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In 2013 Deborah Ahenkorah, cofounder and executive director of Golden Baobab (a social enterprise aimed at promoting African children's literature), wrote an article in The Huffington Post titled "Where Are the Stories for African Children?" In it she decried the relative absence of books in which African children could see their physical likenesses, beliefs, and immediate everyday experiences reflected. I remember reading the article and thinking that someone should write one titled "Where Are the Stories for Caribbean Children?" At the same time, the idea of yet another article taking the "all-white world of children's books" to task felt redundant and discouragingly pointless. Four years later, annual publishing statistics from the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) reveal that little has changed. Well, not exactly. Something has changed: my mind. Speaking out about diversity issues in publishing can seem like a Sisyphean task, but, like the Caribbean American writer and activist Audre Lorde, I "have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."

The Caribbean is one of the most culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse regions on earth. It comprises thirty-one island territories and over seven hundred islands in the Caribbean Sea, as well as those parts of the surrounding continental mainlands historically linked to it; at least fifty-nine languages are spoken. Unfortunately, its history is also one of deep-seated colonialism, imperialism, and racism - battles that are still being waged today and that shape the ongoing perception, and resultant marginalization, of a varied and vibrant region. What this can mean for children's books is that still, and all too often, others are telling our stories at the expense of authenticity and "own voices," leading to the perpetuation of a North American/European outsider view of our cultures. And with the big conglomerate publishers as competitors, homegrown Caribbean-based publishers hardly stand a chance.

Caribbean people as a group have often been overlooked in children's book diversity discussions, even by campaigns such as We Need Diverse Books. My own analysis over a six-year period reveals that, on average, only fifty-eight English-language children's and young adult books with Caribbean protagonists or by Caribbean authors are published annually, and sixty-two percent of them are self-published. This includes books published in the Caribbean, North America, and elsewhere. The Américas Award for children's and YA literature, an award that specifically recognizes Caribbean American communities, does an excellent job of rewarding exemplary books for young people, but it is, in effect, a Latino award: in its twenty-four-year history, only seven of the awarded titles have been Anglophone Caribbean books. Caribbean American Heritage Month (June), established to highlight the longstanding, significant contributions of Caribbean people to American society, is yet to be recognized across the children's literature world. Very few publishing trade magazines bother to highlight Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean children's and YA authors and books. (Hispanophone Caribbean books are often recognized as Latino literature.)

Meanwhile, as they have been for centuries, children in the Caribbean are raised on a steady diet of North American and European literature penned mostly by white people from the countries that colonized ours. To use Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's metaphor, books can be "mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors," and we need more mirror books that affirm the Caribbean child's inherent belonging in the world.

* * *

Historically, a large percentage of traditionally published children's trade books labeled as "Caribbean-interest" have been written, illustrated, produced, and published by cultural outsiders who, sometimes despite their best efforts, fail to ensure that the representations in books are accurate and affirming. Google any traditionally published Caribbean children's picture book and chances are a Caribbean person has not illustrated it; Faustin Charles's A Caribbean Counting Book, illustrated by Roberta Arenson (an American), is just one example of a picture book whose artwork is offensive to many Caribbean readers. The recently published novel My Brigadista Year, by the otherwise brilliant Katherine Paterson, was questioned by the current Young People's Poet Laureate, Margarita Engle, for being historically and linguistically inaccurate. In Darkness by Nick Lake won a 2013 Printz Award despite cultural errors (Haitians do not eat fish and chips, for example) and its use of Hollywood-ized ideas about Vodou - two examples of what Haitian American author Ibi Zoboi describes as the book's "glaring failure to humanize Haitian children and present a nuanced view of how Haitians grapple with trauma and poverty." American authors such as Patricia Storace, Jan Brett, Robert D. San Souci, Frané Lessac, and Phillis Gershator have published children's stories that display a superficial relationship with Caribbean culture. Moreover, books like these are often praised by mainstream review outlets that lack the cultural sensitivity to pick up on problematic issues.

