her collaboration with the Family Reading Partnership of Ithaca, New York to launch the campaign "A Book in Every Bed," that then sparked a national movement. First she made us laugh, then she made us cry! Standing ovation at the end!!

Well, that was a hard act to follow...
I kicked off by talking about the outreach work I did when I started working for Sure Start Acton.
For some reason, I thought dressing as Bob the Builder would help my cause! I have NO idea where that came from and I'm not sure the parents in the local health centre, drop in baby clinic, doctor's surgeries or anywhere else I went thought me anything but a bit odd...

I talked about the big lessons I learned at the beginning of that work - namely that we in the book 'industry' (whether writers, editors, librarians, early years workers or whatever) might understand that babies need books, but for many many parents, this is NEWS!
When one mum explained to me (with a patient but slightly pained smile) that there was no point in my offering her little one a book because "see, he's only a baby and he can't read yet" I went back to the drawing board and realised that before I could promote the library and the groups I was running there, I had to start at first principles and explain that babies could enjoy books.
I also had to work out how to deliver this message in about 60 seconds and in time, of course, I discovered that books themselves were the answer. I have a core 'kit' and find that 90% of babies react to this sad baby - often by crying themselves...

...and while it's not my objective in life to go round the country making small babies cry, when a parent sees this happen, it opens the door to a conversation (and got a laugh from my audience!).

I talked (of course) about book selection and the need for children to see themselves in books... but also the need for families to see themselves in the library space. Once we had run a few groups, I took photos which we turned into posters - so when families looked at out promotional materials AND when they saw the posters in the library, they saw people like themselves in the space and children like their children in the space (the actual space).

I talked about other ways to include families from diverse backgrounds - I could put the information in here but I think the full text will soon be available on the ALA site, so I'll add a link as soon as possible. You can read the report in School Library Journal here.

The programme closed with three short presentations from three librarians on partnership programs they are working on including one very moving one about working with families of prisoners. There's a guide to innovative partnerships here.

The conference ended (for me) with dinner with a wonderful collection of librarians, editors, illustrators and other book enthusiasts. Was happy to sit near Sharon McKellar and hear some of her thrilling taxi stories; and to debate with Monica Edinger and Roxanne Feldman - what a fabulous way to end the trip.

So thank you Starr and ALCS for the invitation to speak - it was a tremendous honour and a fabulous experience. And thanks Charlesbridge for the financial support and for being the absolute best team in the business - now for over 25 years - happy birthday people! It was wonderful to make so many new friends; to have the gift of time with old friends, and to be reminded of how special a life I lead as one of the passionate tribe of children's book lovers. Amen!

* There really is a red thread... last year at ALA, I was asked by Chicago Public Library service to do some sessions for under fives in some of the city libraries. My favourite event was in the Carter G Woodson library where the staff were incredibly welcoming and the kids were fab. You can red last years blog here.

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Librarians in vegas part 2

6/8/2014

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OK, so Vegas is totally mad. You kind of know it in advance, but it's still much madder than you can imagine! I mean, it's in the middle of a desert - something you only appreciate when you fly there...

...and the heat! Did I mention the heat?
We took a taxi from the airport and the driver immediately noticed our 'foreign' accents. Turns out he was from Georgia (Russia - in America and especially in Las Vegas, you have to qualify every location you mention) and had worked in London for years before winning a green card in the lottery - to come to Vegas - how ironic is that! He was amazed to hear we were coming to a Library convention - double checked I had the right place in fact.

As we drove, he pointed out all the big hotels and what to see there and I jokingly asked where were all the bookshops. With a concerned straight face he suggested that they were "probably off the Strip somewhere." "But," he continued, "I'll tell you something crazy... I once had a lady get in my cab and ask me to take her to the library - can you imagine that?" I felt I could actually, though I was tickled that a for a Vegas cab driver (who must see some stuff) this was crazy! Welcome to Vegas!!

When you arrive at any Vegas hotel, you have to walk through banks of slot machines just to get to the Reception desk. Again, you kind of know this, but nothing prepares you for it. Most hotels have a VAST range of machines and tables - ours had a sports betting area too.

