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Who Is on the Cover?
The Demographics of Fictional Picture Books in the Twenty-First Century
Bringing Balance to Selected Topic Areas for an Antiracist Library
Nell Fleming
Graduate School of Library (GSLIS) and Information Science
University of Illinois
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Abstract
Publishers are producing thousands of fiction books per year for children, and of
these approximately half of picture books that are fictional have people on the covers. Of
my sampling, only twelve percent of those books have brown faces on the covers, of
which only four percent are books with clearly defined African Americans on the cover
where the theme is not one of culture, history, race, or racism. The book covers are
equally split between images of girls and boys. Therefore, a brown or black girl can run
across someone who looks like her in a book that might reflect her interest
approximately two percent of the time, not taking into account specifics of the exact
resemblance of the child. Librarians are deciding what to buy based on their school
population, budget, and school publisher availability. The odds a brown girl will run
across a book with a person who looks like her and that she will enjoy based on her own
preferences are indeed quite slim. It is therefore even more vital that we as collection
managers educate ourselves on how to balance the collection demographically for all
children by topic in fiction as well as nonfiction. To do so is to create an environment of
antiracism, which is different than a nonracist environment.
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Table of contents
3-4
I. Who is on the cover?
3-57
Introduction
5-8
Personal bias and experiences
9-13
Student skepticism in the school’s library
13-14
Working definitions
14-16
How it all began
15-17
Quantitative methods
18-35
 Word clouds
23-30
 Preliminary conclusions: 2005 sampling
30
 Cooperative Children Book Center statistics 2005
32
 2012 sampling
34
 Cooperative Children Book Center statistics 2012
35
Understanding racism today and the antiracist view
37
Hunger Games: A discussion with seniors 2011
How many books with white or black faces on the cover are too many?
38
Understanding identity development in white vs. black children
43
Becoming an antiracist librarian
45
The appeal of familiar vs. the appeal of the novel
46
Integration in a small town in 1977
47
The question of books for boys (Girls books, boys books, whose books?)
50
Understanding imagery: using Molly Bang’s framework
51
More Beach Tails
54
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Two examples of what I like to see
55
Things that annoy me
56
Books for baby
57
Scary Covers
57
Books that hide peoples’ faces
58
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II. Who is looking at the cover?
59-83
Understanding the publisher’s view
59
Understanding the consumer’s view
62
Understanding today’s students and their view
64
Kindergarten library time
65
The librarian’s view–questions we must ask ourselves
66
a) Materials selection
67
b) Programming
68
c) Staffing
68
d) Other
70
e) De-selection and Lesson Planning
70
Suggested publishers
72
Suggested titles from the twenty-first century
73
What not to weed
81
Conclusion
84
Appendixes
86
References
87-117
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Introduction
Top 100 Children’s Books of All Time by Children’s Books Guide is one of many
lists created yearly to show beloved and “timeless” children’s books that are published
mostly in the United States in the past century. Of this list, only three books have any
faces other than white on the cover, one of which is a beautifully written landmark book,
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (1962).
The Snowy Day is as elegant a book as Sidney Poitier was an elegant actor. Some
work is so magnificent it cannot be outdone in one’s lifetime; however, this did not
reduce the anguish over forty years of bypassing great work by black actors in favor of
white actors work. When Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won their Academy
Awards in 2002 almost forty years later, it’s no wonder the actor, the first female black
actor to win the award, shed a few tears. The Snowy Day was published in 1962, just
two years earlier than Poitier’s 1964 Academy Award, and it feels as if we are waiting
still for the next timeless performance by a black character in a work of fiction for
children. Though many books with black characters whether supporting, leading,
fictional, or historical have been published in books, few make our timeless lists.
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John Steptoe was one of the first African American author’s to publish a picture
book featuring black characters for a black audience, Stevie (1969) is a book about a boy
who gains and loses a foster brother whom he didn’t grow to like until he was gone.
The racial empowerment movement saw an increase in books about African
American culture and heritage and mainstream publishers continued to publish books
for white people and those for black people separately.
Big Cowboy Western (1965), written by Ann Herbert Scott, her first
book for children, and illustrated by African American illustrator
Richard W. Lewis, was another such book aimed at giving African
American children in the housing projects a positive image despite the emphasis on
guns. In the seventies and eighties a sudden shift to books for white audiences with
supporting characters who are black are seen often, such as Busy People and How they
do their work (1973) which is nine books in one and Up and Down the Escalator (1970).
and some cherished classics were reprinted with text and image changes to reflect this
trend such as the Dick and Jane Reader series of 1965.
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Books with African American Girls on the cover started popping up as the
women’s movement took continued to evolve as well such as
Sara and the Door (1977) and Just Us Women. Reading Rainbow 1983- 2009 with
television host Levar Burton highlighting many good books like Silent Lotus (1994), by
Jeanne M. Lee, a deaf girl from Cambodia. Still, it wasn’t until the nineties and early
twenty-first century that the publishing industry saw leading characters of color for
mainstream audiences with the introduction of Little Bill (1997) and Dora and Diego
(2000).
Note the original illustrations by Varnette P. Honeywood for Little Bill and the
subsequent illustrations that match the television series based on the original book
characters. Once Little Bill went mainstream, the facial features on the characters
became more rounded and symmetrical, whereas the features on the original
illustrations are more influenced by cubism and are boxy with caricature-type faces.
Also notice the original father was dark skinned with a lighter-skinned mother and a
medium Little Bill. The television show has Little Bill looking almost identical to his
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father, both with a lighter hue, and a darker mother. One wonders if the creator had
more control in the television business than in the book-publishing industry over
imagery. But soon after the new millennium Little Bill books became harder for
institutions to buy new unless they specifically identified the books on Amazon. Of
course, with our suggested guidelines of keeping books in the library current, they
fell off the radar—if they had ever been a priority. On top of this, GSLIS faculty in
literature and media literacy courses warn against purchasing books for children based
on popular television series, suggesting that these titles are not quality literature and
warning against the dangers of contributing to the television media market. This advice,
combined with our limited attention span for “niche” publishing, leaves us with the few
books published with brown faces from 2000 to 2013 and counting. A trend of
publishing fewer and fewer books with black and brown faces for the mainstream in the
past decade, combined with a rash of weeding books from the sixties through the
eighties, leaves us with a handful of twenty-year-old picture books on our shelves for our
students of color that are not historical in nature. How far have we come since Nancy
Larrick’s 1965 study “The All-White World of Children’s Books”? And how can we as
librarians address this imbalance in our libraries with the resources currently available
to us?
Personal bias and experiences
In May 2002, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, who could hold her head up
and look at me instantly, a skill most infants do not achieve until one month of life. She
opened her big eyes to look directly and steadily at me. During the first year, people
continued to comment on how observant a baby she was compared to others. Her
pediatrician said the same thing every month when we visited for her monthly
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appointments: “Wow, strong!” And he would grab the chart and double-check her age
because she was always so far ahead developmentally that he assumed he had made a
mistake. Then he would note she was a breastfed baby and say, “Ah, breastfed.” I wish I
could take credit for her achievement by saying I did a bang-up job as a mother by
following a perfect nutrition and exercise plan during pregnancy that, combined with
breastfeeding, created this amazing specimen, but I can’t. This little girl came into the
world ready to achieve, and I only am here to make sure I don’t prevent her or let others
prevent her from succeeding. My little girl is now eleven years old, has attended her first
school dance, and is highly conscious of the frequency in which she feels she “does not
fit in.” Ronnell is biracial, with a white mother (me) and a black father of African
American heritage.
As a mother, special education teacher, and librarian, I am a likely candidate for
helicopter parent, overly involved in every way. I am extremely observant of what goes
on in my child’s life and walk a tightrope between ensuring she is safe from a racist
world and making her tough enough to deal with it. When my husband and I returned
from our honeymoon, a teacher in Illinois asked me many questions about my family’s
reaction to our marriage. She sympathized with my family’s reticence, admitting she
would not let her unborn child date any of my future children. She also wanted me to be
sure I knew she was not racist, just practical.
When Ronnell was in preschool, I heard a whispered conversation between two
adults about me in the hallway corners of an Illinois school when I had asked a purely
academic question of whether her private school, which prided itself on diversity,
wanted to market more to the African Americans in our community (as the school’s
diversity didn’t include but two African American children). My intention was to further
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the school’s stated mission and goals as an advocate for the very cozy and welcoming
school. I thought it was “a best-kept secret” in town. However, within ten minutes
parents and staff huddled in a private panic about whether I was viewing them as racist.
When I overheard their comments I was floored. Merely offering to further the parents’
and staff’s own goals and mission by marketing the school to the African American
community had caused an assumption that I viewed them as racist. It became clear after
further conversations they were terrified of dealing with race and that “multicultural”
and “diversity” meant a few token African American kids. Those at the school clearly
wanted the majority of students to be white.
Living in an interracial family has been an eye-opening experience for me.
Whether it means being followed around in retail stores with my sister-in-law who is
African American or watching my husband be mistaken for the hired help in his own
driveway by the neighbors, or having white women close talk my daughter in the grocery
store to admire her looks of which they feel is complimentary I’m
sure, it is often and adventure just to get through the week.
When her dad takes her places for the first time they are treated very well, but
when I show up everyone becomes silent for a moment. I suppose a lighter-skinned
black daughter of
a darker-skinned
black man is an
appropriate image in white society, but a white woman with a medium-skinned black
child perhaps is unexpected. A six-year-old boy from an Indian family in West Virginia,
where we lived after Illinois, was told he couldn’t play with her anymore because they
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got off the bus holding hands in 2007. In Wisconsin a white four year old boy came into
our garage and told my daughter that white and black people getting married is crazy
and they shouldn’t ever do it. This was in 2011.
After eleven years, going on four years in Wisconsin in the same school system,
children still ask her each time they see me “if I am indeed her biological mother.” Our
society continues to polarize, and discussing race difficult on a good day with friends
and peers, to say nothing of talking to people who are merely colleagues or community
members. Some incidents are so fresh I cannot yet put pen to paper. And yet, in casual
conversation, white person to white person, I and others are expected to agree that
“things are so much better now” and that “racism really only exists in rare and isolated
persons and incidents” and in other states or cities. I am usually forced to agree, lest I
give a lecture or disabuse people of their ignorance by depressing them with the reality
of my family’s personal experiences. Sometimes I am forced to agree that it is better. It’s
at least legal for us to get married, and no one burns a cross in our yard, beats us up or
lynches my husband, so, yes, it is better. This type of thinking however ignores the
layers and layers of racism yet to be unveiled in our society.
These experiences no doubt can jade a mother and make her overprotective and
overly sensitive to issues of race. So when I thought I was seeing a pattern of white
males on the covers of new books in a school library I was volunteering in, I tried to
ignore it. I tried not to remember the day in 2001, when I was pregnant and went into a
Waldenbooks in a mall in Carol Stream, Illinois, asking where the books for babies with
black and brown faces were located. I was shown the only book for children with a black
face on the cover, a Michael Jordan basketball book. As I continued to browse in
contemplation, I watched the employee tell two teens, one Asian and one black, that
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they could not have an application for employment because the store had no openings. I
told her in front of the teens that it was not legal to prevent them from applying for
future work and to go and get the applications for them immediately, which she did at
my request. I then told the teens to call Waldenbooks headquarters and inquire about
which stores might be accepting applications. The teens walked away with looks that
told me this was unlikely to occur. Finally, the clerk told me the store didn’t have a high
need for books of the nature I was looking for and to try a store closer to a dense black
population in the southern suburbs.
I struggle with these associations every time I think I see a pattern. Am I
experiencing a reality of deficiency in what is available to our children, or am I
experiencing a fear response that this might be so? I finally decided to test my theory
and get out of my head and into quantitative research. I started by going to my local
public library that had a friendly staff and atmosphere and had a nice overall selection of
books that felt very balanced to my daughter and me. I pulled out every Halloween book
to peek at the cover while sitting on the floor discussing the upcoming holiday with my
child. I was looking for any non-white face on any Halloween book. This was in 2007.
Out of three rows of Halloween books I only found one book with
any non-white faces on the cover, Halloween Monster, by
Catherine Stock published in 1986, features an African American
family of which the three boys are on the cover. It was then that I
decided a quantitative study of the illustrations in children’s picture books, specifically
the cover photos, [was] timely and appropriate.”
I have provided my daughter from the time she was born with a diverse array of
images and music, cultural and social opportunities. Her first hairdresser was a biracial
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female, and in West Virginia my daughter attended the Heritage Club for African
American girls to learn about their heritage in a Girl Scout-type setting. We attended
Kwanzaa celebrations and activities and learned about history by going to African
American museums. Her pastors were an interracial couple, and her principal for six
months was an African American woman. Her father later got her hooked on Dr. Who, a
BBC series that is now quite interracial. And yet, despite our efforts to read good books
for children of African American heritage, my child still is slightly resistant to any new
book with a picture of someone African American on the cover. Why would this be? Why
does she automatically look slightly uncomfortable every time she sees a black person on
the cover of a book? She’s not alone. Many white and black students of all ages who
come in a library shy away from any picture book with a black face on the cover.
Student skepticism in the school’s library
I am the librarian at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf (WSD) in Delavan,
Wisconsin and hold degrees in both, education of deaf and hard of hearing students, and
an MLA in library and information sciences for this State of Wisconsin position. The
school functions as a public school for students who qualify as deaf or hard of hearing,
