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.