What struck me - in a scary way - was how like financial trading floors this area was, with it's big screens of odds then banks of computers where people sat betting. Not a happy thought...

But there were bargains to be had in this wonderland...

What's not to like? And in a variety of colors, no less!

Now, did I mention the heat? Happily you could walk from enormous hotel to enormous hotel without ever venturing outdoors. We only went out to cross the Strip (having 'done' one side) and even then I had to wait inside until the lights went green!

The hotels were amazing. There were flamingos in the Flamingo (duh); dolphins and Siberian tigers in the Mirage; a Forum and Trevi fountain in Caesar's Palace (honestly, this was amazing - lit and air-conditioned as if it were evening - which was quite confusing for your body at 10.00 in the morning!) and gardens in the Bellagio (actually they were great and I was sorry I'd not organised to have a Lola event there to celebrate the imminent publication of Lola Plants a Garden).

And of course, just across the road, there was the Paris!

Everywhere was spotless and sparkling and air-conditioned and bug-free - and I wondered do people who've been here come to Europe and a) find it annoying how spread out it all is - in Vegas it's so convenient and b) find it a bit, well, dowdy?

I was feeling well just a bit superior when I came to the Cosmopolitan's Chandelier Lounge

OK, I take it all back - there's a place for everyone in Vegas!

All that said, it was a relief when (my 'touristy' day over) I began to meet with librarians and other booky friends. Most were as thrown by the whole place as I was. One fabulous woman I met at dinner said she didn't try to make any sense of Vegas, she just used it to help imagine what Alice must have felt like when she dropped down the rabbit hole into a surreal other world! It's nice to know your tribe!

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Librarians in Vegas (part 1)

29/7/2014

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I was thrilled to be invited to speak as part of the Charlemae Rollins President's Program at ALA in July. But this bit (part one) is just about the few days I spent in San Francisco first to get over the jet lag in the hope that I would be some bit coherent by the time it came to speak. (So this is the 'unprofessional' part of my blog.)

It was my first time in San Francisco and a real treat. What a wonderful city. I just walked and ate for a few days, taking in all the sights and flavours of the city.

Walking up Hyde Street (so we could go down the famous Lombard Street) we saw that the street was cordoned off for walkers - by the cutest police cars on the face of the planet! Now, I'm a sucker for weird small vehicles and photograph them every where I go. Up until now, the best are to be found in Spain and Portugal, with a few in France and Italy, but I think these trump everything

Can you see that the registration is Go-4 !!! The back was even better - undeterred by it's tiny size, it claims to be an INTERCEPTOR!

Walking by Grace Cathedral I went in and was treated to the highlight of my visit - Graced with Light is an installation by the cathedral's artist in residence, Anne Patterson. With the Grace Cathedral community, she assembled nearly 20 miles of ribbons, each with prayers written on them, then hung them from the vaulted ceiling arches.

When I walked in first I didn't notice them, I just thought that the stained glass windows were casting particularly bright shadows. Then I realised that there were hundreds if not thousands of ribbons strung from high in the arches reaching to only a few feet from the ground.

There is much beautiful art around and much that is clever, but it is rare to find something that is at once simple and clever, and such a beautiful response to its setting. I was awestruck.

Then it was off on a road trip to Big Sur. The views along the coast road were amazing as were the miles and miles of intensively-farmed fields - many with harvesting underway by rows and rows of workers.

Big Sur itself was wonderful and it was nice to get out of the sun into the woods...

Then it was back to San Francisco for one more day before heading to Vegas.

Our last hotel was gorgeous (I think we got some kind of an upgrade). It's actually not the one in the picture above - that was the foyer of another one which I just had to photograph.

I was glad to see (for the first time) requests to reuse towels and conserve energy. However, when we decided to swim in the infinity pool I was taken aback by the amount of towels everywhere - many you could only use once to go from shower to pool etc. It struck me that we have managed somehow to uncouple luxury and excess (in terms of amounts) when it comes to food (plates heaped high are now rather looked down on. But in other areas we really need to catch up. I am personally a bit grossed out by piles of fluffy towels that you only barely use then toss in a basket and for me it ruined the pleasure of the pool (which looked out over the city). But perhaps I'm not the sort of client they have in mind...