have an Individualized Educational Program (IEP), and choose to attend as either
residential or day students. The school serves only residents of Wisconsin, and enrolled
121 students my first year on the job. WSD serves Pre-K-12th grade and houses a postgraduate transition program for returning seniors. I teach library skills and research
skills to all grades as well as run the WESP-DHH Statewide Resource Library at WSD
for all Wisconsin residents. One of my male African American students told me the
other day in response to learning a little bit about pirates who are black, on ships like
Blackbeard’s and the Whydah, “I don’t believe it.” I have no images to show him. Even
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the best scholarly articles and books show more black slaves and white pirates than
black pirates. Even the latest book about the ship Whydah only has a few token images
of black pirates in the background but features a black sailor in the exhibition. This is
non-fiction, of course, but what fiction book have you seen with a picture of a little boy
who is black dressed as a pirate? (hint: 1986 Halloween Monster) Fifty percent of
pirates were black, but no one realizes that because of our imagery. Even our historical
fiction books with brown faces on the cover show either victims or heroes or both. Do
children really want to be heroes? That is dangerous business in the real world. Social
justice is important, but everyday children don’t see themselves as crusaders–nor
should they be required to. Nancy gets to be Fancy, and Uncle Chuck drives a truck, but
Ron is on a mission, and Hannah is following the (quilt) map to freedom. We create an
imbalance by stocking mostly nonfiction and historical fiction books with black faces on
the cover in our libraries. This in turn creates an imbalance in our libraries that affects
our students’ view of themselves and others negatively. When will white, brown and
black children see books with brown faces on the covers as books with characters they
can all identify with? How can we as librarians address this imbalance in our libraries
with the resources currently available to us?
Working definitions
While personal beliefs and philosophies are important, for the purposes of this
paper I will use the following definitions.
Racism—Defined as “institutionalized racism” in this paper. Personal racism,
bias, stereotypes, prejudice, and other forms of discrimination are relevant, but in this
paper, unless otherwise explained, the term racism means the state of the society we live
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in, including libraries, in which the structure is inherently racist until antiracist actions
are taken by members of the privileged group.
Antiracism—Anti-racism is defined as actions taken to improve equality and
fairness for the benefit of all people, including that binary we think of as the white and
black peoples.
Biracial—For the purposes of this paper, biracial means a person with one white
and one black parent unless otherwise identified (i.e., Asian mother, white father).
Black/brown—People from any country or ethnic group whose skin is any
shade of brown. For the purposes of this paper, ethnicity, culture and linguistic
community are broader than the scope of this study. Black is not simply a substitute for
African American but encompasses all people of African heritage.
Ethnicity—People who share the same cultural experience (i.e., Greek, Arabic,
Jewish, Polish)
Fictional picture book—A book for children ages 3 to 10 combining words and
pictures to tell a story that describes imaginary events and people which is commonly
32-pages long.
Heritage group—People who share the same ancestral group (i.e., European
Ancestry, African Ancestry, Asian Ancestry)
Minority Status Groups—Peoples who are or were once a minority population
in the United States who were or are systematically oppressed by the majority or former
majority.
Multiculturalism—Defined by many as “more than one culture” or “many
cultures” or “overlapping cultures,” in practice this term ends up meaning “brown
cultures” and “nonwhite cultures.” Euphemisms for people of color are avoided when
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possible. The term multicultural is used in as limited a way as possible to cite or provide
good resources that may be identified as such.
Multiethnic—A group of diverse people from different cultural groups
synonymous with multi-cultural. Often used to mean more than one heritage group or
racial group and sometimes meant as a euphemism for multiple groups that are “nonwhite”.
White—People of European ancestry of any ethnicity, culture, background or
linguistic community. The word Caucasian is purposefully omitted from this paper due
the term being outdated and implicitly racist due to the origin of the Caucasus as the
original birthplace of mankind which we know to be false. (Kahn 1)
How it all Began
My research comes directly out of my experiences as a mother and a librarian
where I asked myself the question, “How can I bring a balance of perspectives to the
children I work with and my own child as a librarian and a mother?” I ask myself these
kinds of questions consistently throughout my work and my life, whether or not it
relates to coursework, or required or assigned tasks. My questions didn’t become official
research until I had spent a number of months volunteering for a teacher librarian at
Weberwood Elementary School, in Charleston, West Virginia when a computer
malfunction required a re-catalog of a major portion of the elementary library. The work
was repetitive and I saw flashes of titles and covers as I did the data entry required to
help get things back in order for my mentor. Questions began to form in my brain
regarding what I was seeing and I wondered if it was possible to find the answers to
those questions. Combining this with my previous experiences in bookstores, and
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libraries both positive and negative I was left with a desire to find out if my questions
were answerable.
My original proposal included the following questions:
1. It appears to me that white males are overrepresented on covers and in
illustrations, in children’s [fictional] picture books in bookstores and libraries. Is this
the case?
2. Do picture-book collections in school libraries represent the (approximately)
50-50 gender ratio of the larger U.S. society or do they match the gender ratio of a
particular school population?
3. It appears to me that when white female children are represented in picture
books they tend to be red-haired? Where are the brown-haired little girls? (These are
kinds of things I puzzle about in my spare time)
4. The minority-status population as defined by the school district at my
daughter’s school in WV 2007-2009 on their website was twenty-two percent. Would a
balanced collection require the same ratio of picture books showing children of color?
How else might a balanced collection be determined and measured?
5. When interracial couples are represented, I have noticed covers depict a white
male with a minority female. At least four commonly held books illustrate this
depiction: How My Parents Learned to Eatby Ina R. Friedman (1984), Black/White
Just Right by Marguerite W. Davol (1993), Black Is Brown Is Tan Arnold Adoff (1973),
and The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster (2006). How does this reflect (or
not reflect) patterns among interracial couples in the larger U.S. society? In other words,
are we afraid to draw a picture of a black man married to a white woman in children’s
picture books?
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6. In holiday-themed books, how frequently are children of color represented on
the cover? Why does it seem that only white children go trick or treating in books?
Don’t Asian American children trick or treat, too?
7. I have noticed that Little Bill books seem to be out of print. Is there a trend to
stop producing books like Ezra Jack Keats creates with children of color just being
children in the snow, with their dog, with their friends?
These kinds of questions are not new. Some other authors are asking the same
questions. In the book Does Anyone Else Look Like Me? Nakazawa states, “. . . and so I
headed to the bookstore . . . but combing the shelves lead to disbelief, where were the
books . . . geared to multiracial families?” (x) Some of these questions may be answered
by gathering statistical data regarding what has been published and is available through
commonly used vendors. Other questions are more rhetorical or may require more
qualitative methods of evaluation.
Quantitative Methods
2005 sampling methods–Follett Titlewave
My methods for taking the sampling were to use the Follett Titlewave program to
filter my selection as follows using the advanced search function:
 Publication year: 2005
 K-3 and 3-6
 Easy
 Fiction
I saved the titles in what is called a “saved list” in Titlewave. Each single title could have
multiple versions, for example, one book could be offered in hardback, Follett sewn
binding, paperback, and electronic format. These four hits were for only one title.
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Therefore I deleted duplicate versions of the same book as well as books without people
on the covers. This search took the initial results from about 2,500 total hits to about
700 hits. I then eliminated chapter books as well, leaving me with about 616 hits. I later
found four errors, and my final number was 612 fictional picture books published in
2005 and available for sale in 2009 through Follett for my sampling. I used Microsoft
Excel to list the books by title, author, publisher, and topic. (Appendix S) I chose the
topics, such as baseball or bullying, based on two criteria, anything observable on the
cover, and any topics listed by Follett Titlewave. I used up to five topics for each title.
Finally, I took on the task of identifying the demographics of the people on the
covers. I chose the method of identifying whether there was a prominent person on the
cover and listing this. For example, the book Stagestruck by Tomie de Paola has one
person on the cover. Therefore this person is prominent, and this person appears to be a
young white male, so I put 1M under the category of white prominence in the Excel
sheet. (The following examples of prominence are images from both 2005 and 2012
samples.)
No prominence group homogeneous people
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Zero prominence group with more than one heritage group
Equal prominence
Equal prominence with more than one heritage group:
Group with white male prominence
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White female prominence
Equal prominence boy and girl
Group white male prominence
Asian female prominence
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Equal prominence white male/brown male
Black male prominence
Determining what prominence did and didn’t mean and how to categorize mostly
drawn or painted images by racial classification was difficult. Therefore, African
American was not in itself a category, but anyone with “brown or black skin” who wasn’t
otherwise identified as Asian or Native American along with any person of African
heritage regardless of country of origin was listed as “B” for brown/black. Although
Latino is a category worth analyzing, since this category includes both minority-status
and white students, in this case I did not differentiate between black English-speaking,
black Spanish-speaking, and black French-speaking peoples or between brown and
black peoples with any ancestry that is or might be African in heritage. This decision was
made for the following reasons: The scope of this paper is not wide enough to
encompass all of the intricacies of race and ethnicity that exist in reality or to
philosophize on the meaning of race as a social construct. Rather, this paper is exploring
what American children, in their understanding of identity and race, may be seeing
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when they look at the cover of a book. And, percentage-wise the numbers of brown faces
on covers were insignificant enough on the whole to warrant further identifiers. I did
collect data on sex, determining whether the character was male or female initially and
the intersection of race and sex is quite noticeably significant. While books about males
and females were almost equal in number, the books with prominent Native American
males were significantly higher than books with prominent Native American females,
with only one book having a Native American female on the cover—and her back is to
the reader, showing no face. Although it is to be noted that according to Debbie Reese
American Indian peoples are “not people of color” (Reese, We are not people of color),
but are to be identified by their specific heritage groups such as Sioux, Cherokee and
Lakota.
Cover art demographic totals:
 Prominent White Male: 212
 Prominent White Female: 208
 Prominent Black Male: 31
 Prominent Black Female: 43
 Prominent Asian Male: 4
 Prominent Asian Female: 12
 Prominent Native American Male: 4
 Prominent Native American Female: 1
 No Prominence 97
 Total 612
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Word clouds showing the intersection of theme and demographic
prominence
I looked at themes of the books for each category and searched for patterns.
There were indeed patterns to be found. Next I will show you with Wordles, which are
words made into pictures called word clouds at wordle.net. The more times a word is
entered into the database the larger the word appears in the word cloud. I will show a
word cloud for each subsection of my Excel spreadsheet, choosing topics or themes for
each demographic group: white male prominence, black female prominence, Asian
female prominence, zero prominence, and so on. Each book could have up to five
themes or it could have only one theme.
White Male Prominence on Picture Book Covers
There were eighty unique themes or topics identified in the prominent white
male category. Many topics were repeated twice or more, such as superheroes, dogs,
cats, and the first day of school. Some were not repeated, such as fishing, theater,
rockets, and the tooth fairy. None of the topics appeared to be related to race or race
relations, and the topics related to culture were primarily religious in nature. The easiest
to identify themes using the Worldle are humor, Christmas, toddlers, behavior, life,
schools, dogs, and babies.
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(Wordle of themes for Prominent White Males)
White Female Prominence on Picture Book Covers
Themes for White Females were slightly more repetitive and sex role-oriented,
but still a large number of themes was present. Sisters, daughters, friendship, babies,
bedtime, and imagination stand out well.
(Worldle of themes for Prominent White Females on Book Covers)
Black Male Prominence on Picture Book Covers
For Prominent Black males there were only twenty themes that were not related
to culture, history, or race/race relations. Notice that Historical Fiction is one of the
largest themes in the cloud below. Other easy to identify themes are racially mixed
people, African Americans, schools, war, moving, birthdays and brothers and sisters.
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(brown and black skinned males prominent on picture book covers)
Black Female Prominence in Picture Books
The books written by and about people with African Ancestry do indeed have
more variety of themes associated with the few books that are published from year to
year. However, the numbers are still extremely low compared to the default category of
White Male/White Female.
(brown and black skinned female prominence)
Native American/American Indian’s Prominence on Picture Book Covers
None of the books with Native American Males or Asian Males had any themes at
all that were not related to ethnicity, race, culture or history. I learned by this sampling
there are not enough books written about people who are Native American from year to
year to do a proper analysis, other than to show the gaping deficiency indicating the
need for fiction books to be written about American Indians living a contemporary life.
Fleming 27
The best analysis of books that are culturally accurate, not offensive, and recommended
by tribally enrolled persons can be found on Debbie’s Reese’s website. She also refers to
the Oyate.org site and other websites that recommend good books. Whether or not
American Indians feel a need for the kind of general All-American depictions other
minority-status groups might enjoy of which I am highlighting is uncertain. Suffice it to
say, at this time, I have found none available in my sampling or on recommended
resource lists.
Male Native American/American Indian Prominence on Picture Books
(Female Native American/American Indian Prominence on Picture Books)
I typed the word Non-existent in five times, an equal number to the five themes
present in the single book in my sampling for effect. If I typed it in as many times as I
Fleming 28
had other books in my sampling, 612 times, the themes disappear and cannot be read,
but look like tiny little dots on the page.
This is only about 20:1 ratio and already you can see how unreadable the word cloud has
become. I wanted to show this to make the point, that one book can get lost among a sea
of other books when a child or professional is faced with their options in a book store or
library. How likely will you be to even run across it and then if you do, you have once
chance to match that book with your own tastes and requirements.
No Prominent face or people on the cover of a fictional picture book with at
least one brown or black face on the cover.
There were also ninety books with no prominent faces, either groups of faces, or
two to three equally prominent faces. Of these, only fifteen of those books had equally
