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Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children's Fiction
Book by Sims, Rudine
111 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1982
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 14, 2021
Illuminating, and sadly not outdated, even though many of the title refences are.
November 13, 2015
(I am reviewing this book based on it's usefulness today, 33 years after it was published.)
Rudine Sims analyzed 150 children books - all "contemporary realistic fiction about Afro-Americans published from 1965 to 1979." She did not include historical fiction, nor books about Black characters from outside of the United States.
She sorted the books based on their social, cultural, and historical content, and then used specific titles from the 150 to illustrate examples of how books either aim to fulfill or actually fulfill different purposes. The categories she created were; "social conscience" books for "whites to know the condition of their fellow humans," "melting pot" books for both Black and White readers, and "culturally conscious" books for Afro-American readers to see themselves reflected and illuminated. This last category seemed at the time to be growing steadily, but Sims noted the long decades of good intentions versus the short list of relevant, responsive literature.
She also gives special attention to the 5 Afro-American authors who wrote multiple stories in Sims' category of "culturally conscious" books; Lucille Clifton, Eloise Greenfield, Virginia Hamilton, Sharon Bell Mathis, and Walter Dean Myers. The idea being that these 5 authors were presenting the most authentic, best-intentioned literature, and their successful writing techniques meant that they were often published, purchased, and read.
I felt a little frustrated reading it, because I didn't know many of the books. Still, her thoughts and analysis are very relevant and provide a useful lens for considering books published today.
She often refers to an article by N. Larrick, published in the Saturday Review in September 1965. When I hear librarians on the internet claim that there's no point buying books with African American characters because the kids in their libraries don't check them out, I want them to read this quote from 1965 by Larrick;
"The impact of all-white books on 39,600,000 white children is probably worse (than on non-white children). Although his light skin makes him one of the world's minorities, the white child learns from his books that he is the kingfish. There seems little chance of developing the humility needed for world cooperation instead of world conflict, as long as our children are brought up on gentle doses of racism through their books."
That is very much still true today.
Rudine Sims analyzed 150 children books - all "contemporary realistic fiction about Afro-Americans published from 1965 to 1979." She did not include historical fiction, nor books about Black characters from outside of the United States.
She sorted the books based on their social, cultural, and historical content, and then used specific titles from the 150 to illustrate examples of how books either aim to fulfill or actually fulfill different purposes. The categories she created were; "social conscience" books for "whites to know the condition of their fellow humans," "melting pot" books for both Black and White readers, and "culturally conscious" books for Afro-American readers to see themselves reflected and illuminated. This last category seemed at the time to be growing steadily, but Sims noted the long decades of good intentions versus the short list of relevant, responsive literature.
She also gives special attention to the 5 Afro-American authors who wrote multiple stories in Sims' category of "culturally conscious" books; Lucille Clifton, Eloise Greenfield, Virginia Hamilton, Sharon Bell Mathis, and Walter Dean Myers. The idea being that these 5 authors were presenting the most authentic, best-intentioned literature, and their successful writing techniques meant that they were often published, purchased, and read.
I felt a little frustrated reading it, because I didn't know many of the books. Still, her thoughts and analysis are very relevant and provide a useful lens for considering books published today.
She often refers to an article by N. Larrick, published in the Saturday Review in September 1965. When I hear librarians on the internet claim that there's no point buying books with African American characters because the kids in their libraries don't check them out, I want them to read this quote from 1965 by Larrick;
"The impact of all-white books on 39,600,000 white children is probably worse (than on non-white children). Although his light skin makes him one of the world's minorities, the white child learns from his books that he is the kingfish. There seems little chance of developing the humility needed for world cooperation instead of world conflict, as long as our children are brought up on gentle doses of racism through their books."
That is very much still true today.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 20, 2020
This book is short and accessible and absolutely vital. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s work should be required reading in teacher preparation programs.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews