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unladylike series the first of which appeared in 2014 rarely appear in nominations despite wide success with readers diversity in characters and a literary style by which i mean endpaper maps and literary allusions and a twist in the traditional tale type that the carnegie judges have tended to favour it was not always thus in fact the first winner pigeon post 1936 was one of arthur ransome s swallows and amazons series lucy pearson describes it as deeply concerned with the land with ideas of belonging and with heritage and history https carnegieproject wordpress com 2016 04 10 pigeon post but certainly not an issue book in the same way that sarah crossan s one the 2016 carnegie winner or tanya landman s buffalo soldier the 2015 carnegie winner are the emphasis on issue based literature mostly for older readers and the preference for it from both publishers and award committees encourage authors of colour to write about issues in the hope of gaining literary success tanya landman s carnegie medal winner announces its serious issue on the front cover notably the book is by a white author and set in america rather than britain to date no british author of colour has ever won the carnegie therefore i want to focus the rest of this blog on two authors who have recently published books which might be considered slight by not just award judges but reviewers teachers and librarians as well malorie blackman and patrice lawrence have both written issue books for older readers that the carnegie medal process ignored anyway blackman s 2001 noughts and crosses often considered her most significant book and patrice lawrence s 2016 orangeboy which won the waterstone s prize were not shortlisted both of these books considered questions of racial identity and power structures among other things but their recent books for the publisher barrington stoke are very different blackman s ellie and the cat 2019 illustrated by matt robertson originally published in 1994 as elaine you re a brat by orchard books concerns according to the back cover list of themes cats magic friendship lawrence s toad attack 2019 illustrated by becka moor lists friendship toads tricks as its themes these themes combined with book covers that depict smiling children and animals drawn in cartoon like fashion indicate right away that these books are not going to deal with serious issues or be carnegie contenders the plots of these books bear out the promise of the covers ellie and the cat is set in contemporary times but it is a fairytale like story with a wise woman ellie s grandmother who teaches the rudest most disagreeable child i have ever met 12 her granddaughter ellie to behave through the use of a transformation a quest and the help of magical talking animals lawrence s toads on the other hand do not talk but they cause havoc for protagonists leo and rosa who must discover both how to stop the hundreds of giant toads from destroying local gardens and how to stop the destruction of the toads themselves by angry mobs typical for barrington stoke books these two are short both resolve in under 75 pages with relatively simple vocabulary and high readability the stories follow in the tradition of humorous magical or hyperbolic books with mildly delivered messages about good behavior or living in society such as gillian cross s jason banks and the pumpkin of doom also barrington stoke 2018 or even older stories by authors like dorothy edwards or dick king smith the difference is that blackman s and lawrence s books have protagonists of colour ellie and leo are at least partly leo has a white mother and grandfather black british heritage and rosa is british asian but in many ways that is the only difference these books are not about being black or asian and they certainly are not about the problem of being an ethnic minority it is not a new phenomenon to include british children of colour in stories such as these gillian cross had a school series first published in the early 1980s that included clipper a black british girl but they have typically featured as parts of a gang or sidekicks what lawrence and blackman do in these books is foreground the protagonists of colour and the illustrators follow suit by keeping them prominent and central in the illustrations throughout readers are not reading about the problem of being black or asian british but they are reading about being black or asian british lawrence and blackman give readers the opportunity to see characters of colour in leading roles part of humorous situations and allowed to problem solve in a way that does not focus on identity these books may appear slight but they perform an important role they make being black and asian part of being british in contrast with a publishing and awards industry that want to make them only black british or only british asian and this is a change a sleight of hand if you will which over the long term could have more impact than any individual medal winning book share this print opens in new window print email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading this entry was posted in children s literature uncategorized and tagged arthur ransome barrington stoke becka moor carnegie medal gillian cross humor in children s literature malorie blackman matt robertson patrice lawrence reflecting realities robin stevens tanya landman on february 28 2019 by sandsk2014 three kings of puerto rican children s literature 1 reply happy three kings day while most americans celebrate christmas as their major winter holiday in puerto rico where i was last week christmas extends from as one person there told me thanksgiving night when they put up the tree to the san sebastían festival in old san juan during the third week in january one highlight is today el día de los tres reyes magos everywhere we went in puerto rico there were signs and statues and light displays marking today s festival which was at one time the traditional gift giving day of the holiday season one of several books available at libreria laberinto for three kings day as you can tell from the glare on the photo it was wrapped in plastic like many of the children s books and therefore could not be browsed through in the store now as always influence from the mainland and larger powers have had an effect on how puerto ricans celebrate and christmas has gained prominence accordingly outside influence is of course historically the norm for caribbean islands and like the three kings who came from other lands to bring their gifts exploring imperial powers have changed and continue to change all aspects of puerto rican life this includes children s books while i was pleased especially after my forays to bookstores in former british colonial islands to see a wide variety of specifically puerto rican children s literature available they were dominated by three elements the history of the island language issues and the value in all sorts of ways placed on reading the folktale section was dominated by juan bobo tales this is only a small part of the wall of books by and about puerto rico for children available at the bookstore as with many attempts at creating a national children s literature a great deal of attention is paid to the history both factual and folkloric of the island in its children s literature at librería laberinto a well stocked bookstore at the heart of old san juan they had a whole