Fleming 29
prominent or tokenized brown or black faces on them. As you can see the themes for
(No prominent face or person on the cover)
these fifteen books are equal in size and fairly diverse. This seems to be the safe way to
publish for multiple audiences and is a melting pot approach.
No prominent face or person on the cover
Seventy-five of the ninety books with no prominent face on the cover which
depicted only white people in groups on the cover included the following themes:
Friendship, life, family, sisters, brothers, and Halloween .
(No prominent face on a the cover only white people)
Asian Male prominence on Picture Book Covers
China is a common ethnic group in the sampling I took.
Fleming 30
(Asian Male Prominence on Picture Book covers)
Asian Female Prominence on Picture Book covers
Asian Females are more popular to write about, perhaps due to the large number
of Chinese girls adopted in the United States, but this is purely conjecture on my part.
Themes were more plentiful and the more popular ethnic group is Korean and
Hawaiian, and other popular themes were grandmothers with the rest of the themes in
isolation or in pairs.
(Asian female’s prominent on book covers)
Preliminary Conclusions (Follett sampling of books published in 2005)
I started by gathering data to see if the statistics would answer some or all of
these questions. Were white males overrepresented in picture books for children in the
Fleming 31
first decade of the twenty-first century? I found that, yes, this was a pattern I was indeed
seeing. (Appendix A) Out of 612 picture books identified as for sale by Follett Titlewave
published in the mean year of 2005 with people on the cover 212 had a white male as the
predominant character for the work. It also appeared with 208 of those books
portraying white females on the cover that the numbers were about 50-50 with girls
being equally represented. Although I still feel I am seeing a lot of red-headed girls in
the media and in books, overall my data did not support this theory of the sampling I
took, and the scope of this project has been narrowed to focus on race and not sex or
hair color. The total number of minority representation in this sampling of book covers
was 16.7 percent, including all demographics other than white of both sexes. This is
considerably lower than the twenty-two percent minority at the school in West Virginia
where I volunteered and the forty-nine percent minority in the Wisconsin school district
where we are living now. The latter mirrors national statistics: In 2007, 40 percent of
elementary students were minorities according to CBS News and projected to
outnumber white children by 2023. (Minority Kids Could Be Majority by 2023 1).
My question about interracial couples depicted on covers is a moot point in this
study, as there were no interracial couples shown on the cover of any of the books taken
in the sampling and only a handful, two or three books, with biracial children as a topic
or theme. In holiday-themed books there was an increase in the sampling of brownskinned characters on the cover if you take into account the numerous books on favorite
TV characters such as Dora the Explorer and Diego that are included in the sampling.
This accounted for two books with prominently placed brown-skinned Latino
characters. There were also books with token brown-skinned characters or of equal
prominence with white characters, as in the case of The Bake Shop Ghost by Jacqueline
Fleming 32
K. Ogburn, which does quadruple the number of books identified in this decade that are
at least available for purchase on my original data collection in the topic of Halloween.
My final question was one of books like The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and
the Little Bill television character series, popular in the nineties, which seem available
only sparsely through school purchasing agents. Although I found no Little Bill books
available published in 2005 and available in 2009 through Follett Titlewave, there were
a few books of the type in question available for purchase such as Denise Fleming’s The
First Day of Winter and My Pumpkin by Julia Noonan as well as Not Norman: A
Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett. There were approximately fourteen books with brown
and black boys on the cover that might have fallen into this category out of 612 books.
This data gave me the information I needed to continue to look at the small selection of
books published with minority faces on the cover that did not include historical,
cultural, or race related themes. Although such themes are extremely important in
education and have their own set of deficiencies such as the lack of black pirate images
in historical accounts despite the knowledge that up to fifty percent of pirates were black
and repetitive stories and themes such as Martin Luther King biographies and Rosa
Parks stories are necessary, but they are overdone in the face of so many historical
figures to choose from in the history of Black America. However, my scope is limited to
fiction that is not historical in nature with people on the cover, so that is the deficiency I
wish to address and its impact on students’ views of themselves and others.
I am now able to say, yes indeed, I am seeing a pattern. I am also able to say, yes,
there are some books being published, but I am going to have to work harder to identify
them, review them, and get them purchased to build a balanced antiracist collection for
our students.
Fleming 33
CCBC statistics for 2005
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center located at the School of Education,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, publishes yearly statistics on all children’s books
published in the United States, acquired by CCBC, written by and about African
Americans, Asians, Native Americans, and Latino authors and subjects. Although not
limited to picture-book covers their statistics mirror my own. In 2005, the year of my
sampling, there were approximately 5,000 books published for children and young
adults. Of these 5,000 the CCBC acquired 2,800 of these books. Of these, only 157 books
were published with content about African Americans, only 34 about Native Americans,
64 about Asian/Pacific Americans, and 76 about Latino Americans. These statistics
show an interestingly low trend in publishing and includes non-fiction, chapter books,
young adult titles and titles by authors who are minorities as well as the fictional picture
books. Although my study doesn’t look at content, and a brown face on the cover doesn’t
necessarily mean the book is about an African American or Latino-exclusive topic, the
two sets of statistics are related in that minority authors do not have the same power of
voice that authors who are white have when it comes to children’s book publishing.
What is significant about the findings for these groups of books and authors is the
number of minority authors who were able to publish outside of racial, ethnic, or
cultural content. Out of the seventy-five books published with African American
authors, only twelve of those books had content that was not African American related.
Of those twelve, two were nonfiction, two were about cultures other than their own, and
only six of the remaining eight were picture books. Six books out of 5,000 can be
reported as having been authored by an African American that does not have a topic of
African American-related content in 2005. Of these six authors, only one is female, and
Fleming 34
she is a celebrity—Jada Pinkett Smith. This same trend can be seen for all minority
authors from year to year.
Children's Books By and About People of Color Published in the U.S.
2002-12
Total
Number
Number
of Books African/
of Books
Year
Received African
Published
at CCBC Americans
(Est.)
By About
Latinos
By About
Asian
Pacifics/
Asian
Pacific
Americans
By About
American
Indians
2002 5,000
3,150
69 166
6 64
46 91
48 94
2003 5,000
3,200
79 171
11 95
43 78
41 63
2004 5,000
2,800
99 143
7
33
61 65
37 61
2005 5,000
2,800
75 149
4 34
60 64
50 76
2006 5,000
3,000
87 153
14 41
72 74
42 63
2007 5,000
3,000
77 150
6 44
56 68
42 59
2008 5,000
3,000
83 172
9 40
77 98
48 79
2009 5,000
3,000
83 157
12 33
67 80
60 61
2010 5,000
3,400
102 156
9 22
60 64
55 66
2011 5,000
3,400
79 123
12 28
76 91
52 58
2012 5,000
3,600
68 119
6 22
83 76
59 54
By About
Sampling—2012 Follett Titlewave
It has been four years since my sampling was taken, and eight years since these
books were published. Therefore it is vital that we look at some statistics in 2012 to see
Fleming 35
what changes are taking place. I took a second sampling using the same criteria in the
same venue, Follett Titlewave in the fall of 2013 of books published in 2012. Out of
2,500 hits I identified 258 individual titles with people on the covers. 33 of the books
with people on the cover who have brown, black or tan skin. Once I removed folktales,
historical fiction, and books focused on race, culture, or immigration, I was left with
nine books. Of these, six have African American females on the cover and two have
African American males (with one a biracial male) and one book that was somewhat
ambiguous. These numbers reflect a trend of declining publication for minorities in
children’s fiction. The biggest change I see is in how many books have people on the
covers at all. Are publishers avoiding the issue of race during this climate of racial
polarization?
Total books with people on the cover = 258
White Males = 100
White Females = 99
Black male = 17 (2)
Black Female = 17 (6)
Asian Male = 4
Asian Female = 2
Native American/American Indian Male & Female = 0
Zero Prominence = 11
Ambiguous and Hidden faces = 8
CCBC 2012
Fleming 36
The estimated publishing of children’s books for 2006-12 holds steady at 5,000
per year, with the number of books received by the group steadily increasing from year
to year. Despite an all-time high in 2011 and 2012 of receiving 3,600 of these books at
the center, in 2012 only 68 books were written by African Americans, an all-time low
since 1990, with a total of only 119 books being written for that year. Does this mean
that more or fewer picture books have black and brown faces on the covers of titles
without specific minority content?
Children's Books By and About People of Color Published in the U.S.
2002-12
Total
Number
Number
of Books African/
of Books
Year
Received African
Published
at CCBC Americans
(Est.)
By About
Latinos
By About
Asian
Pacifics/
Asian
Pacific
Americans
By About
American
Indians
2002 5,000
3,150
69 166
6 64
46 91
48 94
2003 5,000
3,200
79 171
11 95
43 78
41 63
2004 5,000
2,800
99 143
7
33
61 65
37 61
2005 5,000
2,800
75 149
4 34
60 64
50 76
2006 5,000
3,000
87 153
14 41
72 74
42 63
2007 5,000
3,000
77 150
6 44
56 68
42 59
2008 5,000
3,000
83 172
9 40
77 98
48 79
2009 5,000
3,000
83 157
12 33
67 80
60 61
2010 5,000
3,400
102 156
9 22
60 64
55 66
By About
Fleming 37
2011 5,000
3,400
79 123
12 28
76 91
52 58
2012 5,000
3,600
68 119
6 22
83 76
59 54
(Reproduced and inverted with permission)
http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp
In the following section I’m going to show the real life impact how the imbalance of
imagery affects our perceptions regarding race.
Understanding racism today and the antiracist view
Hunger Games: A discussion with seniors in 2011
Thanks to the Obama administration, overt verbal racism is back in the forefront
of our consciousness, and the Internet is full of hate speech and illogical arguments
about race and racial images. The movie The Hunger Games was an example of
character imagery not matching public perception, regardless of the accuracy of the
book’s description of the character in question, not to mention the author’s own
approval of the actor selection. My own students came to class irate about how a black
person could be cast in a role where she clearly didn’t “look like” she was supposed to. I
used this as an opportunity to go back to the source, and I asked them to read aloud the
character description in the book. It described a brown-skinned girl with curly hair. My
students were stunned, since they hadn’t remembered this description. I asked them
what the problem with the casting was for them, and they said that the character was
also described as having “looked just like” a blonde girl and that if they looked alike they
wouldn’t be the same color. Again, I sent them back to the source to find the English.
Our class was Research and Inquiry for high school seniors and for them English
is a second language, so we sought out the vocabulary to discuss definitions. The
vocabulary in question was the word “resembled.” I asked the students what the word
Fleming 38
means, and their translation to their language was “looks like.” So, we discussed the
difficulties with translation and other possible meanings. I asked the students if they
had family members with different hair colors that they resembled, facial expressions,
body postures, facial features, etc. The students, who were all white except for one
biracial boy, started to discuss the complexities of resembling ones family members. I
asked if a black person can ever look like a white person. They adamantly said, “No!” I
asked them, “Do you remember my daughter?” (I have pictures up on my office door.)
They nodded affirmatively, and some smiled because they have seen her around. I
asked, “Does she look like me?” Their facial expressions then changed to one of “Oh
yeah” surprise and revelation. The one biracial boy in the room who rarely spoke or
participated let out a loud guffaw.
The students’ perception of race combined with their use of language had created
a barrier to their abilities to see connections between white and black people. These
were students who are relatively used to differences, accepting and tolerant. The
students simply had a blind spot. Without shaming anyone I was able to facilitate a
discussion where the students could come to their own conclusions. This, of course,
requires a trust level and a comfort level with discussions about race we are generally
unaccustomed to.
How many books with white or black faces on the cover are too many?
The job of an antiracist person is to become comfortable with discussing race,
analyzing race, making mistakes along the way, and taking risks to create a more
balanced and fair society. Part of this process is seeking out resources, becoming
educated and shifting priorities. Currently, the total enrollment of our school is 100
students. This makes percentages easy to figure, and is twenty – one students less than
Fleming 39
we had four years ago. Our elementary has 35 students; middle school has 21 students
and the high school 46 students. The elementary has 20 percent minority-status
students, the middle school has 42 percent minority-status students and the high school
has 39percent minority-status students. Overall, out of 100 students our school
currently enrolls 34 percent minority-status students. These numbers fluctuate often
between 20-40percent due to our lower overall numbers. Our high school however, has
18 out of 46 students who are minority-status which leaves only 28 white students in
our high school. That is only 10 more white students to provide for in our library for
high school level reading, and of those students who identify as white some have
families who speak a language other than English at home. Our lower minority-status
numbers in the elementary department currently reflect more day students from local
counties than residential students which we pull from three or more urban areas, and
one or more First Nation reservations state-wide. These numbers were higher just a few
years ago when our middle school students were in elementary school. Residential
placement can begin as early as kindergarten but more commonly students arrive
between 4th and 9th grade for residential placement.
In my school library I have attempted to fill several deficiencies in my first three
years on the job. After a particularly large order had been processed I made a display of
new books without any specific theme—just a celebration of new titles of diverse topics,
both fiction and nonfiction, with several brown faces on the covers. The reaction was
swift and immediate. First, 60 percent of the high school students who are black came to
the library as well as 50 percent of the Latino students of which all but one were boys,
and immediately checked out large numbers of books in various genres. Some were
books with brown faces, but interestingly they chose a diverse collection of books. In a
Fleming 40
library where high school students older than age of 14 are rarely seen, this was quite a
change. I then had a student, who is white; get really interested in a fiction series with a
main character that is black. He requested the rest of the series through interlibrary
loan. Another student requested the purchase of more Bluford High titles, another
series we had recently acquired.
An adult, who viewed an exhibit of new books, felt I had gone overboard with the
purchasing of books with black faces on the covers. Furthermore, she felt the displays
were disproportionate to the population we serve. My first reaction was to deal with the
complaint in a neutral quantitative manner. I first counted the books on display and
found out of forty-three books on display there were only five books with brown faces in
the current display. I then counted the total number of books with African American
content, taking note on which books were already here before I was hired such as the
Bluford High Series ordered by our former reading specialist. I used the library catalog
to pull subject headings and measured the percentage against the total number of books
in the library. For the subject heading of “African American” out of 12, 821 individual
titles/items in the library we have 244 titles which are classified as “African American”
at 0.01 percent of our collection. Examples of deficiencies I filled are as follows:
Professional Items