These outsider-sanctioned books tend to repeat the same worn-out tropes - usually it's the tried-and-tested immigrant story. They continually fall back on the "Four Fs" approach to package Caribbean culture (folklore, food, fashion, and festivals) for consumption by a mainly white, middle-class, non-Caribbean audience. These narrowly focused and often distorted narratives limit and trivialize Caribbean people and culture.

Where are the children's books about a city-dwelling Jamaican child coping with the death of her pet, or an Antiguan child using his imagination to entertain himself on a sick day, or an affluent Haitian teen who (God forbid) stays in the Caribbean and falls in love for the first time? This is not to say that Caribbean children's books should never be problem- or issue-based, but there should be much more room for stories of magic, fantasy, humor, and the everyday, albeit stories that don't put the Caribbean child in a stereotypical box filled with sun, sea, and sand. Too many of the so-called "Caribbean-themed" books have the trappings of tokenism. One can almost imagine Caribbean readers turning their collective backs on these books and saying, "No thanks, I'm not your teachable moment."

Lately, there have been some promising signs. The Burt Award for own voices in Caribbean YA literature was established in 2014 by the Canadian Organization for Development Through Education. Anansesem ( anansesem.com), the online children's literature magazine I started in 2010, provides a public forum for discussion and publication of Caribbean children's stories by both adults and children. And there are a growing number of children's and YA publishers set up and run by Caribbean people: Editorial Gente Nueva, Educa Vision, PLB Editions, LMH Publishing, Blue Banyan Books, and Campanita Books/Little Bell Caribbean, to name a few. Not all books produced by cultural outsiders are objectionable, but Caribbean publishers are most likely to get it right, and the privilege to tell and prosper financially from our stories should firstly be ours. As writer Zetta Elliott urges us to remember: "If we do not create stories that expose the beauty and complexity of our varied realities, we will indeed remain trapped by the 'fictions' created by those outside of our cultures and communities."

* * *

Diversity discussions in publishing have to move beyond appraisals of the content of books to addressing global economic inequalities underlying the system. The monopolistic practices of mainstream North American and European publishers have unvaryingly stunted the growth of a homegrown Caribbean children's book market. This is partly due to the mesmerizing influence of "First World" culture and products; Caribbean booksellers, libraries, and consumers are caught up in the vicious cycle of dependency on foreign imports, a lasting relic of colonialism. On an economic level, Caribbean publishers flounder due to unrestricted competition from the "Big Five" U.S. publishers that control the international buyers' market. Positive change will perhaps only occur decisively when the international conglomerate publishers are forced to break up their oligopoly of the international children's book market.

The work of foreign literacy charities and "voluntourism" projects in the Caribbean have also hindered the growth of local children's publishing. Over the past fifty years, the Caribbean has become a magnet for North American and European literacy development workers who visit the region in a steady stream, bringing literally millions of children's books with them that are then donated to Caribbean schools and libraries. These foreign literacy projects are well-intentioned but shortsighted and paternalistic. At no time was this more evident than during the rebuilding effort following the 2010 earthquake, in which Haiti became a virtual dumping ground for thousands of French children's books - the need for culturally relevant children's books written in Kreyòl, the language spoken by eighty percent of Haiti's population, being patently ignored. Library for All ( libraryforall.org) has compiled an invaluable list of Haitian and Caribbean publishers, many of which publish Kreyòl children's books (and there are many good self-published ones, too), but these resources remain severely underused.

The mercenary fact is that foreigner-led literacy interventions in the Caribbean are partly driven by financial self-interest. North American and European publishers sell off their excess inventory to the many foreign literacy charities operating in the Caribbean, which leads to "donation dumping." International economist Dambisa Moyo coined the term "dead aid" to argue that development assistance sent from the West to Africa is not merely a waste of money but actually a cause of Africa's persistent poverty. The deluge of North American and European children's book donations to the Caribbean is another form of "dead aid," as it has not only undermined the Caribbean children's book economy but also fosters the ongoing colonization of Caribbean children's reading material, perpetuating their cultural disenfranchisement. The foreign charities would do much better to invest their money in Caribbean publishing through local purchasing, import substitution on books, funding, and professional development assistance. This would help Caribbean publishing economies become self-sufficient.

