After my research at the local bookstore and the local library, I was disappointed with the lack of diversity within the children's section at both locations. I decided to focus my media research (i.e. television and the internet) on diversity. For my internet search, I focused my attention on multicultural literature. I wanted to find websites that offered suggestions to parents and teachers who were interested in finding books about a specific culture. I found four websites that strive to show that diversity does exist in children's literature, you just need to know where to find it.
http://www.childrensliteraturenetwork.org/resource/readlist/readlist.php : This is an independent network site that offers people suggestions for books based on age, race, and culture.
http://www.multiculturalchildrenslit.com/ : This is a website that claims to celebrate diversity through children's books. It provides links to books based on culture and race. The links are separated based on how the topics are displayed (i.e. realistic, animals, etc.)
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/index.jsp : This is the website of the well-known children's magazine. It offers suggestions for parents, teachers, and kids. The suggestions for books about culture and race are based on popularity.
http://www.thinkbutton.com/occupation_multicultural_books_children.htm : This website was the easiest to navigate and provides suggestions for books about specific culture (the suggestions are based on price).
It was important for me to know that parents could find books based on their culture even if their local library or bookstore does not carry them.
For my media research, I decided to focus my attention on television advertisements. I watched a network (TBS) I thought would be available and appealing to most people for 75 min. During those 75 min., I took note of the advertisements geared toward kids and their parents (i.e. toy commercials). Through my observations, I noticed that the majority of kids that appear in those commercials are Caucasian. A child of a racial minority may not believe he is able to get a toy because he is not of the race displayed in the commercial. I think what commercials could appear on the network was dependent on the owners of the network. Unfortunately, the owners of most the television networks are Caucasian men.
P.S. Listomania on Amazon is another good place to find suggestions for diversity in children's books.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Research in the Community
For my research in a local bookstore and a local library, I decided to focus my attention on the children's section rather than the entire store. The local bookstore I visited was Borders in Friendship Heights and the local library I visited was in my hometown, which is in suburban Philadelphia. Even though I visited two book places in basically two different states, I noticed a lot of similarities between the two places. I probably noticed similarities between the two because the locations have similar socioeconomic backgrounds (i.e. middle class father, mother families and young, working adults). The children's sections at both locations were not very diverse because of the lack of diversity within the communities of the locations (i.e. the majority of people within both communities are Caucasian). I probably would have found more variety and more diversity within the children's sections if I had travelled to downtown D.C. or into Philadelphia for my research.
In the children's section at both locations, you had to really search for a book representing a diverse culture or a social issue. The children's books in both the bookstore and local library were ordered by the author. The authorship of the books were not very diverse; they tended to have more books by an author who was considered popular (i.e. Dr. Seuss, who was White). The books that were placed on display within the shelves were typically current bestsellers, like Harry Potter and Good Night Moon.
After searching and searching, I did manage to find some children's books that represented a diverse culture or social issue. More picture books were available at both locations than books with more written words. In both the local bookstore and the local library, there tended to be more children's books displaying a specific race or culture than books displaying "different" families (i.e. homosexual families); I did manage to find And Tango Makes Three at Borders. Although the books might have been displaying a specific race (i.e. Homemade Love and Lola at the Library), they weren't necessarily about racism.
The books about a specific culture or a social issue were stereotypical. In both locations, the books about a social issue or a culture tended to have animals or aliens as the main characters (i.e. It's OK to be Different). As discussed in class, it tends to be easier for a child to become interested in a book if it contains an animal. The issue with this is if a parent becomes dependent on introducing diverse cultures or social issues to their child through books with animals, the child could develop a skewed view of the issue or culture.
I noticed that the books about culture tended to be stereotypical. The books displaying a specific culture were typically centered around a food dish. The characters within the books were colorful and not realistic. For instance, I picked up a book in the local library about Thanksgiving. It displayed the Pilgrims in a stereotypical manner (i.e. Caucasians wearing grey and white robes with a bonnet) and the Native Americans (referred to as Indians) were reddish in color (which is an unrealistic representation). The two cultures seem to coexist in the book and even share meals together (which is also unrealistic) Children who would read this book and conduct no further research on Thanksgiving would have a skewed view of the two cultures.
In the children's section at both locations, you had to really search for a book representing a diverse culture or a social issue. The children's books in both the bookstore and local library were ordered by the author. The authorship of the books were not very diverse; they tended to have more books by an author who was considered popular (i.e. Dr. Seuss, who was White). The books that were placed on display within the shelves were typically current bestsellers, like Harry Potter and Good Night Moon.
After searching and searching, I did manage to find some children's books that represented a diverse culture or social issue. More picture books were available at both locations than books with more written words. In both the local bookstore and the local library, there tended to be more children's books displaying a specific race or culture than books displaying "different" families (i.e. homosexual families); I did manage to find And Tango Makes Three at Borders. Although the books might have been displaying a specific race (i.e. Homemade Love and Lola at the Library), they weren't necessarily about racism.
The books about a specific culture or a social issue were stereotypical. In both locations, the books about a social issue or a culture tended to have animals or aliens as the main characters (i.e. It's OK to be Different). As discussed in class, it tends to be easier for a child to become interested in a book if it contains an animal. The issue with this is if a parent becomes dependent on introducing diverse cultures or social issues to their child through books with animals, the child could develop a skewed view of the issue or culture.
I noticed that the books about culture tended to be stereotypical. The books displaying a specific culture were typically centered around a food dish. The characters within the books were colorful and not realistic. For instance, I picked up a book in the local library about Thanksgiving. It displayed the Pilgrims in a stereotypical manner (i.e. Caucasians wearing grey and white robes with a bonnet) and the Native Americans (referred to as Indians) were reddish in color (which is an unrealistic representation). The two cultures seem to coexist in the book and even share meals together (which is also unrealistic) Children who would read this book and conduct no further research on Thanksgiving would have a skewed view of the two cultures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)