Deaf Black Students: A Model for Educational Success
 Sounds like home: growing up Black and deaf in the South
 The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: its history and structure
Biographies & History
Fleming 41

Transcending Race in America: Biographies of Biracial Achievers Series
(recommended by a public librarian when I was a student in Kanawha county
WV)


Americans of South American heritage by Karen Schweitzer. (free from
conference giveaways)
Barack Obama: out of many, one by Corey, Shana. (Most Recent President)

Black History Playing Cards (a donation)

Bill Cosby by Sonja Kimble Ellis (Our biography was thirty years old, I replaced it
with a current biography)
Elementary & Middle School Chapter Books

Ghost Dad by Mel Cabulash (a donation)

Julian stories by Ann Cameron (requested by white male student)

Sassy! Little Sister is not my name by Sharon Draper (My daughter’s suggestion)

Singing hands by Delia Ray (deaf characters, Deaf pastor of both white and black
deaf churches)
Graphic Novels

Yummy the last days of a Southside shorty (requested by teacher at WSD)
Picture Books

An Angel Just like Me by Mary Hoffman (One of my personal favorites)

Days of Adventure by Lyn Swanson Natsuez (Little black girl dressed as pirate on
cover)

Dora goes to School (Shows black female teacher on the cover)

Dora’s Thanksgiving (Shows brown skinned family including father on the cover)

Dora’s Starry Christmas (Shows dark brown skinned Santa)
Fleming 42

Gracias Thanksgiving (Shows dark brown skinned Latino boy on the cover)

My People by Langston Hughes (Golden Archer Award Winner, purchased for
Children’s book week)

A Rainy Day to Remember by Kitty Fross (Little Bill) (free through bookmooch)

Saltypie by Tim Tingle ((recommended by Debbie Reese) Choctaw
History/Indian boarding schools)
Board Books

Dora’s Halloween (free through bookmooch)