Next morning we checked out and it was off to visit Kendra Marcus of BookStop Literary Agency for a catchup. After a wonderful lunch with Kendra and Minju (of Kale and peanut salad - which I just tried this weekend and will henceforth be known as 'Kendra's Salad') we went for fabulous ice-creams in Berkley. I just had to photograph for Margaret Bateson-Hill who numbers paper-cutting among her many talents since she featured them in her picture book Lao Lao of Dragon Mountain. (Unfortunately I was so intrigued by the papercuts, I forgot to include Kendra in the photo!)

Then sadly, it was time to leave San Francisco and head for the next part of the adventure...

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bologna children's bookfair 2014

31/3/2014

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After a somewhat eventful arrival (I thought I'd lost my passport!!) and a much needed gentle evening with my flat mates Kendra Marcus and Ilse Craane of BookStop Literary Agency, Margaret Bateson-Hill (my talented traveling companion) and I headed into the city on Sunday morning. I discovered an amazing bookshop I'd not come across before called Librerie.coop on Via degli Orefici, 19. It had a nice display on the ground floor, then a mix of a restaurant, deli and beautiful cook books on the next floor. On the top floor was a wine shop and the children's books - how fabulous is that!

Saw my 'indulgence buy' of the Fair: L'alfabeto dei sentementi by Janna Carioli and Sonia Possentini (will post later about it), then my 'fun buy' of the Fair - a story about a circus strong man who is into knitting: Ettore, L'uomo Straordinariamente Forte by Magali Le Muche.

Then I spotted my absolute favourite Claude, in Italian! Had to turn him face out so lots of Italians would get to know him too.

Then it was on to the Fair.
I've not had a stand for many years and I really miss the buzz the fair has the day before as stands are put up. It always got me psyched like being backstage before a performance. So I was happy to go along to the Troika Books stand to meet Martin West and Petula Chaplin.

They were next door to Scholastic, so it was a nice opportunity to say hello to Eleanor Bagenal (who edited my Sleep Sheep book) and was wearing the most fabulous coat. Had to introduce her to Margaret who was wearing an equally fabulous coat!

Once the mutual admiration society had finished its session, we wandered around. Were very impressed to see Kirstin & Julie-Ann of Barrington Stoke, not only putting up the stand but making all the furniture! I hope their authors and illustrators realise how hard they were working.

Note how they are following the instructions.

I thought Faber & Faber had the wittiest stand, but my top prize went to La Pasteque, Canada:

We finished off the evening with a 'Waifs & Strays' pizza night (named, after the event by Frances Plumpton ex-librarian and agent extraordinaire). The conversation was witty and intelligent and funny and the Prosecco creamy and biscuity - who could ask for more? Fiona Kenshole came armed with a fabulous device which was at once a magnifying glass and torch - perfect to decipher a menu in the dim lighting!

Monday morning and it was all down to business. Meetings, meetings, meetings.

Took a break to see Margaret's IBBY showcase...

...and ran into the fabulous Judy Goldman from Mexico who has been shockingly busy with seven books out this year! One is with the fabulous Charlesbridge who of course also publish Lulu).

Judy's friend had the best nails at the fair, so I just had to take a close up:

Talking of Charlesbridge - guess who is on the front of their Fall catalogue? Meg gave Ros and me a sneak peek. How exciting!

Lola Plants a Garden is out with Charlesbridge in September this year. The UK edition, Lulu Loves Flowers is out in the UK in Spring 2015 - watch this space for launch plans.

Then it was off to visit Mariana Warth, and Aron Balmas of Pallas Editora one of the few publishers in Brazil to include people of African heritage in their books (making them a happy home for Lulu).
Marianna has just published the second Lulu story and presented us with a copy.

I took a little time to look at the illustrators' exhibition, taking a while to look at an amazing love story between a sheep and a frog by a Japanese artist (whose name I need to track down).
Here they are swimming underwater among the jellyfish:

My least favourite image at the Fair was this:

Not content with pink glittery stories about pretty princesses for girls and snotty adventure stories for boys, it seems even God must succumb to gendered marketing - big depressed sigh.

