GLBT Literature

I chose to do my final project on children’s literature including GLBT issues. This was a topic area that fascinated me due to its minimal representation in the literature world and the continual search for acceptance that it seeks. During my initial search for credible books, I struggled to find libraries that included these books. Not only was there a lack of resources, the responses of those who offered to help me quickly become unresponsive after hearing my area of research.

After a difficult start I was able to find several books that reinforced my examination of this diverse literature group. I was able to find numerous books that were both relatable to children and which displayed positive examples of homosexual relationships. The three I chose to focus my critical look into were Molly’s Family, And Tango Makes Three, and Daddy’s Roommate.

Article: Bridging Multicultural Education

Swartz, Patti. Bridging Multicultural Education: Bringing Sexual Orientation into the Children’s and Young Adult Literature Classrooms. Radical Teacher no66 (2003).

This article discusses the importance of including literature displaying homosexuality. One of the main causes for the struggles of gay and lesbian individuals stem from name calling. Swartz notes in her article that this typically occurs in elementary school. Due to this fact, the idea of introducing diverse literature including homosexuality at an early age will ultimately help prevent future discrimination. However, this then places the burden upon teachers. Swartz believes they should be obligated to become familiar and comfortable with the topic of homosexuality as well as know what purposes this type of literature can serve to a classroom of young children. One purpose would be to allow children the opportunity to ask questions.

Additionally, there is an enormous stress placed upon stereotypes. This article mentions that the more kids hear inaccurate information, the more tempted they are to believe the false-hoods that often accompany stereotypes. Swartz brings into focus the idea of gender roles and the uneven discrimination that is distributed to male and female homosexuals. It is the belief of Patti Swartz, that through the introduction of homosexual literature in classrooms the acceptance of the homosexual culture and community will be more effective.

Molly's Family

Garden, Nancy (writer) Sharon Wooding (illustrator). 2004. Molly’s Family. Farrar Stratus Giroux: New York.

Molly’s Family is the story of a young girl named Molly whose kindergarten class is having an open house. When Molly’s teacher, Ms. Marston, asks the students to prepare for the special night Molly decides to draw a picture of her family; Mommy, Mama Lu, and Sam their dog. A fellow student, Tommy, takes notice of Molly’s picture and proclaims that she can not have two mommies. Molly’s mommies and teacher explain that there are many different kinds of families. Molly realizes that is okay to have two mommies and decides to proudly display her family picture in the classroom.

Molly’s Family is an excellent book to include in a classroom to represent GLBT literature. This story is relatable to many children, teachers, and families with same sex parents. Molly’s Family not only portrays a family with two mommies, it also highlights the diversity of all families through the students in Molly’s classroom. One child has only a father, another has a mothers and father, while one student has simply a mother. The author, Garden, does an excellent job of confronting a “typical” reaction to Molly’s unusual family, and provides positive examples of doing so. Garden represents her characters asking questions and providing examples to a new situation. Additionally, the action of discussing Molly’s family allows the reader to see an optimistic outlook on the idea and confrontation of homosexuality.

However, aside from the positive effects of the book, Molly’s Family may also help to enforce some stereotypes and lack variety within its characters. Throughout the story I noticed all the characters, or persons displayed, were of Caucasian decent. Apart from their variation in hair color, the characters lack racial diversity. Additionally, the characters of Mommy and Mama Lu appeared to portray a certain persona which accompanies stereotypical lesbian couples. While Mommy has long hair and comes across more feminine in her appearance, Mama Lu has a short hair cut and exhibits a more masculine look. After taking a critical look at this story I leave any future reader with the question; are the effects of stereotypes enhanced through their use in children’s literature, or can they become just a piece of the scenery?