Valentine’s for Everyone by Chris Gifford (A Dora Book)
Cook Books

Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories by Patty Pinner (Books are Fun
purchased on credit–Black American Culture- Michigan)
A complete listing of books which I purchased for all ages and all topics, fiction and nonfiction to fill deficiencies that included racial, heritage groups and ethnicities is included
in the bibliography.
These samples stand out in my memory as being on display at one time or
another, during the first three years I worked at WSD. The percentage of books owned
both previously and newly purchased was considerably lower than the 36 percent
percentage of students who were enrolled who were brown or black in 2011 or the 34
percent in 2013. After that I took qualitative data and asked other persons to do their
own looking around and tell me what they thought about the balance of the collection.
There were not additional red flags.
Fleming 43
It made me wonder, how does one measure balance? Are all black books indeed
only for a black audience? I don’t think so, but many people do, either consciously or
unconsciously. Imagine a library containing 95 percent books with brown faces on the
covers and only five percent of books with white faces, of which half depicted white
males. Of this 2½ percent of books depicting white males, all but six of the books were
nonfiction or historical fiction. Would we tell the white student, “It’s OK, it’s not about
color, it’s about the story,” the way we do for our students of color? How indeed do we
measure what balance means? To do this requires stepping outside our comfort zone
and doing things differently than we normally do. The goal isn’t a color-blind library,
but the goal is a library with books about different kinds of people sharing similar
experiences.
What does it mean to be antiracist? According to Beverly Tatum, it is easy for
most white Americans to think of at least a handful of racist celebrities if asked.
However, when she asked, “Think now of a nationally known white person you would
consider to be an antiracist activist, a white man or woman who is clearly identifiable as
an ally to people of color in the struggle against racism. Do you find yourself drawing a
blank?” (Tatum Teaching White Students)
Not being racist and being antiracist are very different things. To be antiracist
one must, according to definition, hold, “beliefs, actions, movements, and policies
adopted or developed to oppose racism” (“antiracism”). How many antiracist librarians
do you know? What do they do in the field? What can you do?
Identity development in white vs. minority status children
The identity development of children is a largely unconscious process with stages
that include Erickson’s Industry vs. Inferiority Stage in children ages 5-11. (Cherry 4)
Fleming 44
Most children during this stage of development ideally will develop a belief in their own
abilities and a strong self-perception. This is the time where it is vital to provide
opportunities for all children to view themselves as part of the world. For white students
this is more commonly achieved without confusion, as their sense of whom they are is
tied to cultural traditions and family heritage. A sense of comfort, stability, and
familiarity exists in most areas of home and school life culturally despite other
hardships. For students of color in the United States, this process is rarely unconscious
and often confusing. If they identify with white cultural ideals, is this good or bad, what
parts of their heritage will be a source of strength and not anxiety, what will be familiar
and or comfortable, and what will they be expected to do when it isn’t? What other
variables are in play for these students: Are they poor or middle class, English-speaking,
and/or from another region of the country or the world, are their ancestors known to
them or unknown, what is their religious background, if any, and what is their family’s
current status in the community?
Race and gender constancy, according the Beverly Tatum, is achieved and fixed
by the age of seven. Children may have questions prior to this constancy such as “Do I
have to be black?” (Tatum, Assimilation Blues 43) that may come up in preschool or
kindergarten. “To the question of why he asked, he responded, ‘I want to be chief of
paramedics.’ His favorite TV show at the time featured paramedics and firefighters, all
of whom were white” (43). Tatum continues to explain how media messages, colorism in
the black community, or other dominant culture messages can be countered in order for
children to achieve a healthy sense of identity in both the stage of race-and-gender
constancy and the Industry vs. Inferiority stages.
Fleming 45
Becoming an Antiracist Librarian
Countering those messages is everyone’s job. Being an antiracist librarian means
not only accepting and valuing every child and family regardless of race or social class
and providing accurate historical images, but also providing a constant vigil to avoid the
binary of the black student as victim and white student as oppressor. This doesn’t mean
we avoid or downplay history. On the contrary, the kinds of work we do for students’
self-image and identity development are key for them to handle the important work we
will do with history and current events. However, going into the dark past or the dark
present with students who have undeveloped identities who are confused by the
unfamiliar and mixed messages is like taking a boat trip in a storm without a radio or a
life vest.
Efforts to provide anti-bias curriculum are vitally important, and engaging
students in discussions about race and racial injustice is as much so, but if you haven’t
made it to that level in your classroom or library it might be because you are not
comfortable yourself with the issues and how to deal with the magnitude of race and its
impact on our society. In fact, the state of society and the condition our students arrive
to school in are primarily outside of our control. That, in turn, can make the job of
engaging students on these topics feel as if it might get out of control, too, but being
aware of imagery and making the environment familiar and comfortable are not beyond
our reach. It is also not a low priority despite the demands of today’s curriculum and
instructional goals. In order to even begin to reach our goals, we need to level the
playing field in something as simple as checking out a picture book to read.
Fleming 46
The appeal of familiar and the appeal of the novel
You may wonder how can a well-stocked library with books representing children
from every walk of life not naturally be comfortable to any child. Is it really that big of a
deal? Aren’t black students used to living in a white-dominant world? Isn’t a piece of
good literature with a white character just as good for black students as it is white?
Some of us just resort to books with animal characters or books with large groups of
students for those first days of the school year. I think the answer really is: It depends.
Some students may accept the situation and be delighted on those rare occasions
when a character reflects their values or their person, while others may reject reading
for entirely different reasons and never contemplate the scenario. Despite this, there are
many who do notice—they just aren’t telling you about it. In Varian Johnson’s blog entry
Where Are All the Black Boys he states,
“I grew up in a time when there were very few books for young people featuring
people of color. There's no way to describe how it feels NOT to see yourself in
books. There's no way to describe how it feels NOT to see other authors that look
like you writing books. As someone that had wanted to be an author since I was
in second grade, it was . . . crushing. Hell, it's still crushing. Have you ever
scanned the shelves at your local bookstore? If the real world were like the YA
section, I wouldn't exist” (Johnson, Varian).
Our students ages 4-11 may not be able to articulate this feeling to us. They may
not even realize what is bothering them or that we could do anything about it. Our white
students, too, are potentially damaged by this, their own identities inflated in our
microcosms only to find out later in life that the world is changing and they feel
somehow they have lost something that maybe wasn’t really even there to begin with.
Fleming 47
Those white students who understand the injustice are also hurt by this. It’s the same as
survivor guilt: Why do I get something that someone else doesn’t?
Integration in a small town in 1977
I was one of these children and spent years feeling miserable and powerless that I
could not change the injustice. My feelings of powerlessness started in 1977 in a small
Southern Illinois town on the first day our school integrated blacks and whites, more
than twenty years after the law required desegregation. I watched as terrified black
students stood tense, waiting to see how they would be engaged, while white students
hung back in whispering circles with wide eyes also wondering if violence would ensue. I
was naïve and curious and asked my white friend directly why she considered one young
black boy “mean.” He certainly looked mean, with clenched fists and a frown that was
paralyzing. She matter-of-factly told me “Because he’s black!” To which my mind reeled,
and I instinctively rejected this notion, but felt powerless to fight the belief. Twenty
years later I had the opportunity to ask the young man how he was feeling that day, and
he laughed with me and said, “Damn right I was terrified! I was clinching my fists to be
ready for a beat down.” I was a blonde-headed, white female from a middle-class family
with as much privilege as you could get, and the inequality of race hurt me as young as
age seven.
We underestimate our youth. Books with black faces showing happy children
engaging in real life, modern-day activities are for little blonde-headed boys and girls,
too. So whose imagery are we seeking? When faced with challenges of selecting good
books for children in topic areas or demographic areas we are not familiar with, titles
Fleming 48
such as “Five Books That Build Confidence in African American Children” (Amanda,
Unknown last name)
1. Black All Around by Patricia Hubbell, illustrated by Don Tate (2003)
2. As Fast As Words Could Fly by Pamela M. Tuck, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (2007)
3. Chess Rumble by G. Neri, illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson
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4. The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children By David Adedjouma,
Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (1996)
5. The Jones Family Express by Javaka Steptoe (2003)
sound very appealing, and so we follow the path to the resources with every intention of
filling a deficiency. The website we are reading was recommended by yours truly and
has an excellent selection of books for black, Latino and other minority-status groups.
The books are pieces of quality literature and the first two books listed get our attention.
The first book is a celebration of the color black, the second celebrating the antiracist
activities of a black writer. Then we see the third book, and with my mind on the
historical south in Greenville I read about a troubled boy who may be escaping a gang.
The next book is a book of poetry by African American Children, and then finally a book
about an African American family and relatives coming to town in an urban setting. I
start looking at the images on the covers and the topics and wondering if any of these
books would truly feel safe or familiar to the children in my family or whom I work with.
I start wondering if these repetitive urban and historical themes are really going to do
what the title suggests for every child, which is build confidence. What if the child has
never known hardship or has never been to a city? Neither do all black and brown
peoples live in urban settings nor are the people all poor. In fact, “blacks comprise 22
percent of the poor, but blacks only take in 14 percent of government benefits.
Conversely, whites make up 42 percent of the poor but take in a disproportionate 69
Fleming 50
percent of government benefits” (Carnell 1). Yet publishers persist in depicting urban
settings with poor families in themes for picture books about people of color.
The Question of Books for Boys (Girls books, boys books, whose books?)
Books about boys who survive gang violence may not appeal to the suburban
black child who is the only one in his class. How will that feel if the book is
recommended to him by an adult or purchased for him? The boy may ask himself, “Does
she think I’m in a gang? Does she think I’m like him?” We have to think critically about
our audience with what we purchase, which is not a one-size-fits-all package. Will these
books create confidence about black people and their ability to survive injustice in white
children? What about the black child who is growing up in a small Appalachian town,
listens to country music, and whose dad worked on a barge? Will the child relate?
White children need to see themselves as strong enough to handle tough urban
settings, too. What picture books show white children as strong enough to survive gang
violence? I can’t say I’ve often seen picture books for children that showed intense
activism on the part of a white child to better their own community in order to pull
oneself up by his bootstraps but there are a few. Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
come to mind but again, poor white children live in Appalachia in books but not in the
Urban or suburban areas. There are a few that show friendships despite the odds with
people from other heritage groups and questions of race in difficult situations, but
overall images and stories do not depict modern white youth as concerned with the their
own poverty and black youth overly focused on such matters. I believe that a balance of
comfort and discomfort is in order. We’ve mastered the discomfort for books with black
characters and mastered comfort for books with white characters. Now it’s time to
balance the playing field.
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Understanding imagery and pictures using Molly Bang’s framework
It is very hard, as Perry Nodelman discovered in his book Words about Pictures,
to describe the science of imagery using words. It might be easier to describe pictures
with pictures, but as a people tied to verbal language we are stuck with an imperfect
system. The best attempt to use both words and pictures to analyze multiple meanings
of images that I have seen to date is Molly Bang’s groundbreaking work Picture This:
How Pictures Work. Bang uses “Little Red Riding Hood” as an example of how pictures
are built. She started with simple shapes, such as a red triangle to represent “red riding
hood” and asked herself questions about its shape, size, and color. She asked herself “Is
it huggable?” (8) and decided that, no, it has sharp edges. She analyzes how red feels
and comes up with a disparate array of choices, including danger and vitality. She
discusses the overlapping subjective and objective reasons why these reactions may exist
in one person for such a simple shape as a little red triangle. Making the triangle
rounded made it huggable, and changing the size in relation to the other objects made it
more or less vulnerable. What do you see when you look at the following Little Red
Riding Hood Images on book covers of various retellings?
Which one of these images feels warm and safe? The image on the far left has
warm colors, and riding hood is centered in the middle surrounded by birds and flowers.
She appears fairly safe at the moment. The next image to the right has a Red Riding
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Hood looking at a rounded and friendly wolf, and though her position is cautious to his
mischief she appears likely to come out OK. The third Riding Hood has a face that is
hidden. The title, a play on words, is needed to know this is indeed the same fairy tale.
However, the image would not give it away. The car approaching from the shadows with
Riding Hood, a small figure alone, seems more ominous. Her size and location,
combined with the title, let you know this tale is not a cozy read. The last image on the
far depicts a brunette Riding Hood with brown eyes and olive skin, and her position is
centered, though the relationship to the trees is not warm and inviting but relatively
unknown. The woods loom behind her in anticipation, her expression one of uncertainty
rather than a smile. The same woods may not provide the same experience for all who
enter. I can’t help but notice her physical appearance, at least on the cover, is racially
ambiguous. I know the author is of Jewish heritage and I know from the story inside
that she is what we would consider white, but I am intrigued by the illustrator’s choice
to make her ambiguous on the cover.
When we see an image we have an emotional response. This response in some
ways is unique to our person and in other ways measurably the same from person to
person.
 For stability and calm we tend to enjoy “smooth, flat, and horizontal shapes”
(Bang 42).
 And “the upper half of the picture is a place of freedom, happiness, and
triumph” (Bang 54).
 “Light backgrounds feel more safe than dark backgrounds, and the center of the
book gets our attention the best” (Bang 68).
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 The strongest emotions felt come from the colors chosen in the images (Bang
74).
Look at these two books about families on “a beach”:
