In Jerry Craft’s 2020 Newbery Medal speech, he recalled his own childhood with books, schools, and libraries:
“I never saw that in any book about a kid who actually looked like me. The kids who looked like me expected nothing. They just tried to survive. Maybe I just saw the wrong books, but I was never exposed to mirrors in literature. Only runaway slaves, tormented kids of the civil rights era, and victims of gang violence or police brutality. Not that those aren’t important stories. They are! But so are stories that show us being happy. I felt like my mirrors were often broken to the point that they became dangerous shards of glass that sliced into the comfort and naiveté of my childhood. For me, it was never enough for a story to have a joyful ending if the rest of the book dealt with the protagonist’s seemingly endless suffering.” —Jerry Craft
I have been thinking about what Craft says here about how African Americans were represented in the books he saw in his schools and libraries. While libraries and literature have changed since Jerry Craft’s childhood, the problem of the mix of mirror* books remains.
I sit on the Advisory Board of the Diverse BookFinder and I am over the moon about the new tool they have created—the CAT or Collection Analysis Tool. CAT addresses the mix of mirror picture books.
The Diverse BookFinder and the CAT tool helps you identify not only what percentage of Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC) picture books you have, but categorizes them in a way that addresses Craft’s speech. It categorizes in a way that tells us what messages the books are giving our students, patrons, and children.
For example, an African American title like Before She Was Harriet would be categorized by Diverse BookFinder as an “Oppression & Resilience” book for its depiction of enslavement. A book like Going Down Home With Daddy would be categorized as a “Beautiful Life” book for its depiction of a joyous, contemporary African American family reunion.
Without a solid collection of “Beautiful Life” books, could an overabundance of “Oppression & Resilience” books be “dangerous shards of glass” to BIPOC students? Craft’s Newbery talk tells us we need BOTH kinds of stories and representation.
The CAT can help you access that balance within your picture book collection and identify where you need to do some acquisition exploration. The tools of the Diverse BookFinder will also give you a lens through which to view your acquisition of novels, graphic novels, and non-fiction. How can we deny Craft’s call to share “stories that show us being happy”?
Full Caldecott & Newbery Speeches:
* Literature serving as mirrors (showing readers their own experience) or windows (showing readers the experience of others) is the concept and multicultural book revolution founded by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop. Read more about her legacy.