And Tango Makes Three

Richardson, Justin and Peter Parnell (writers) Henry Cole (illustrator). 2005. And Tango Makes Three. New York: Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers

And Tango Makes Three is a story that displays the diversity of a family among animals living in Central Park zoo, New York. Roy and Silo are two male penguins who begin to build a relationship. The two penguins are able to all same things as the other penguin couples, besides lay and hatch an egg. The zoo keeper notices this and provides Roy and Silo with an egg. As the other penguins, Roy and Silo take turns sitting on the egg to keep it warm and fetching food. Soon the egg hatches and their family is complete with their baby girl penguin, Tango. Several individuals from the community visit the zoo and admire Roy, Silo, and Tango’s happy family.

Richardson and Parnell’s book And Tango Makes Three does an excellent job of portraying a non-traditional family. Due to the fact that being “different” usually entails a negative connotation, the use of the characters being animals allows the reader to attach a sense of sensitivity and understanding. I also appreciated that although the main characters are animals, their relationship and family unit is depicted no differently than one would be if the characters were humans. Roy and Silo seek after a family that is united with love, raising a child, and whom perform daily activities together.

I believe that in addition to providing a great example to introducing the idea of homosexuality to a classroom, I also feel that this story will allow my students and other readers to feel comfortable with the unfamiliar family structure. The book is based on a true story. In addition to great remarks by several readers, this book has won several awards including the prominent 2006 American Library Association (ALA) Notable Children’s Book Award.

Daddy's Roomate

Willhoite, Michael. Daddy’s Roommate. Los Angeles: Alyson Publications, 1990.

Daddy’s Roommate tells the story of a young boy whose parents recently divorced, and the father acquires a new roommate; Frank. The boy’s father and Frank express their relationship through several common actions. The two eat together, sleep together, clean together, and even argue with one another. Frank also develops a relationship with the young boy as he reads stories to him, helps catch bugs for show and tell, and also chases away his nightmares. The young boys mothers reveals that Daddy and Frank are gay, describing this unfamiliar word as a different type of love. Despite this new and unusual relationship, the young boy realizes that both he and his Daddy are happy because love is the best kind of happiness.

Daddy’s Roommate is a book in which highlights the normalcy of homosexual couples. Stereotypes play a major role in our viewpoint of certain situations and the author, Willhoite, does an excellent job of counteracting these falsehoods. Daddy’s Roommate is an easy book to read in that the pages are covered almost entirely with illustrations leaving minimal room for text. This is an important decision by the author because his illustrations have to hold the weight by portraying what is being said in just a couple words.

The main idea of this story is to display how a couple of two men, who have a child, can be the same as any other family. By the authors’ examples of common daily activities done by the couple and the young boy, allows the reader to feel connected to the story and its characters even if they don’t have a family similar to the one being represented. Additionally, the involvement of the young boys’ mother is beneficial to the story. She had a positive and encouraging outlook on the young boys’ father’s relationship.

I also appreciated that this story began with a mother and father getting divorced. The topic of divorce, alone, is usually difficult. It is typically depicted, again by society, with anger, hurt, and constant arguing. However, Willhoite gives the reader an opportunity to see a divorce occur in which the parents and the child are happy and supportive of one another.

Ideas Revisited

I recently attended a poetry performance for my class TE 491. The featured poet of the night was Diane Gilliam. She read from her most recent anthology, Kettle Bottom. This was a collection of poems referencing postcolonial Appalachian culture. I found it interesting, and it particularly made me think back to the beginning of our class when we read and wrote our own autobiographical poems. One poem you displayed for us to mimic was a poem wrote about/by Appalachian culture. It was great to see this idea and stance revisited outside of our classroom.

Questioning Faith

I always find it exciting when topics in one class overlap or become apparent in another. This has occurred for me a lot this year between our class, TE 448, and my poetry class TE491. Recently in our class we read the book Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman in which, main character, Justine questions her Jewish faith and attempts to convert to Catholicism. Tonight, my other class TE 491, held a poetry “concert” Trillium. One of the presenters was a young girl who was a junior at Eastern High School. For an art class she was instructed to write a poem and create a piece of artwork to accompany it. She chose to present both her poem and art at Trillium. Within her artwork was a collage of symbols and pictures that she drew. However, the most predominant ones were a drawing of a cross, representing Christianity, and a Star of David representing Judaism. When asked to further discuss why she drew what she did, the young girl spoke to us briefly about her struggle in what faith she believes in.