When I pulled images for my sampling, the book on the left came up over and
over again in my emotional center as one I would like to read. The characters are
centrally located, and yet they are perched in the top half of the cover, in a top window
of the house (sense of happiness), and the colors are soft and warm and light, giving a
sense of security. The images are smooth, and the house is fairly flat. The girl is also
higher than the boy, and they look middle class, which I am, so this book calls to me as
one I would enjoy. Imagine my surprise to read the reviews and find out it is a story
about a family whose summer home is destroyed by a hurricane!
The book on the right is very popular, a Caldecott Honor book. The illustrations
appear pleasing, and the family is placed in the “happiness, freedom” area on the roof of
the image. The scene is one of a pleasant moment. The colors are dark because it is
nighttime, and the shapes are varied but fairly flat evoking stability. Emotionally,
however, the dark colors combined with dark faces evoked the opposite emotional
response in me that said, “That book might be about unhappy things.” It has not yet
circulated in my school library despite having been put on display and being shelved in a
special Caldecott book area. I am assured that it is sensational and yet I still haven’t
Fleming 54
chosen it for story-time and students even when directed to the Caldecott Area as a
focus area for the week regularly reject it.
Books about a father’s love for his son
The book cover on the right has the color of the sun permeating to show the heat
of the desert, a father and son in traditional dress of a people in a faraway land and
perhaps a distant past. The book on the left, another beach scene with blue skies,
comfortable yellow grasses, and sand with soft, rounded places, looks windy, but
comfortable. The scene on the right looks like it might require a lot of stamina to
survive. Which scene does an American child relate to as his or her own experience?
More Beach Tails
In an effort to try and find a single book with a black child on the cover at a
traditional beach vacation I started using the Internet the way my students do—as a
large fishing net with Google or Dogpile.com—and tried every key word I knew to find a
single book. I was actually surprised to find any results, but I did find one, A Beach Tail
by Karen Williams, and it is recently published. The soft, round edges, with the warm
browns and tans and the child large and centered but engrossed in his play, makes this
book a more likely grab-and-go choice for a child than Papa Do You Love Me or Tar
Beach. If I had first gone to the Brown Bookshelf, I would have found A Beach Tail
under a LibraryThing list of recommended titles. This book is currently available only at
Fleming 55
Walmart. It gives me the same sense of warmth as some of the other
beach books about children and families. I cannot find this title
available through Titlewave, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any other
book site I typically frequent for purchases at work. I would have to
make a special request to order this book as a state purchaser.
Lee & Low Publishing also has a book with biracial child characters on a beach vacation,
though it is hard to tell by looking at the thumbnail cover.
Two great examples of what I like to see
The book My Cat Copies Me was written in Korea and translated and is now
available in the United States. The book is fun, realistic, and yet entirely fictional. A little
girl plays with her cat, and her cat follows her around, copying her. The illustrations are
clear and colorful with a fun feeling. The light-colored sky in the background with the
girl and the cat on top of the bookshelf feels light and happy, and despite the slanting it
feels safe but exciting. The distinct outline of the drawings is unique and gives a sense of
precision and stability. What a novel concept, a book with a Korean girl, who is just
Fleming 56
playing with her cat! To obtain this book I had to purchase myself through Amazon and
donate it to my library.
Thank you, Spike Lee and Kadir Nelson, for drawing a book cover with an allAmerican theme of two kids playing with their puppy. In Please, Puppy, Please we again
see light colors, a blue sky, and a sense of relaxation, stability, and happiness. The puppy
is clearly in charge, but that’s OK. Luckily for our students, the book was available
through Scholastic, and we used book fair points to obtain it. And thank you for drawing
these children to look like human beings—as opposed to the following images, which
make me wonder who is drawing little girls to look like they have misshapen footballs
for heads.
Things that annoy me
The green color on the left is reminiscent of lima-bean color, and the girl’s body is
oddly shaped with broad shoulders and small hips and legs similar to a caricature of a
superhero. The second image is somewhat playful, the warm orange a safe feel with
Fleming 57
mom in her blue robe in the background, hand on her hip with a broom a promising
start. However, the oddly large brow bone on the girl, combined with a small mouth,
makes her look like a cave-girl child and not an average modern girl. The book on the
right is dark red, the color of blood. Though reds can be vital and energetic, this red is
too close to the color of the children’s skin and makes a jarring brightness combined
with a muddied feeling.
Books for Baby
Books titled Baby Talk are plentiful and the default for “baby” is:
What’s wrong with these choices? The books in isolation may seem fine, but as a group,
one starts to wonder. Why is this darker-skinned baby more reminiscent of an alien than
a human? Why are the features drawn so ambiguously?
Scary covers
These covers are supposed to be scary. One is a book from a popular series about
a boy who has irrational fears of various people and places in his life. The black and blue
colors combined with shadows and odd-shaped, unbalanced edges give a feeling of
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uneasiness. The yellow and blue colors in the title and character, however, reassure you
it is a fun kind of scary. Somehow the yellow light in the picture to the right isn’t quite as
reassuring.
The next cover gives the feeling this person needs to learn to keep his mouth shut.
His mouth is open wider than is comfortable for him or anyone else, and his big round
eyes look intense. The actual topic of this book is social activism. The book is not one I
have read. (I intentionally didn’t read most of the books in my sampling to analyze
imagery without justification from the content of the books.) I do find it an interesting
dichotomy that the image is one that screams literally “please shut up” and the topic is
social activism. This at first glance is the impression we give of how people who stand up
for others are viewed.
Books that hide people’s faces
I can’t help but notice that hiding Norman’s face behind the goldfish bowl
changed the central color from brown to sky blue the safe color.
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The lone book with a Native American girl on the cover is a beautiful cover, but you can’t
see her face. It is no accident that publishers look for ways to sell books to more people,
and at present publishers have more luck if they can draw the average white person to
the cover rather than have him or her assume “this book isn’t for me.”
Image analysis is full of variables, and context is key, but in the day to day of our
busy lives, during purchasing, choosing stories for story-time, or student selection for
checkout, these kinds of first impressions, fair or not, will happen more often than most
of us are even aware.
II. Who’s looking at the cover
Understanding the publisher’s view
Publishers are in the business of selling books. Selling books is like any other
business, and it follows supply and demand, or at least perceived demand. Publishers
commission known writers and illustrators often and accept new writers and illustrators
who fit past models of success. In the past, white faces on covers sold millions of copies,
and black and brown faces on the covers sold in much fewer numbers. It makes sense
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that publishers find themselves wondering how they can sell brown faces to all people
and not just to brown-skinned people. Hence, books that hide black faces and books
with ambiguous faces, light-skinned faces, or the binary of black and white faces are as
prevalent as authentically black and brown faces.
Children’s book sales have historically been institutionally driven, with the bulk
of sales going to schools. Trade books are designed to appeal to children and those who
supervise children—librarians, teachers, parents, and grandparents. The covers of books
are designed by a team, a director of design, an artist, and a copy editor. The author has
very little say over the cover design, usually, and so this particular image is driven
almost solely by what is perceived to be sellable. If you work in a school library or
children’s department you probably already know that “Children are notorious for
judging books by their covers” (Horning 12). The best-selling children’s books in
September and October 2013 were primarily books with animals or objects on the cover,
not people (“Best-Selling Picture Books, October 2013”). The one book with a person
depicted a white male. In “the 20 best-selling children’s books of all time” all but one
picture book depicted animals or objects on the covers, such as The Very Hungry
Caterpillar and The Pokey Little Puppy. The one picture book with a picture of a person
on the cover is Love You Forever by Robert Munsch depicting a little white male
toddler. The chapter books in this list all depicted white people, white males
predominately.
In the article “Why hasn’t the number of multicultural books increased in
eighteen years” (Low 2013) ten professionals were asked their opinion. The reasons
given varied: (contextualize the article)
 The shift from a primarily institutional market to a consumer market.
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 Perceived desires of the consumer market.
 Authors of color have been affected disproportionately by the economic
downturn.
 Publishers reject manuscripts depicting middle-class images of black families.
 The perception that “multicultural books” are not for all children but only for
children of color.
 People in publishing power are mostly from the same social circles and
heritage group.
 Consumer interest is high in fetish or mystical stories about American Indians
and low for modern stories.
 People of color are not writing enough books.
 The public is not demanding what they really want.
 Nostalgia overrides our good sense in our own consumerism.
 People of color spend more money on books that mainstream publishers
realize.
 Common core curriculum standards follow the status quo.
 Marketing is not a priority for books about nonwhite people.
Sarah Park went on to describe the current trend she sees in the publishing of
books about people who are not of European heritage. She feels they are a low priority
and not marketed well. In turn, the books don’t sell well, creating a self-fulfilling
prophecy and fewer books of the type that didn’t sell are published.
What kinds of changes are required to affect the publisher’s view? Do antiracist
librarians have any power to affect this type of change? Perhaps we’ll gain some insight
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next April when Tightrope Walk: Identity, Survival, and the Corporate World in
African American Literature is republished. Is the lone black voice in the publishing
world destined to go insane from the pressure? (AALBC)
Understanding the consumer’s view
The typical consumer buys what he or she likes. Other reasons according to Bryan
Eisenburg, an on-line marketing pioneer for purchasing items, show what other factors
may be considered. Let’s explore how Eisenburg’s model looks when applied to buying
picture books:
Basic Needs—Board books for baby during the nesting phase of pregnancy.
Convenience—I’ve checked out Good Night Moon ten times from the library. It
would be easier if I owned it so we could read it every night without overdue fines.
Replacement—My copy of Green Eggs and Ham is falling apart and has pencil
drawings in it from my sister, so I’ll buy a new copy for my child.
Scarcity—My favorite book of fairy tales was out of print, but I found a copy on
EBay.
Prestige or aspirational purchase—The author was signing the new
Caldecott Award-winning book at ALA, so I bought a copy for my coffee table.
Emotional vacuum—I always wanted a hard copy of The Littlest Angel, but my
mom wouldn’t splurge due to our tight budget on picture books growing up.
Lower prices—The Snowy Day used to cost $20, but the local bookseller is
having a 50-percent-off sale.
Great value—This unknown book was on the $5.00 table and looked good
enough for $5 with a lion on the cover.
Name recognition—Eve Bunting has a new book out.
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Fad or innovation—Everybody is reading Chester’s Masterpiece because the
kids chose it as a Golden Archer Nominee three years in a row.
Compulsory purchase—Stevie was required for my History of Children’s
Literature class.
Ego stroking—My husband loves Charlie Brown, so I bought the reprint of
Charlie Brown Valentine.
Niche identity—My family supports Green Bay Packers football, so we have to
have the latest book published about the team.
Peer pressure—I have family with biracial children, so I’ll buy the Hello,
Goodbye Window so the children will have a book to read when they come over.
The “Girl Scout Cookie Effect”—I bought the Coretta Scott King books for
my child’s school during a book sale because I knew the book would benefit the library’s
fund-raising efforts and I thought the purchase would help diversify the library
selections.
Empathy—My good friend wrote a children’s book, so I bought a copy.
Addiction—I love books, and I buy whatever I can at garage sales, Goodwill, and
auctions.
Fear—I bought my child a book about trucks because I want to make sure he
grows up to be tough.
Indulgence—I love picture books, and anytime I have extra cash I splurge. The
Napping House is a personal favorite, and I have one copy to keep, one to read, and a
couple extra to give as gifts.
Reciprocity or guilt—My sister always buys my kids’ books for Christmas, so
this year I bought her kids some, too.
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That is some list of reasons, and after coming up with hypothetical reasons that matched
what I have done over the years as a mother or librarian or have seen others do, I asked
myself, “Why do we buy books with black faces on the covers for our children or
ourselves?”
 Our own children are black or biracial.
 We are studying the topic.
 We think the books will be “good for” our children.
 The book won an award.
 The book was on sale.
How often do we buy the book because it is our favorite from when we were a
kid? Is it our favorite this year of all books published? Is it one of our many favorites
and we splurged and bought it because we love it so much? We bought it as a gift for
someone because we knew he or she would love it? We bought it because we think it will
be a collector’s item. We bought it because we knew it would create great coffee
conversation at our next dinner party. We bought it because everyone else was reading
it. Have any books with brown or black faces ever come up in the “my all-time favorite”
category for you or your children? When will the general public start thinking of books
with brown and black faces on the covers as its favorite books from childhood?
Understanding today’s students and their view
“Changing patterns of fertility and immigration have put the United States on a
short road to a population diversity never before experienced by any nation—a
population in which all races and ethnicities are part of minority groups that make up a
complex whole” (Center for Public Education). We are a growing nation with a black
population that is growing in areas not typically thought of as dense areas for African
Fleming 65
Americans, such as Utah, which had an increase percentage-wise of
“I’m just a
kid like any
other kid”
(Nakazawa)
65.9 in the black population, and Idaho with an increase of 79.8.
These children represent 400 first languages other than English.
Spanish language users make up seventy-nine percent of these ELL
students. One identified responsibility recommended for schools is
“The need to address issues of equity in resources among schools (Center for Public
Education).
The soon-to-be minority of white children currently have ninety-five percent of
the books, and yet “the majority of the parents of [white children], no matter how kind
and smart and sweet they are, didn’t buy black books, dolls, or movies for their children”
(MBB). Teachers in my school often bypass books with black characters on the cover
when recommended as well, favoring the same books year after year. “It is . . . important
for white children to see characters of different races. They learn to see the sameness,
and so those other cultures are less seen as ‘others’” (Nelson/Blair). CCBC at UW
Madison studies show that even though one-quarter of children in schools is Latino,
only three percent of children’s books are about Latinos. In a study on book covers at
Barnes and Noble done by a classroom teacher Allie Jane Bruce, a 6th grade student
reflects “Society is almost afraid of putting a dark-skinned or Asian character on the