It struck me at the fair that alongside the ever increasing numbers of pink/blue books for boys/girls, there is also a growing number of books about bullying. Now, could this be connected?

As I argued in a blog to launch Alanna Books' What Are You Playing At?, (quoting Lyn Mikel Brown) “When you offer few options and give kids a very narrow slice of life, there are things they don’t learn, experiences they don’t have. What the children do learn is strict gender norms – and children who don’t adhere to those norms frighten their peers. They’re made anxious by difference because we’ve given them sameness. To alleviate that fear, they tease the child who doesn’t conform.” So, as books and toys become more and more gender segregated, the social costs of boundary crossing and the peer pressure to stay within the lines are huge.

A frightening thought and one that compels us to keep fighting for books that are open and inclusive and all embracing rather than narrow and limiting.

OK, mini-rant over, on to nicer things - my favourite image of the fair one from the illustrators' wall.
Enjoy!

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heads above the parapet

21/3/2014

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Katy Guest wrote an interesting piece in last week's Sunday Independent. In support of a campaign Let Books be Books, she vowed that she would not review books labelled as 'for boys' or 'for girls' in her review column. She was very specific. She did not say she would not review books aimed at boys or written with boys in mind or with boyish covers or with boy heroes or with 'boy' in the title – but do you think that stopped anyone from accusing her of doing just that? And worse?
Usually I try not to read any comments on articles like this because they can be so soul destroying. But as this campaign is so close to my own heart, I wanted to add a supportive message. Trouble is, I had to scroll through the mound of abusive comments of people with a specific axe to grind who seemed to me determined to willfully miss-read her intentions, in fact her whole piece.

I've joked about it with friends, but realised this was just a coping mechanism for the genuine sadness I'm filled with when I see the anger and vitriol that a well-intentioned, thoughtfull piece can invite. Katy doesn't want to take away choice or burn books or emasculate little boys and make them all play with Barbie dolls in pink clothes – she wants children to be able to choose any book they want and not feel they can't because a marketing department has labelled the book 'for boys/girls'. She wants to make the world a little bit better and, while I'm sure she might love to end world hunger, stop the fighting in Syria and find a cure for cancer - she is starting with what she can do personally and in this instance, that means only reviewing books which are marketed to ALL children. Simples!

Except it's not.

Katy herself has addressed many of the comments in a follow-up piece, so I don't feel I need to go through them. But it seems to me that the expression 'gender neutral' works like a kind of incendiary device in some brains, leading them to willfully misread the author's intentions and accuse her of everything from censorship to "naziesque PC thought control"!

The words 'social engineering' cropped up quite a lot in the comments - one of the most outrageous accusing the author of being part of a "bizarre experiment in social engineering by radical lefties and paranoid 'feminazis' ". While it is reasonable to quibble with some points in the article (and I don't think Katy was well-served by the title), to leap from disagreeing with an editor who has decided not use her precious review space on books labelled "for boys" or "for girls' to criticising her for being PC, Stalinist, anti-family psycho hard left Marxist, left-wing, Nazi, bourgeois, censoring, book-burning, paranoid feminazi (who is, at the same time, wasting everyone's time on a pointless, trivial and irrelevant campaign - considering the world's bigger problems) seems to me truly crazy.

What was most interesting to me about the comments was that the most vitriolic seemed to be from people who are not raising young children at the moment (and are unaware of how much MORE gendered marketing has become). So (when they were not talking about romance novels, car magazines and gay hairdressers) they happily spoke of when they were young or their children were young and they just choose to read what they wanted. This completely ignored how much more difficult it is for young children to do that now in the face of being bombarded with messages about acceptable gendered behaviour and taste, and how frustrating that situation is for parents. Most parents of children who are young now, wrote in support of the Indy's decision.

The other people who came out strongly in support were authors - many of whom talked about their frustration when their publishers' marketing departments gave their books covers and titles which they felt did not reflect their stories in they way they wanted. However, many of the critics who took it upon themselves to defend writers' freedom and who accused Katy Guest and her 'ilk' of wanting to control what writers wrote and what got published were in fact, not writers themselves, didn't know any writers or publishers and ignored the comments from the writers!