This not only captured my attention because of our class session focusing around this issue, but also due to a question I posed during our class. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the book I was unsure as to if a child who was twelve years old would go as far as to question his/her faith. This question was answered and reinforced through the simple presentation given by the young girl from Eastern High School.

Expanding Perceptions

As I read through this weeks article by Sandra S. Yamate I was again brought back to the reoccurring theme in our classroom; insider vs. outsider. Within the article I found my attention begin to focus when she mentioned writers who are more “familiar” with the Asian Pacific American Community. This led to me to question both myself and the author asking, does familiar mean the person does not have to be an insider in terms of ethnicity? As I continued my reading, Yamate began to discuss the opportunities that are taken away from not just the minority groups but also the majority. “Children of all races and ethnic origins are being offered a disturbingly artificial view of the world in which they live, one that does not begin to reflect the diversity of the society in which they will be expected to live, work, play, and grow.” This quote, taken from the article I feel is very powerful. It helps to speak for other groups of individuals who suffer due to the inaccurate representation of certain minority groups. Not only are unjust and unfair stereotypes placed upon minority groups, but youth of all races and groups minority and majority are expected to believe in these mistakes creating further misconceptions. Yamate goes on to say, “Children are our hope for the future, yet they are handicapped when their books and educational materials persist in proffering a grossly distorted view of the diverse races and ethnic groups that comprise the United States.” As I continue to take a step back and evaluate children literature I will continue to keep this in mind when deciding what books I believe are sufficient for my students as the future of our country.

MSU Museum Visit

Our trip to the MSU museum was an insightful look into the success and accomplishments of Latino/Latina Americans. It was incredibly interesting reading the diversity of each selected individuals history; such as their journey to America and their path to success. However, as I was reading their message boards I found myself paying closer attention to the direct quotes of each individual. Within their quotes I was able to connect to each person, and see how each classified themselves (American or Latino), as well as who they attribute their accomplishments to. In addition to their life stories and direct quotes, there was a picture displayed of each individuals. These caught my eye because many of them did not fulfill the "stereotypical" picture I would have envisioned. The female basketball players picture first gave me a glimpse into her life as a basketball player intertwined with being a mother and a woman. I would have typically pictured her displayed with a basketball in her uniform and on a basketball court. However, she was pictured, yes with a basketball, but also sitting on what appeared to be a living room floor reading.

Along with the exhibit on Latino Achievements our class was given the opportunity to view pictures taken from insider children. A group of children from Africa were handed cameras and instructed to take pictures of whats important to them. The majority of portraits displayed consisted of family member, animals that provide food, and friends. I believe that these pictures represented the parallel between children around the world. Although each child comes from a diverse background, their appreciation for family, friends, and altogether happiness remains the same. These insider children, fairly young, between the ages of 6 and 12 were able to acknowledge the importance and value in their relationships and necessities.

Critical Evaluation of Little House on the Prairie

The Kuhlman article was very enlightening as to her views regarding the well known Little House on the Prairie books. As a child I too read these books and seemed to thoroughly enjoy them. It was not until after reading this article that my opinion on them has been drastically changed. Kuhlman makes a great statement that "Literature is a powerful tool for fostering understanding and influencing beliefs" (L\o& Leahy, 1997), and this books proves to be a prime example. Often time youth become so familiar with consistently hearing and seeing inaccurate representations of other groups that it quickly becomes the norm to them. I believe i fall into the category of a person who was so familiar with inaccurate representations of other minority groups that i mistook them for the norm. I found Kuhlman's interaction with the fifth grade class she visited to be very interesting. She showed that not all children will be directly affect, but those who are do not let it go unmentioned. As a future teacher i appreciated Kuhlam's advice in first taking a critical look at the book before presenting it to a classroom of impressionable children. She recommended questions to ask yourself as a reader, and to pose to the children as well.