cover of a book. I feel like these are minor forms of segregation.” (Whitewashing Book
Covers)
Kindergarten Library Time
Sometimes luck is on our side in the classroom. The kindergarten class is thirty
percent minority in our school, and I found a book with black characters that happened
to look exactly like one student and exactly shared his name. The child, who had been a
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resistant reader and literally refused to participate for an entire year in story time, saw
himself reflected in that story and has been amazingly attentive since then. He was so
happy he practically jumped out of his chair, which is typical of the age, but what a
moment! Every child deserves that moment. Critical thinking and learning about race
and our place in history are vitally
important, but without a base of security
these conversations will not go very far.
Jason Low of Lee & Low Books has this to
say, “Dialogues about race have to happen
early and often so our children's futures will diverge from our past. Talk is an important
starting point, but along with these dialogues must come action,” and he’s absolutely
right. However, dialogue again is based on comfort and trust. If your students, all of
them, white, black, brown, and tan, are going to trust you, their environment needs to
say, “This is a safe place.” It also has to say something other than “every time I see a
black face on a book it’s going to be a scary uncomfortable story.” Providing books like
Cold or Hot by Jacqueline Sweeney and Bedtime Fun by Barbara Newkirk can help
balance the collection so that when the subject of race or racism does come up, perhaps
the students will not associate negative feelings with black faces, but with most realistic
view of the problem we are all still facing. Unfortunately, the titles, though published
only a few years ago, are already out of print.
The librarian’s view—questions we must ask ourselves
Does purposefully identifying a deficiency, purchasing books to fill it, and
displaying and promoting said books follow the definition of antiracism? Is there a
stopping point? How do you measure this? If you have a school with ten-percent
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minority does ten percent of your library need to represent this heritage group? What if
your school has fifty-percent population of black and Latino students? Does your library
need to own exactly fifty-percent books with black and Latino representation? How
many should be fiction?
This is a question that cannot be answered quantitatively, unfortunately. How
much easier it would be if we as librarians could put a number on it and fix it. The
questions we must ask ourselves to make these judgments, however, can help move us
toward an antiracist library.
 Are fiction books (not historical fiction) with black faces just for black
students?
 Can you have “too many” books with white/black faces on them in a library?
 What have you done in your library to balance your collection?
 Who helps you evaluate and answer these questions for your library?
a) Materials selection
Come up with a plan for measuring something for your library community. You
know your population. Don’t just eyeball the people. If you work in a school, you may
use PowerSchool or some other program that lists demographics. Although these
statistics may be private, you can view them yourself and determine if you have had a
bigger shift than you realized. Create a team of diverse people to help you. Are there any
teachers who are Latino or African American you can call on to be a part of your team to
create book orders? Find out the team members’ priorities. Sometimes people are
resistant to being on another committee, but if you use interlibrary loan to get a stack of
books you are interested in purchasing, you could set up a voting box with the titles in
question. Find out which books appeal to your students and teachers. Do you have a
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student advisory board? Ask its members to do surveys or their own statistical
measurements and determine deficiencies and then make recommendations. Ask your
staff and students the hard questions about “who books are for.” You don’t have to do
this alone, and every decision in every library will be a little bit different.
Review services and awards are a common source for librarians to refer to when
making tough choices within a tight budget. If you order monthly, perhaps one month
out of the year could order from a new publisher such Lee & Low Books or make a list of
titles from Amazon, Follett, or Barnes & Noble you found on the Brown Bookshelf or
CCBC lists. Make sure you are reading recommendations outside of the standard for
populations that aren’t well represented by the standard.
b) Programming
Do you do programming? If you are a school library, perhaps you are
participating in a Caldecott 75th-anniversary event this year, or maybe you have a “night
in the library” fun evening with students or a book fair with Scholastic. What kind of
programming could you do that would highlight the needs of the underrepresented? Can
your teen advisory board represent younger students’ interests, too, by having a car
wash and using the money to purchase books that your general budget doesn’t cover
from one of your preferred small publishers? What about a week where everything in
the library is backwards? One library had a “read every picture book on the shelf”
month. Could you have a “read every brown book on the shelf month”? What about a
holiday such as Valentine’s Day? It happens in February, which is Black History Month.
Perhaps you could wrap up books like presents with only positive historical moments in
black history? Can you find those moments?
c) Staffing
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Is your library staffed with mostly white women? Mine is. I’m white, and so is the
aide. Who subs for you when you are absent? If you work in the public sector, who
works the desk? Next time you have a job opening, can you identify at least three
qualified candidates who are not white or speak a language other than English? Do you
hire staff who speak Spanish if your population has a high percentage of Spanish
speakers? Do you hire student workers of color? Do you ask for substitutes who might
gain job experience by working for you who are from underrepresented communities?
Recently I had a sub for a sub working for me, and my knee-jerk reaction was, “It
will take longer to train him than to do it myself.” However, because I wanted to make
sure he got paid for his hours and maintain friendly relations I gritted my teeth and
showed him the ropes. I then left him with an easy task and assumed he would come to
me in a few minutes ready ask for reassignment. To my surprise, he not only did the
work in record time but was teaching himself the Dewey Decimal System in hopes of
being asked back to sub in the library. I was so impressed by his willingness to learn that
it overcame my busy anxiety reaction.
We talked about his background, which he brought up himself, about being from
Cuba. It was his aspiration to move to the United States and learn to fit in here as a
child. On top of that, he is a deaf man, and I realized if I don’t give him an opportunity
to do some work now as a sub in the library, who will do so the future? If the job
becomes available someday and I had brushed him off, he may never consider working
in a library again. If he learns the job and then later applies, he becomes a viable
candidate. And what is gained whether he ever works permanently here? Every time he
is in the room and the students come, they see a library isn’t just a place where white
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women call all of the shots. And I gain the experience of learning from him how he views
the setting. It isn’t easy to work with people who are not just like us.
I admit, a person who has my own communication style and basic understanding
of “how it’s done” makes my work more efficient, which is my comfort zone, but is
efficiency my only priority? To those people who read this and say, “We can’t just look
for candidates of color we have to see who applies for the job,” I say “nonsense.” People
get hired every day because someone calls them up and says, “I want you to apply for
this job.” It’s happened to me and people I know. If we can do that, we can recruit and
interview minority candidates for the job from any university, social networking site
such as LinkedIn, or professional organization such as your local library associations.
d) Other
What other opportunities can you think of to make your library more welcoming
to underrepresented groups? Do you ever talk about race in the library or book club? Do
you invite authors from these groups to speak in your library or on Skype? Do you ask
small publishers if they have fund-raisers you might choose instead of a mainstream
book fair twice a year? Why not one big book-fair a year and a couple of smaller fundraisers the other part of the year?
e) De-selection and lesson planning
Weeding is a big subject these days, with library directors in more than one
instance losing their jobs over issues that include weeding choices. A critical librarian
who uses the CREW method knows that weeding is a complex process that requires
many steps and a lot of thought, and yet we do have to eventually prune things down to
find space for getting newer titles on the shelves.
Fleming 71
Here are a few thoughts for dealing with weeding titles with nonwhite faces on
the covers:
1) American Indian titles—Many of these need to be pruned, and you can go
to Debbie Reese’s Web site to see if these titles are considered inaccurate, offensive, out
of date, or otherwise not recommended. Rather than throwing them out, why not make
a kit with Reese’s How to Tell the Difference Guide for evaluating books for anti-Indian
bias and discussing why these books need to be removed from general circulation. You
can combine this with films and include videos such as War Paint and Wigs discussing
how Indians are portrayed in film. This guide is easily adapted for any culture, such as
deaf culture, African American culture, and Japanese culture among the many other
cultures of the world.
2) Classics like The Snowy Day and Stevie—No need to weed. It has been a
long time, but these books are still relevant today and have historical significance. If you
find they are just “too old” for general circulation, you can buy a new copy so it is fresh
and/or keep them on a special shelf in your office for those educational moments. But so
far most people still like to read Keats and Steptoe, so keep them on the shelf.
3) Little Bill and books from the nineties—If they are still circulating, by all
means leave them on the shelf. If the older titles with the older art design are not
circulating, try deselecting them in favor of the newer design from the television show. I
still hear students and teachers, both white and black; today talk about the influence
Cosby and his work has had in their lives. Until there is a new series to take its place,
there is no need to get rid of it.
4) Little Black Sambo, Babar, and books by Ingri and Edgar Parin
D’Aulaire or other books with racist images may be deselected, or again see a) and
Fleming 72
make a kit with a discussion about why these images were printed and how to interpret
them. There are ways to discuss the issue without forcing an opinion upon a student.
Although it is tempting to tell him or her “what racist is or isn’t,” a student who is taught
to think critically will without being led to it.
5) Analyze beloved classics such as Corduroy by Don Freeman with
older students using references such as Starting Out Right: Choosing Books About
Black People for Young Children, in which back in 1972 Latimer wrote, “A simple, warm
story for very young children about a little girl who found a teddy bear . . . . Lisa . . . and
her mother are black . . . . All other faces are white, including salespeople, customers,
policemen . . . . Some of these could and should have been black . . .” (39). Perhaps start
your own blog for students to make their own analyses of classic and contemporary
literature.
Suggested publishers
Here are publishers/imprints dedicated to multicultural children’s literature as
listed on the Brown Bookshelf website:
“1) Amistad—Award-winning literary fiction and nonfiction. Primarily picture
books to middle grade.
2) Children’s Book Press—Multicultural books with a special emphasis on
picture books and early readers. Focus includes African American, Latino, Asian
American, Latino, and Native American.
3) Dafina YA—Multicultural popular fiction, with books centering primarily on
African American, Latino, and Caucasian characters.
4) Jump At The Sun—Award-winning literary fiction and nonfiction ranging
from picture books to young adult.
Fleming 73
5) Just Us Books—Wide range of Afrocentric picture books, chapter books, and
some young adult.
6) Kimani Tru YA—Multicultural popular fiction, many of them series books,
focused primarily on African American characters.
7) Lee & Low—Children’s books ranging from PB to Young Adult with a special
focus on multicultural, including African American, Latino, Asian, Native American, and
Middle Eastern.” (The Brown Bookshelf)
Suggested titles from the twentieth century
Babies and Toddlers
Fleming 74
Bedtime
Friends and family
Fleming 75
Fairy Tales and folk tales
Fall and winter fun and holidays
Fleming 76
Fantasy
Fleming 77
Gardening and harvesting
Imagination and play
Fleming 78
Just For You Reader Series by Scholastic
Lola Stories
Fleming 79
Math and science reader
Moving
Occupations
School and sports
Fleming 80
Summer and Beach fun
Weather
Out-of-print titles to watch for
Fleming 81
For more good titles with tan, brown, and black faces with or without cultural and
historical themes, visit The Brown Bookshelf library at
http://thebrownbookshelf.com/brown-bookshelf-library/, see the Shelftalkers list on
LibraryThing, or look at my Recommended Lists on Amazon’s Listmania.
What not to weed
It would be impossible to tell you specifically what books not to weed in your
libraries, but here are examples of series and titles you might consider more deeply for
their significance before weeding and give more thought to the discard options available.
 Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang (date)
 Afro Bets book series
 Because You’re Lucky by Irene Smalls and Michael Hayes
 Big Cowboy Western by Anna Herbert Scott
 Daddy Calls Me Man by Angela Johnson
 Day of Adventure by Lyn Swanson-Natsues
 Do like Kyla by Angela Johnson
 Dora and Diego books by various
 Feast for 10 by Catherine Falwell
 Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
 Halloween Monster by Catherine Stock
 Jamaica and Brianna Series Juanta Havill
 Jamal’s Busy Day by Wade Hudson
 JoJo’s Flying Side Kick by Brian J. Pinkney
 Joshua by the Sea by Angela Johnson
Fleming 82
 Joshua’s Night Whispers by Angela Johnson
 Kevin and His Dad by Irene Smalls
 Little Bill book series by Bill Cosby
 Mama Bird, Baby Birds by Angela Johnson
 My Best Friend by Pat Hutchins
 Octopus Hug by Laurence P. Pringle
 On Mother's Lap by Ann Herbert Scott
 Rain Feet by Angela Johnson
 Shortcut by Donald Crews
 The Snowy Day, Goggles, A letter for Amy, Hi Cat!, Pet Show, Peter’s Chair,
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats
 Stevie by John Steptoe
 The Paperboy by Dav Pilkey
 The Quilt by Ann Jonas
 The Wedding by Angela Johnson
 Willie’s Birthday Anastasia Suen (Based on Keats)
Fleming 83
There are other books by great authors and illustrators such as the above which
you may also keep if you have nothing yet to replace books with by topic. Although we
often try to avoid weeded books going to classrooms, as we follow a guideline of keeping
up-to-date books in the hands of students, if you must weed these books, they could be a
great way to diversify our classroom libraries. This method makes sure these types of
books go to teachers and students rather than the recycling bin or the local Goodwill if
you work in a school library. The public library generally puts discards in sales, gives the
books to Better World Books, or lists them online for sale. However, in this case you
might consider a charitable donation to your local school for titles that may help
increase the volume of brown and black faces on the shelves of school libraries that have
smaller and smaller budgets every year. If the school is uncertain of putting dated books
on the shelf perhaps they will put them directly in student’s hands as prizes, gifts, or
Fleming 84
book swap shelves. A donation is especially needed now due to a trend toward
purchasing nonfiction for Common Core Standards.
Conclusion
As librarians, we can address this imbalance in our libraries with the resources
currently available to us, which in turn will create the demand in institutions that will be
noticed by publishers. Students who become more comfortable with books with black
and brown faces on the covers will influence parents to buy more of the same, which in
turn can cause publishers to take notice and create more books to fill these requests. We
have the knowledge, the tools to find resources, and the judgment to fill our libraries
with what our patrons and students want and need. Neutrality is not an option when it
comes to racism in our society. We are either part of the racist system or a vehicle for
change.
(Permission to use image
granted by Ronnell Fleming)
This is the face of a happy child who found herself on the cover of a book that
contained content she could identify with. Amy Hodgepodge is a chapter book, but the