This willful ignoring of comments from people far closer to the issue and the willingness to comment without properly reading the article OR knowing ANYTHING about the topic was infuriating! One critic went so far as to say,
             "I doubt that you will find any book out there that says this is for girls or for boys only (in fact any sensible publisher will look for the widest popularity across all sexes) ... This is reality and no amount of grand standing or sexual politics by a literary editor in a newspaper is going to change that..."

It's also sad that these people who are crying 'freedom' and 'stop censoring' are so taken in by marketing,while at the same time arguing that a small girl of 4 should be intelligent, savvy and media-aware enough to ignore the marketeers "For Boys" label and read a book anyway. One such claimed that
               "The only criterion that should be considered by publishers is whether the gender-specific titles make money. If so, it'll be because people are buying them, which is prima facie evidence of their rightful place in society.
                This campaigning to intimidate free speech and stop legitimate commercial endeavor is, in fact, a bizarre experiment in social engineering by radical lefties and paranoid 'femininazis when society has clearly indicated through its free choices to buy such books that gender-specific books have value."

Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!

So it's all bizarre really. But it is SO hard to read when you are fighting for a more diverse, inclusive world in which boys and girls have more opportunities and more choice, and you are accused of wanting to turn the world into a grey nothingness; to turn boys and girls into samey androgynous beings and to force writers to write beige neutral boring PC stories which, the critics almost always say, have no bearing on real life.

All I can say is, Katy Guest, stick with it and be brave. Anyone who has read my blogs on similar topics knows that I do like to remind people that all of these 'moral' debates take place in a commercial arena. So I'd say, if you want to support Katy, don't just Tweet your support, don't just read her reviews online... Go out and buy the Independent on Sunday this Sunday. Buy two, give them to your friends. Re-tweet that. Lets put our money where our mouths are and make sure that those who threaten to never buy the Indy again now that it has become a home for Nazi-Stalanist-Feminista-Censors like Katy are VASTLY outnumbered by those of us who support her simple commitment to only review books marketed to ALL children.

I've wanted to write on this topic for a while, and seeing the comments on Katy's article prompted me to finally do it. Because, for me, what's even harder than the crazy reactions of people who obviously feel threatened by those who campaign for equality and inclusion, are the comments from people who say they support inclusive/diversity... but attack your book in which you are really trying hard to be inclusive (despite being told by the kind of people who market sticker books exclusively to one gender that this means they can't publish/market/sell your book). Instead of writing and complaining to the publishers, editors and marketeers who publish and promote books with nary a Black face, or a girl hero or a differently abled child, they decide to write to you and complain that your story doesn't include everyone.

So, I wrote a little story about a little girl going to the library. She's called Lulu (Lola in the USA), she's gorgeous, she loves books, she's the hero and she's Black. What's not to like you 'inclusive-book loving' people?

It's important to me that books like this are 'real'. That however well-meaning, they are not contrived. Children are very clever. They spot contrivance and then the book loses its power. So Lulu has a few friends (she is only three years old after all and not at school yet). so far two Black and two White (if you're the kind of person who needs a head count). I thought that looked natural.

From Lulu Loves the Library, published by Alanna Books - link

BUT, then this review...

"My one, minor, complaint about the book is that it tries and fails at emphasizing diversity. Lola and her mommy are of African descent. Lola meets a white little boy in a stroller and during story time Lola sits next to a black boy, white girl, and white boy. If the illustrator was going to make such a strong attempt to display diversity, she should have thought to include a Hispanic, Middle Eastern, and Asian child as well."

I would have thought that a) we'd struggle to fit them in the picture and b) it would look totally contrived, and c) just because you're trying to include some children who don't see themselves enough in books, doesn't mean you should be pressured to do it all in one little picturebook!

I do have one book which is what I would call 'multi-cultural' rather than 'inclusive'. (This is one of my pet peeves - that because my story is about a little Black girl and her family it gets labelled 'multicultural'. For me a multi-cultural book is one which shows a lot of different people; a multi-cultural collection is one which has books with lost of different people in them, but a story about a little girl going to a library is just a story about a little girl going to a library...)

