The following letters were written in response to Shelley Diaz’s article, “Librarians Sound Off: Not a Lack of Latino Lit for Kids, but a Lack of Awareness” in SLJ’s newsletter, Extra Helping (Jan. 22, 2013; tinyurl.com/axc2cy6).
A new book committee has formed under the umbrella of Library Services for Youth in Custody (LSYC). We will look for more “gritty” titles for Latino readers, books like It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way (Lee & Low, 2004) by Luis Rodriguez, Next Stop: Growing Up Wild in the Bronx (Touchstone, 2008) by Ivan Sanchez, Detoured (JSD Consultations, 2011) by Jesse De La Cruz, and Willie Stokes’s Testimony of a Black Sheep (Willie R. Stokes, 2009).
We will seek out and highlight high-interest preschool through adult fiction and non-fiction books for boys or girls ages 9 to 18 who may fit into one or all of the following categories: multicultural (primarily African American and Latino), from a street culture, in restrictive custody (books need to be suitable for children’s and YA sections), and/or reluctant readers.
The committee will select and review the best books of the year, specifically for the population listed above. Titles of interest may be unusual; possibly not reviewed; have multicultural characters; and deal with difficult situations including (but not limited to) street life, marginalized populations, crime, justice, war, violence, abuse, and addiction.
“YA Underground,” a SLJTeen column featuring highlighted titles, will run reviews bimonthly throughout the year. You can check out an example at tinyurl.com/cblsq7a. The final list will be decided upon by this committee and also run in SLJ. Books will be featured on the Library Services for Youth in Custody website (youthlibraries.org). For more information, contact Amy Cheney at ajcheney@mac.com.
Amy Cheney
Librarian
Alameda County Library, CA
Interesting article. It is so difficult to get most children’s books in front of any kind of audience. So little money and effort is spent publicizing them. As bad as it is for most children’s literature, it is much more difficult for Latino books.
Publishers like Lee & Low and Cinco Puntos Press can’t reach the broad audience of librarians, much less the general public, with their books. Awards like the Pura Belpré help, but unfortunately are often still considered to be “special interest” awards by bookstores and libraries. Mainstream media covers only blockbuster books, usually ignoring everything else.
Jaime Naidoo’s ah-ha moment holds true for almost every reader—they want to see themselves in books, as well as enjoying new experiences and meeting different people through stories. Several years ago a 43-year-old student in my children’s literature class at the University of Texas–Austin finally made a connection to reading when he read a book about a kid with ADHD…Joey Pigza was just like him! It was the first book he read all the way through just for the joy of reading.
Librarians try to connect kids with books they will relate to, but first we have to have access to the kids. And we have to have the books that will be meaningful to them. The struggle continues.
Jeanette Larson
Consultant/trainer/author
Pflugerville, TX
Each student is shaped by personal experiences and culture, and we can explore these different cultures through the integration of resources into the classroom curriculum and library program. It is critically important that students see themselves reflected in the library collection and programming and in the books that they read in their classroom and for pleasure. By doing so, we build students’ self-esteem and cultivate empathy, respect, and cultural and global awareness.
Oakridge Elementary School in Arlington, VA, initiated the MOSAIC project—a school-wide reading program that uses globally diverse literature to teach targeted reading strategies. Each month the entire school (more than 680 students from 50 different countries) reads a single text portraying a different country or region and uses it to explore culture and delve into a reading strategy appropriate for the grade level. Through the MOSAIC project, we’ve been able to open the doors to new worlds to all our students. For more information on the project, visit apsva.us/Page/6203.
Julie M. Esanu
Librarian
Oakridge Elementary School
Arlington, VA
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