Al Capone Does My Shirts

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko was a surprisingly enjoyable book. Prior to reading it I had little knowledge about Al Capone, Alcatraz, and what this story was about. However, there were many aspects of this story I enjoyed. I found it incredibly interesting that the author chose to tell the story of two individual characters through only the voice of one. I also noticed Choldenko’s attempt to possibly make her book more relatable to younger children by formatting each chapter as a journal entry stating the day and date. This story was unlike many books I had read before, in that the family was not the stereotypical one depicted within America society. Considering the time period in which the book took place, it was rather unusual to read of a family that was so diverse in their jobs, attitudes, and characteristics as the one in this story. The idea of Moose’s sister having a disability, that I interpreted to be autism, was played out perfectly by the author. Choldenko chose to represent Natalie as apparently different yet the same as any other child. This book did an outstanding job of breaking stereotypes.

Middle East Book Club Award

The Middle East Book Award was created in 1999 to "recognize books for children and young adults that contribute meaningfully to the understanding of the Middle East." Awards are given in three categories; picture books for children 3-8, literature for children and young adults, and reference books for children and young adults. Books may be nominated by educators, librarians, or the general public. Books must be published between January 1st of the previous year and August 31st of the current year. The winners are announced in November at the MEOC annual meeting which is during the Middle East Studies Association conference.

The Middle Eastern Outreach Council, MEOC, was established in 1981 and sponsors this award. They are a group of non-profit "educators dedicated to disseminating apolitical and nonpartisan information, resources and activities furthering understanding about the Middle East." The MEOC hopes to reach K-12 and college level audiences in order to increase their knowledge about people, places, and culture in Middle East specifically, Israel, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan.

Books are chosen based on the authenticity of their portrayal of Middle Eastern subject as well as on their characterization, plot, and appearance for the intended audience. Some titles include Counting Your Way Through Iran, The Librarian of Basra, and Habibi. Unlike Newberry and Caldecot winners, the Middle East Book Award is not recognized publicly on or in the books. The book winners are only available online. The Award itself does not have its own website, but rather can be found through the MEOC website. Websites listed below reference the award and previous recipients.

The committee for the Middle East Book Award consists of 7 volunteer nationally recognized educators chosen by the MEOC.

Below is a list of websites

/sources:http://socialscience.tyler.cc.tx.us/mkho/MEOC/http://www.outreachworld.org/article.asp?articleid=45http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/outreach/news/meoc_200http://socialscience.tyler.cc.tx.us/mkho/MEOC/middle_east_book_award.htmhttps://listserv.byu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0711&L=arabic-l&T=0&H=1&P=6302http://www.danahall.org/news_and_notes/september-october.html

Poetry In Classrooms

During our class discussion about the Bronx Masquerade we talked about poetry within the classroom. We related our book to the movie (and also book) Freedom Writers, which implemented the same idea of a powerful teacher’s idea which ultimately led to the transformation of the students. Later in the week I attended my TE 491 class, all about poetry. As a class we had watched a television interview with prominent Hispanic poet, Martin Espanda. Throughout the interview Espada talked about the impact of poetry on the lives of children, particularly minority groups. During the interview clips were shown of a class of minority children, mainly Hispanic, whose teacher applied the same idea as Open Mike Fridays to her classroom. The children were shown reading poems and discussed how poetry has become an outlet from their daily struggles. If you want to check out the interview here is the website http://www.pbs.org/moyers.