picture books with biracial girls in them, such as The Hello, Goodbye Window, were not
to her liking. She said the illustrations were “messy,” and she didn’t like to read such
books. Amy Hodgepodge, however, was interesting to her, and she happened to
magically have a dress the same as Amy’s on the cover in her closet. On “dress like a
book character day” in second grade, she was able to participate and wrote a wonderful
report for school. The children in her class who are white saw her as an equal and not as
Fleming 85
a victim. I look forward to the day when this generation is in positions of power in the
world and is able to make decisions based on a different set of factors that create a new,
broader comfort zone. It is our job to guide the generation and give it the skills to
expand its reach in this twenty-first century.
Fleming 86
Appendixes
Appendix A—Excel spreadsheet from 2005 sampling
Appendix B—CCBC Logs African 2003
Appendix C—CCBC Logs African 2004
Appendix D—CCBC Logs African 2005
Appendix E—CCBC Logs African 2006
Appendix F—CCBC Logs African 2007
Appendix G—CCBC Logs African 2008
Appendix H—CCBC Logs African 2009
Appendix I—CCBC Logs African 2010
Appendix J—CCBC Logs African 2011
Appendix K—CCBC Logs African 2012
Appendix L—CCBC Logs Asian 2005
Appendix M—CCBC Logs Asian 2012
Appendix N—CCBC Logs Latino 2005
Appendix O—CCBC Logs Latino 2012
Appendix P—CCBC Logs American Indian 2005
Appendix Q—CCBC Logs American Indian 2012
Appendix R Wordle Graphics
Appendix S Just For You Series List of Titles with Reading level and Lexile
Fleming 87
Resources used
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Fleming 90
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Fleming 93
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Fleming 94
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Fleming 95
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Fleming 96
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Fleming 97
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Fleming 98
O’Connor, Jane, and Robin Preiss-Glasser. Fancy Nancy. New York: HarperCollins,
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Ogburn, Jacqueline K, and Marjorie Priceman. The Bake Shop Ghost. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 2005. Print.
Oxenbury, Helen. Tickle, Tickle. New York: Little Simon, 1999. Print.
Parker, Toni T, and Earl Anderson. Hugs and Hearts. New York: Scholastic, 2002.
Print.
---.Painted Eggs and Chocolate Bunnies. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2002. Print.
---. Snowflake Kisses and Gingerbread Smiles. New York: Scholastic, 2002.
Print.
---. Sweets and Treats. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2002. Print.
Patrick, Denise Lewis, and Sonia Lynn Sadler. Ma Dear’s Old Green House. East
Orange, NJ: Just Us Books, 2004. Print.
Pawagi, Manjusha, and Leanne Franson. The Girl Who Hated Books. Hillsboro, OR:
Beyond Words Pub, 1999. Print.
Pilkey, Dav. The Paperboy. New York: Orchard Books, 1996. Print.
Pinkney, Andrea D, and J B. Pinkney. Sleeping Cutie. Orlando: Gulliver
Books/Harcourt, 2004. Print.
Pinkney, J B. The Adventures of Sparrowboy. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, 1997. Print.
Pinkney, J. Brian. Jojo’s Flying Side Kick. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, 1995. Print.
Pinkney, Jerry, and H. C Andersen. The Nightingale. New York: Phyllis Fogelman
Books, 2002. Print.
Fleming 99
Pinkney, Jerry, Jacob Grimm, and Wilhelm Grimm. Little Red Riding Hood. New York,
NY: Little, Brown, 2007. Print.
Pirotta, Saviour, and Nilesh Mistry. Turtle Bay. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux,
1997. Print.
Posner-Sanchez, Andrea, Stefania Fiorillo, Roberta Zanotta, and Giuseppe Fontana. The
Pirate Games. New York: Golden Books, 2012. Print.
Purcell, Steve, and Matt Nolte. One Perfect Day. New York: Disney Press, 2012. Print.
Reynolds, Aaron, and Paul Hoppe. Metal Man. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge, 2008.
Print.
Ribke, Simone T, and Lee White. I’ll Do It Later. New York: Children’s Press, 2005.
Print.
Ricci, Christine, and A&J Studios. Dora’s Starry Christmas. New York: Simon
Spotlight/Nick Jr., 2005. Print.
Ringgold, Faith, and Crown Publishers. Tar Beach. New York: Crown Publishers, 1991.
Print.
Rodman, Mary Ann, and Earl B Lewis. My Best Friend. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
Roberson, Karla, and Vanessa Holley. My Shoelaces Are Hard to Tie!New York:
Scholastic, 2004. Print.
Rylant, Cynthia, and Chris K. Soentpiet. Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas
Story. New York: Orchard Books, 1997. Print.
Sanders, Rob, and John Manders. Cowboy Christmas. New York: Golden Books, 2012.
Print.
Fleming 100
SAMi. Baby Talk. Maplewood, N.J.; [San Francisco]: Blue Apple Books; Distributed in
the U.S. by Chronicle Books, 2005. Print.
Say, Allen. A River Dream. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. Print.
---. Stranger in the Mirror. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1995. Print.
Scott, Ann Herbert, and Richard W Lewis. Big Cowboy Western. New York: Lothrop,
Lee & Shepard Co., 1965. Print.
Scott, Ann H, and Glo Coalson. On Mother's Lap. New York: Clarion Books, 1992. Print.
Scull, Robert, Bill Cosby, Michael Lennicx, and Etsu Kahata. Happy Valentine's
Day!New York: Simon Spotlight/Nick Jr, 2002. Print.
Shally, Celeste. Since We're Friends. Centerton, Ark: Awaken Specialty Press, 2007.
Print.
Shaskan, Trisha Speed, and Jisun Lee. Betty and Baxter’s Batter Battle. Minneapolis,
Minn.: Picture Window Books, 2009. Print.
Sirett, Dawn. Baby Talk. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2005. Print.
Slier, Debby. Babies, Babies! New York, N.Y.: Star Bright Books, 2012. Print.
Smalls, Irene, and Aaron Boyd. I Can't Take a Bath!New York: Scholastic, 2003. Print.
Smalls, Irene, and Michael Hays. Because You’re Lucky. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997.
Print.
---. Kevin and His Dad. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1999. Print.
Smalls, Irene, and Cathy Ann Johnson. My Pop Pop and Me. New York: Little, Brown,
2006. Print.
Smith, Dana Kessimakis, and Laura Freeman-Hines. A Brave Spaceboy. New York:
Hyperion Books for Children, 2005. Print.
Fleming 101
---. A Wild Cowboy. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, 2004.
Print.
Smith, Will, and Kadir Nelson. Just the Two of Us. New York: Scholastic, 2001. Print.
Steptoe, Javaka. The Jones Family Express. New York: Lee & Low Books, 2003. Print.
Steptoe, John, and Publishers Harper & Row. Stevie. New York: Harper & Row,
Publishers, 1969. Print.
Stock, Catherine. Halloween Monster. New York: Bradbury Press, 1990. Print.
Stroud, Bettye, and Erin Susanne Bennett. The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to
Freedom. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2005. Print.
Suen, Anastasia, and Winnie Cheon. Toddler Two. New York: Lee & Low, 2002. Print.
Swanson-Natsues, Lyn, and Joy D. Keenan. Days of Adventure. Greenvale, NY: Mondo
Pub, 1996. Print.
Sweeney, Jacqueline, and Anna Rich. Cold and Hot. New York, NY: Bebop Books, an
imprint of Lee & Low Books, 2000. Print.
Tauss, Marc. Superhero. New York: Scholastic Press, 2005. Print.
Taylor, Ann, and Heerden M. Van. Baby Dance. New York: HarperFestival, 1999. Print.
Taylor-Butler, Christine, and Nancy Devard. A Mom Like No Other. New York:
Scholastic, 2004. Print.
Taylor-Butler, Christine, and Mark Page. No Boys Allowed!New York: Scholastic, 2003.
Print.
Thaler, Mike, and Jared D Lee. The Dentist from the Black Lagoon. New York:
Scholastic, 2008. Print.
Tsutsui, Yoriko, and Akiko Hayashi. Anna in Charge. Viking Kestrel, 1988. Print.
---.Anna's Secret Friend. Harmondsworth: Viking Kestrel, 1987. Print.
Fleming 102
---.Anna's Special Present. London: Viking Kestrel, 1988. Print.
---.Before the Picnic. New York: Philomel Books, 1987. Print.
Tsutsui, Yoriko, Akiko Hayashi, Susan Howlett, and Jaylene Mory. Finding Little Sister.
Tokyo: R.I.C. Publications, 1979. Print.
---.Gifts from a Mailbox. Tokyo: R.I.C. Publications, 1986. Print.
---.Naomi's Special Gift. Tokyo: R.I.C. Publications, 1983. Print.
Tsutsui, Yoriko, Akiko Hayashi, Peter Howlett, and Richard McNamara. Miki's First
Errand. Dublin: R.I.C, 1976. Print.
Tuck, Pamela M, and Eric Velasquez. As Fast As Words Could Fly. New York: Lee & Low
Books, 2013. Print.
Valdes, Leslie, and Robert Roper. Dora Goes to School. New York: Simon
Spotlight/Nick Jr., 2004. Print.
Van, Camp R. Welcome Song for Baby: A Lullaby for Newborns. Victoria, BC: Orca
Book Publishers, 2007. Print.
Walsh, Valerie, Eric Weiner, Leslie Valdes, Kathleen Herles, Harrison Chad, Esai
Morales, Marc Weiner, Jose Zelaya, Ashley Fleming, Sherie Pollack, Gayle
McIntyre, Steve Sandberg, Helena Giersz, and Chris Gifford. Dora the
Explorer. Hollywood, Calif: Paramount, 2004.
Watson, Kim, Jane Howell, and Bill Cosby. The Extra-Thankful Thanksgiving. New
York: Simon Spotlight/Nick Jr, 2001. Print.
Watson, Renee, and Shadra Strickland. A Place Where Hurricanes Happen. New York:
Random House, 2010. Print.
Wayans, Kim, and Kevin Knotts. Amy Hodgepodge All Mixed Up! N. d.,Print.
Williams, Karen Lynn, and Floyd Cooper. A Beach Tail. Honesdale, Pa.: Boyds Mills
Press, 2010. Print.
Fleming 103
Willson, Sarah, and Steven Savitsky. Dora's Halloween Adventure. New York: Simon
Spotlight/Nick Jr, 2003. Print.
Willson, Sarah, and Robert Roper. Dora's Thanksgiving. New York: Simon
Spotlight/Nick Jr, 2003. Print.
Wilson-Max, Ken. Max’s Letter. New York: Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for
Children, 1999. Print.
Winter, Ariel S, and David Hitch. One of a Kind. New York: Aladdin Simon & Schuster
Childrens Books, 2012. Print.
Winthrop, Elizabeth, and Pat Cummings. Squashed in the Middle. New York: Henry
Holt, 2008. Print.
Woodson, Jacqueline, and Sophie Blackall. Pecan Pie Baby. New York: G.P. Putnam’s
Sons, 2010. Print.
Woodson, Jacqueline, and Earl B. Lewis. Each Kindness. New York: Nancy Paulsen
Books, 2012. Print.
Yee, Wong Herbert. Summer Days and Nights. New York: Henry Holt, 2012. Print.
Zolotow, Charlotte, and Kurt Werth. A Tiger Called Thomas. New York: Lothrop, Lee &
Shepard, 1963. Print.
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Fleming 104
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Fleming 105
Film
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Fleming 106
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Fleming 107
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Tatum, Beverly Daniel. “Teaching White Students about Racism: The Search for White
Allies and the Restoration of Hope.” Teachers College Record. Teachers College,
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Teacher’s College Record: Mount Holyoke College n. pag. Teaching About Racism.
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“‘The All-White World of Children’s Books’, by Nancy Larrick, The Saturday Review,
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Unknown. “Races Stay Apart in Children’s Literature.” Society for the Advancement of
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349-51. CrossRef. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.
“What Makes People Buy? 20 Reasons Why.” Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. October 21,
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Fleming 108
“Why Hasn’t the Number of Multicultural Books Increased In Eighteen Years?” The
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Fleming 109
Webmaster, Just Us Books. “Good Books Make a Difference: Afro-Bets ABC Book—Just
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Fleming 110
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Fleming 111
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Fleming 112
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Items purchased to fill deficiencies since my hire in 2010 for WESP-DHH
Resource library at WSD (Fictional Books that fit my study criteria in bold )
Alexander, Kwame. He said, she said. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers. Print.
Aronson, Marc, and Marina T. Budhos. Sugar changed the world : a story of
magic, spice, slavery, freedom, and science. Boston: Clarion Books,
2010. Print.
Barnes, Derrick D. We could be brothers. New York: Scholastic Press, 2010. Print.
Bednar, Chuck. Beyoncé : singer-songwriter, actress, and record
producer. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers, 2010. Print.
---. David Blaine : illusionist and endurance artist. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest
Publishers, 2010. Print.
---. Derek Jeter : all-star major league baseball player. Broomall, Pa.: Mason
Crest, 2010. Print.
Fleming 113
---. Rosa Parks : civil rights activist. Broomall, Pa.: Mason Crest Publishers,
2010. Print.
Bigelow, Bill, and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Columbus : the next 500
years. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 1998. Print.
Black History Playing Card Deck History channel. N.d. Picture.
Blue, Rose, and Corinne J. Naden. Ron's big mission. New York: Scholastic,
2009. Print.
Bontemps, Arna W., Langston Hughes, and E S. Campbell. Popo and Fifina. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Print.
Bryan, Nichol. Hmong Americans. Edina, Minn.: Abdo, 2004. PDF.
Butler, Octavia E., and Conseula Francis. Conversations with Octavia
Butler. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010. Print.
Butler, Octavia E. Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press, 1988. Print.
Cameron, Ann. Julian's glorious summer. New York: Dell Yearling, 2001. Print.
---. The stories Julian tells. New York: Random House, 2006. Print.
Cebulash, Mel, Chris Reese, and Brent Maddock. Ghost dad : a novel. New York:
Fleming 114
Berkley Books, 1990. Print.
Coburn, Jewell R., and Tzexa C. Lee. Jouanah : a Hmong Cinderella. Arcadia, CA:
Shen's Books, 1996. Print.
Codell, Esmé R. Sahara special. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2004. Print.
Copeland, Jeffrey S. Olivia's story : the conspiracy of heroes behind Shelley v.
Kraemer. St. Paul, Minn.: Paragon House, 2010. Print.
Corey, Shana. Barack Obama : out of many, one. New York: Random House,
2009. Print.
Cowley, Joe. Gracias the Thanksgiving turkey. New York: Scholastic, 1996. Print.
Cowley, Joy, and Joe Cepeda. Gracias, el pavo de Thanksgiving. New York:
Scholastic, Inc., 1998. Print.
Curtis, Christopher P. Elijah of Buxton. New York: Scholastic, 2007. Print.
Davis, Tanita S. Mare's war. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Print.
Davol, Marguerite. Black, White, Just Right!. A. Whitman, 1993. Print.
Dora's storytime collection. New York: Simon Spotlight/Nick Jr., 2003. Print.
Dougherty, Steve. Hopes and dreams : the story of Barack Obama. New York:
Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009. Print.
Draper, Sharon M. The birthday storm. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009. Print.
Fleming 115
---. Little Sister is not my name!. New York: Scholastic, 2010. Print.
Driscoll, Laura. Eggs for everyone!. New York: Simon Spotlight/Nick
Jr., 2005. Print.
Erdrich, Louise. The porcupine year. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Print.
Flake, Sharon. You don't even know me : stories and poems about boys. New York:
Jump at the Sun, 2011. Print.
Frazier, Sundee T. Brendan Buckley's universe and everything in it. New York,
N.Y.: Yearling, 2008. Print.
Fross, Kitty, and Jennifer Oxley. A rainy day to remember. New York:
Scholastic, Inc., 2002. Print.
Frost, Helen. Diamond Willow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Print.
Gifford, Chris, and Christine Ricci. Valentines for everyone!. New
York: Simon Spotlight/Nick Jr., 2003. Print.
Grimes, Nikki. Barack Obama : son of promise, child of hope. New York: Simon &
Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008. Print.
Guest, Jacqueline. Outcasts of River Falls. Regina, Sask.: Coteau Books,
2012. PDF.
Hill, Laban C. Dave the potter : artist, poet, slave. New York: Little, Brown,
2010. Print.
Fleming 116
Hoffman, Mary. An angel just like me. London: Frances Lincoln Children's Books,
2007. Print.
Hughes, Langston. My people. New York: Ginee Seo books/Atheneum Books for
Young Readers, 2009. Print.
---. The negro speaks of rivers. New York: Disney/Jump at the Sun Books,
2009. Print.
Johnson, Angela. Bird. New York: Puffin, 2004. Print.
Kimble-Ellis, Sonya. Bill Cosby : entertainer and activist. New York: Chelsea
House Publishers, 2010. Print.
Kimmel, Eric A., and Janet Stevens. Anansi and the moss-covered rock. New York:
Scholastic Inc., 1990. Print.
King, Martin L. I have a dream. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books, 2012. Print.
Larsen, Kirsten, and Ron Zalme. It's sharing day!. New York: Simon
Spotlight/Nick Jr., 2007. Print.
Lester, Julius, and Ralph Pinto. The knee-high man, and other tales. New York:
Dial, 1972. Print.
Lewis, Beverly. The chicken pox panic. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1995. Print.
---. Fiddlesticks. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1997. Print.
Look, Lenore. Alvin Ho : allergic to camping, hiking, and other natural
Fleming 117
disasters. New York: Yearling, 2009. Print.
Lurie, Nancy O. Wisconsin Indians. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press,
2002. Print.
Mack, David. Daredevil, the man without fear! [Vol. 8], Echo--vision quest. New
York: Marvel Comics, 2004. Print.
Mack, David, Joe Quesada, and Jimmy Palmiotti. Daredevil, Echo : parts of a
hole. New York: Marvel, 2010. Print.
Mann, Charles C. 1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New
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