Back to my multi-cultural book. This came out of my work in libraries. I work with a diverse group and we love the song If You're Happy And You Know It. One day, we added "Encore" to the wordsand now, every time we sing it we sing the word for "again/encore" in a different language. My kind of thing - naturally inclusive! I happened to be telling the nice publisher at Barefoot Books about this and she suggested we do it as a book and here it is. I'm very proud!

From, If You're Happy and You Know It! published by Barefoot Books - link

Then I got an email 'astounded' at my audacity to call the book multicultural on the grounds that "every country but Israel was represented". Now, leaving aside the fact that this is a 32 page book with endpapers and title page and song words, so only nine working spreads, the idea that it could show all the countries of the world is a little unrealistic. To argue that unless it did show all the countries in the world it could not call itself 'multi-cultural' is quite an ask! (I would have pointed out that it did not contain England either, but life's too short!). My response? bang head against wall - again!

So, come on people! Any of us who put our heads above the parapet to campaign for children's books to be inclusive and made available to ALL children; any of us who write, illustrate, publish or sell such books know that as soon as we do, critics will take pot shots at us. (In fact, when you're on the receiving end, it feels like you put your head above the parapet and they climb over the top, run across no-man's land screaming 'nazi feminista' while leaping over the parapet and trying to hack you to death!!) Our hearts would be broken over and over except we can't feel them any more because our heads are too sore from banging them against brick walls 24-7! We NEED support - moral and financial - to keep fighting this fight and to make this a better world for ALL the little girls and boys growing up in it. And if you're an 'inclusive-book-loving person' please think before attacking someone who is trying - attack someone who is not trying at all - pretty please?

Links:
Katt Guests's article that got me all riled up - link

more links:
Rebecca Davies' blog in the Independent - link
Malorie Blackman in the Guardian - link

To read my last rant on Gendered Marketing on the publication of
What Are You Playing At? - a book which challenges the idea that children's play
should be limited by gender - link

P.S. I'm off to the Bologna Children's BookFair tomorrow, so no time to add links so you can see the original articles etc I refer to. Will add links on my return, but wanted to get this request to buy the Indy out before Sunday.

Katy Guest has addressed some of the comments herself - particularly reassuring about still reading books for boys/girls with glitter... link

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V-DAy 14 february 2014 - challenge

14/2/2014

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So impressed with the One Billion Rising for Justice campaign (link here) but wondering how I can contribute. Taking my advice from Arthur Ashe, I'm thinking, "start where you are. Use what you have, do what you can" as my motto.

I write children's books and I have always tried to make girls the heroes of my stories. Going forward, I think I need to persuade colleagues to feature more girls (and not princesses and fairies) and support and promote those who do; and challenge booksellers, librarians and book buyers to do the same.

February 14th is also International Book Giving Day, so here's a list of books to give to girls - and boys. Let's start by showing the very youngest that girls have a right to be present - front and centre - in the human story.

Please comment / suggest books etc below.

Books I've written

For very young children

For children aged 5 and up

Books I've been proud to work on, edit and/or publish

By my friend and colleague, Margaret Bateson Hill - for ages 5 and up

Books I LOVE

Illustrated by the wonderful Sarah Massini

Publishers often see to avoid issues of representation, inclusion, gender and also race by having stories 'peopled' by animals characters. But people who have gone to the trouble of counting say only 10% of animals are female. But not all - here are my favourite girl animals:

Something for older children

By my friend and colleague, Margaret Bateson Hill - for ages 9 and up
Featuring the wonderful dragon flyer, Jojo.

Like the others shown below, these books are enjoyed by boys (despite the industry view that boys won't read books with girl central characters.

Adventure/historical stories any child will enjoy

OK, these might be more appealing to girls (and mature boys!)

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Provocative title from Alanna Books

15/1/2014

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I'd love to have written this fabulous book, but I'm very proud to have acquired and published it for Alanna Books. We are really thrilled at the response and especially the fantastic reviews. I've written a BLOG about it and the whole issue of Gendered Marketing of Children's Books and Toys on the Alanna site - click here to read it.

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V-DAy 14 february 2014 - challenge

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Something for older children

Provocative title from Alanna Books

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