Bronx Masquerade

First off i really enjoyed reading our last book, Bronx Masquerade. After picking it up from the library i was unable to put it down, and finished reading it all in one sitting. I was intrigued by the teacher, Mr. Ward, and his students ability to take risks. A simple paper turned into an opportunity for a classroom of diverse individuals to find a common ground based off their differences. Open mike Fridays allowed the student's to not only display their creative ability, but also enabled them to find another voice. They found the freedom and courage to discuss personal issues. This class activity drew the attention of other students, faculty, and the community. As the year came to an end the classroom, once divided by stereotypes and prejudices, was united as a family.

I hope to someday as a teacher implement a program within my classroom that reaches the students as Mr. Ward was able to do with his. I believe it is a great way to show the students that a classroom can be more than just a place to learn. In a sense it can be a community on its own. Providing an atmosphere that allows the students to feel comfortable and confident will hopefully enable them to instill these character traits throughout their everyday life and future endeavours.

Arab American Children's Literature

The article we read by Tami C. Al-Hazza was helpful in not only helping me to better understand the Arab culture and people, but was also beneficial to my future as a teacher. I found it interesting to read that only a small, 20% of the entire world’s Muslim population is actually Arab. Additionally, I had not previously known that the Arab world includes numerous other populations such as Christians, Masonites, and Egyptian Copts. Often times Arab’s are labeled inaccurately within the American society and Al-Hazza does an excellent job of supplying accurate information.

In terms of children’s literature I found this article extremely informative, providing many examples. Al-Hazza presents books for all genres and types; fiction, novels, picture books, information, poetry and folktale. This is an article that I will refer to when I have a classroom of my own. I feel confident that the books mentioned throughout serve as great representations of the Arab culture and will provide positive and credible information and pictures for my future students.

September 22,2008

This past summer I ran a summer camp program at a local Christian daycare. The facility is located within the church, and because of this it holds many outside activities and events. Towards the end of summer there was a major Arab organization conference held over a two day time period. I have little experience and prior knowledge with this cultural group and found myself spending my lunch breaks trying to learn more. I gathered information pamphlets about their group and culture as a whole. While reading Al-Hazza and Bob Lucking’s article I found that some of the websites given near the end sounded familiar. After digging through my stuff, I was able to find a pamphlet I was given at the conference which provided the website www.cie.org/resources.asp, also mentioned in our article. This website is beneficial in finding diverse information in regards to Arab holidays, classroom lessons, articles, media sources, and community events.

September 17, 2008

I was very intrigued by today's debate over the insider/outsider issue. As I sat back and listened to both groups, I took in all that was being proposed and defended. All the while the debate went on, and no matter which points are brought forth it always came back to the same question; How do you define an insider and outsider. After class I revisited my previous definition and stance using the ideas gathered from our debate. From your personal opinions and definition you are then able to place yourself among a group and stand proudly as a representative of it.

Insider/Outsider Debate

These articles were extremely informative and also provided great insight and opinions. Prior to reading these articles I had placed myself among the outsiders. Agreeing with Shannon, I am all of the characteristics that define the majority or mainstream culture within America. With my lack of knowledge and experience about other cultures and diverse groups, I could never imagine myself attempting to take on the label insider. However, I found it very intriguing how these authors "battled" with their speech this issue and defended their pieces of work with dignity and class. It was not until further in my readings of the articles that I realized the possibility of calling myself an insider. Within Cai's article he mentions that the mainstream, who often consider themselves outsiders, are in fact just as much of an insider as anyone else. Because I meet all qualifications for a standard majority individual, this places me at the forefront of multiculturalism.

Not only did the articles help clarify where I stand on the insider/outsider debate, they also allowed me to learn more about multiculturalism in general. Shannon makes a great point when he states, "We should not have a separate category of literature called multicultural literature, because the separation would make general literature appear as the norm and multicultural literature as alien." (Cai 316) It was not until reading this sentence that I really thought about how multiculturalism as a group of literature could work against itself. This is an idea and suggestion I wish to further discuss in class.