wall of children s books from and about puerto rico many of these are folktales prominent among the stories were juan bobo tales juan bobo is an apparently foolish character in puerto rican folklore who yet often succeeds against ridiculous odds like brer rabbit juan bobo has been discussed as a trickster character who wins out over the greater power in brer rabbit s case the tales are often seen as an allegory of slavery and in juan bobo s an allegory of colonialism with the puerto rican succeeding over the spanish colonizer sharing the shelves with the juan bobo tales were taíno folktales stories from the pre columbian inhabitants of the island the taíno were almost entirely wiped out in puerto rico by columbus and the spanish but today they have gained a revered status as ivonne figueroa has pointed out much has been said of the taínos lately but it wasn t until the early 1900 s that the study of the taínos took off http www elboricua com history html this time period accords with both movements for puerto rican independence from both the spanish and the americans and with the international rise in the study of anthropology and folklore which often manifested as a search for the noble primitive an antidote to an increasingly industrialized world renewed interest in folklore emphasizes this rejection of the globalized world of technology european architectural styles and buildings dominate the counting book los numeros en ponce in numbers but the power of colonialism is also present in puerto rican children s books one of the books i brought back yvonne sanavitis and karen dietrich s los números en ponce in numbers plaza mayor 2009 is a counting book that tells the history of the city of ponce in puerto rico most of the sights associated with the different numbers are connected to la plaza de las delicias the main town square built by the early spanish settlers in the 1670s including the fuente del léon lion fountain city hall the fire station and the armstrong poventud house these buildings and monuments are all displayed in their european style decoration and a brief description of the spanish colonizers who created them and held sway over them is given the taínos on the other hand are not mentioned until the last number of the book the page describing 100 shows an isolated path of stones outside the center of the city the text reads floods caused by a hurricane washed away layers of earth in the tibes neighborhood of ponce and revealed an indigenous taíno ceremonial site tibes excavations have provided important information about ceremonies eating habits ceramics and construction of homes of the indigenous population of puerto rico 51 it is difficult to see looking at the illustration how any of this information could have come from the pile of rocks additionally the book says nothing of the people living in the neighborhood at the time of the floods or what happened to them the focus is on the people with the power to shape history the book opens with a quotation from educator rafael pont flores stating ponce no longer repeats its history it makes it better 5 the tainos are only represented in los numeros en ponce in numbers by the number 100 the illustration shows an unreadable pile of rocks los números en ponce in numbers also highlights another trend i found in the children s books in librería laberinto a focus on language many of the books available came in dual editions or dual languages showing the tension between english and spanish on the island spanish is of course the native language of most puerto ricans but especially in tourist areas like san juan and ponce english is increasingly necessary at all levels of the economy in 2012 the island instituted a pilot program to shift instruction in puerto rico s schools from spanish to english https www caliricans com 2012 08 english to replace spanish in puerto rico schools but it is a fraught issue that mirrors the tensions between the island and the mainland united states this board book highlights words specific to puerto rican culture perhaps it should be labeled trilingual instead of bilingual perhaps the concerns about language come to a head in palabras boricuas puerto rican words 2016 a bilingual or perhaps trilingual board book by hector e baez right on the front cover along with the title and the puerto rican flag is the sentence no decimos banana decimos guineo translated into english this says we don t say banana we say banana this epitomizes for me the struggles over language found in books specifically for puerto rican children the thiago series focuses on issues and concepts important to puerto ricans but because publishing on an island is expensive even short books like this are costly but how many children have access to these books is something i would be interested to know as i said librería laberinto had an excellent selection of books showing how much specifically puerto rican children s literature is valued but these books were also incredibly expensive compared to their translated counterparts most were produced by the educational arm of the university of puerto rico or the instituto de cultura puertoriqueña again this shows that children s literature is of cultural value but the cost of publishing books on a small island means that most picture books are hard cover only many of them in the bookstore were sealed in plastic and therefore unbrowsable the books designed for beginning chapter book readers such as the thiago series by yolanda arroyo pizarro and published by edp university of puerto rico can cost ten dollars for a twenty six page paperback book these prices mean that many children will only encounter books in libraries or schools rather than being able to have shelves of books in their homes this is true in other places as well of course but puerto rico s past and present shape the audience for their specifically puerto rican children s books leaving the treasures of reading out of reach for many share this print opens in new window print email a link to a friend opens in new window email share on x opens in new window x share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading this entry was posted in children s literature uncategorized and tagged caribbean folktales colonialism counting books hector e baez imperialism juan bobo karen dietrich language libreria laberinto puerto rico tainos three kings day yolanda arroyo pizarro yvonne sanavitis on january 6 2019 by sandsk2014 yes actually they do know it s christmas imperialism and the holidays 1 reply my least favorite christmas songs involve people feeling sorry for other people there s no better way to encourage smug self satisfaction about your superior life than listening to songs where people buy shoes for little boys who have mothers with cancer at least the shoe song is about local face to face charity the all time most annoying christmas song in my opinion is bob geldof s 1984 do they know it s christmas a world wide smash hit and christmas number one in the uk i know that i am not supposed to hate this song because all the profits went to help sick and starving children in africa not once but three times it was re recorded in 2004 and 2014 both times as charity singles but this song embodies for me all that is wrong with formerly imperial countries and the way that they understand the world an image from iceland s banned christmas advert perhaps the orangutan isn t starving enough first ...