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EDFN 475/575
Analysis of Instructional Materials for Bias
Daddy’s Roommate by Virginia Lee Burton
Copyright 1990
Josefina February by Evaline Ness
Copyright 1963
The Two Brothers by William Jaspersohn
Copyright 2000
My Mother Is So Smart! by Tomie DePaola
Copyright 2010
The Little House by Michael Willhoite
Copyright 1942
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I have reviewed five different children’s books for biases. I have found that four of the
five books I have chosen, have biases, and even the fifth has a small bias in the pictures. The
seven biases that I have used to evaluate my texts are invisibility, stereotypes, imbalance and
selectivity, unreality, fragmentation, linguistic bias, and cosmetic bias. Invisibility is when
certain groups are not addressed. Stereotyping is when the “typical” roles are given to certain
genders or races. Imbalance and selectivity is only showing one view of a group of people or
type of situation. Unreality is when a false picture of the subject is shown, such as the false idea
that all stereotypes or biases are out of the world today. Fragmentation is when something is
addressed but in a separate area than everything else, making it appear to not be a part of regular
history. Linguistic bias is the standout use of language that discriminates against a certain gender
or race. Cosmetic bias is the false presentation of equality. Pictures or inserts may be given to try
and create equality, but there is a lack of presentation in the text about those people in the
pictures or inserts.
The first book that I reviewed for biases is The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. The
first blatantly obvious bias that I noticed was the use of “she” when addressing the house. The
house was painted pink in the story, but another bias would be assuming that just because it is
pink, it is a girl. This could be an example of linguistic bias. The builder of the house was said to
be a man, stereotyping that house builders are men. All of the people pictured in the book are
whites. This is showing invisibility to the diversity in a place today. In the fields, there are no
female workers. This is showing imbalance and selectivity. The pictures also showed the women
staying home while the fathers left for work, showing stereotyping that only women stay home
with the children, or that they don’t work too. I thought the book had a cute story line that
children might enjoy, but I don’t think I would use it in my classroom. It is a very stereotypical
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and biased book. I don’t think it addresses enough of the diversity that we have in the world
today, and I think it would give false impressions to the students about gender roles and
stereotypes.
The next book that I addressed in my bias analysis is Josefina February by Evaline Ness.
This book talks about a young girl that lives with her grandpa and wants to buy him nice leather
shoes for his birthday, but has to collect enough money to do so. This book has a bias because it
takes place in Haiti and the stereotypical living conditions are presented. The book could also be
said to have selectivity and imbalance because it only addresses one culture throughout the
whole book. There is only once race presented in the pictures of the book which could be a bias
of invisibility. Because the book was written in Haiti, I would say that the issue of imbalance
isn’t necessarily a bias in this book because the book was directed towards a certain culture when
it was written. There is a bias, however, that the women are all left at home or present in the
market place when trading food or clothing. This is a stereotype that has been formed over the
years and is presented in this book. In the book, the owners of the sugar-cane fields are all men.
The people that go and work for the sugar-cane field owners are also all men. This is another
form of stereotyping because there is only one gender presented doing manual labor work. The
burro that Josefina found was addressed as a male, when it could have just been an “it” in the
book. This is a form of linguistic bias. I think I would leave this book in my classroom library for
students to read. I think the biases are so small that I would feel comfortable leaving it out for my
students to independently read. I think it would be a good way for them to see different races in a
book.
The Two Brothers by William Jaspersohn is the third book that I reviewed for biases. The
first bias I found was that the mother was a single parent and was very, very poor. This could be
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a bias because single mothers in books are usually portrayed as poor even though it’s not always
the truth. This would be a bias because it’s a stereotype. In this book, their homeland of Prussia
was view as strict and pushy and America was viewed as a perfect place. This would be a form
of bias called unreality because in reality, the U.S. is not a perfect place. The farmer and the
migration office workers were all men. There were no females shown until the end of the book
when one of the brothers got married. This shows imbalance and selectivity and also invisibility
because all of the people shown were white. I would use this book in my classroom to talk about
immigration but I would explain that there are many different races that come to America and
that not everyone does farm work. It would be a good book to read if I were to read a series of
different books about various races immigrating to America.
The next book is My Mother Is So Smart! by Tomie DePaola. This book is all about how
great this child’s mother is. The only reason that I found this book to be biased was because all
of the school staff are females. This is a stereotype because in the present, there are plenty of
male teachers and administrators. I would allow students to read this book in my classroom
because it is overall a very simple book. The only thing I would need to be aware of is if students
didn’t have motherly figures in their lives.
The final book that I analyzed is Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite. This book is
about a child whose parents get divorced and the dad re-partners with a man. The child finds out
that his dad is gay and the mother and child are both okay with it because the child is still loved.
The first bias I noticed was that when the parents were divorced, the child was shown staying
with the mother and visiting the father only on the weekends. I believe that this is a stereotype
that the mother’s always keep the children. The only other bias would be that all of the pictures
show white humans. This would be an example of invisibility because there are many races and
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cultures out in the world. This book does a great job of showing how gay people live just like
everyone else does. This book was purposely made to address a bias that is less commonly
addressed in children’s books. I would definitely allow my students to read this because it
incorporates a subject that is rarely brought up in schools. This would be a good way to bring up
diversity and how we treat everyone equally.
Fragmentation and cosmetic bias were the two biases that I didn’t find to be prominently
shown in the books I analyzed. When these books discussed different races or genders, it never
fragmented it. It was always presented in the same text as everything else was. Cosmetic bias
wasn’t found in any of my books either. They were all very direct in either having the bias or not
having the bias. There was really no “sugar coating” throughout the books. None of the books
addressed the possibilities of people with disabilities, either. This would be a topic that books
should make a better effort to cover because I think that group is very under-represented in text.
As a chair member for reviewing text for the Board of Education, I would recommend trying to
find books for the classroom that display that minority, along with the other diversities.