It is time to allow Caribbean children's books to move beyond being culturally exhibitionistic. Everything is culture, but culture is not everything. Even as the crucial goal of diversification of children's publishing is pursued, the insidious cultural objectification of minorities in "diverse" children's books needs to be resisted. The social anthropologist Peter Loizos has described culture as a "cloak of many patches" that can be worn in many ways and set aside when needed. It's time to lift the cloak of culture for Caribbean children.

* * *

Last year, Marley Dias, an eleven-year-old American girl of Jamaican heritage, was able to deliver one thousand "black girl books" to children in Jamaica, and while her effort was outstanding, Jamaican children don't just need "black books," they need Jamaican books. The identity politics of America, founded upon the primacy of race, do not necessarily apply to the rest of the world, and certainly not to most of the Caribbean. But if we can learn one thing from a smart eleven-year-old girl who tells it like it is, it's that we should be unapologetic in our demands for children's books that speak to us, not about us.

A Selection of Caribbean-set Own Voices Books

Picture Books
The Secret Footprints (Knopf, 2000) by Julia Alvarez; illus. by Fabian Negrin

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music (Houghton, 2015) by Margarita Engle; illus. by Rafael López

Malaika's Costume (Groundwood, 2016) by Nadia L. Hohn; illus. by Irene Luxbacher

Running the Road to ABC (Simon, 1996) by Denizé Lauture; illus. by Reynold Ruffins

In the Land of the Shak Shak Tree (Macmillan Caribbean, 2005) by Jade Small; illus. by Rachel Parker

Hurricane (Tamarind, 2008) by Verna Allette Wilkins; illus. by Tim Clarey

Intermediate/Middle School
Secrets of Tamarind (Feiwel, 2011) by Nadia Aguiar

The Jumbies (Algonquin, 2015) by Tracey Baptiste

In the Shade of the Níspero Tree (Orchard Books, 1999) by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand

Tales from the Caribbean (Puffin Classics, 2017) by Trish Cooke

Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490 (The Royal Diaries) (Scholastic, 2005) by Edwidge Danticat

Lion Island: Cuba's Warrior of Words (Atheneum, 2016) by Margarita Engle

Blue Mountain Trouble (Levine/Scholastic, 2009) by Martin Mordecai

Why Does the Coquí Sing? (Holiday, 2004) by Barbara Garland Polikoff

Older
Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba (Holt, 2009) by Margarita Engle

The Sugar Island (Houghton, 2000) by Ivonne Lamazares

Nothing like Love (Doubleday Canada, 2015) by Sabrina Ramnanan

Black Rock (Serpent's Tail, 2009) by Amanda Smyth

Amor and Summer Secrets (Kensington, 2008) by Diana Rodriguez Wallach

From the November/December 2017 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. Read Summer Edward's Horn Book interview with Deborah Ahenkorah, Torchbearer for African Children's Publishing. And visit Anansesem.com

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Foreign Correspondence: Beyond the "Four Fs": Caribbean Own Voices

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In 2013 Deborah Ahenkorah, cofounder and executive director of Golden Baobab (a social enterprise aimed at promoting African children's literature), wrote an article in The Huffington Post titled "Where Are the Stories for African Children?" In it she decried the relative absence of books in which African children could see their physical likenesses, beliefs, and immediate everyday experiences reflected.

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We live in a time when we are confronted with the complex realities of race, racial identity, and racism every day, but are also advised and often encouraged to avoid discussing it. Even the mere mention of someone's race can be considered "playing the race card" or "racist." We talk about the need to be "colorblind" or the idea that there is "just one race - the human race."

"Most Americans believe in racial and gender equality and reject discrimination in any form. Yet stereotypes embedded in our brains, shaped over time by history and culture, can lead us to view the world through a biased lens and behave contrary to our deeply held egalitarian values," states The Perception Institute, an organization working to "reduce discrimination and other harms linked to race, gender, and other identity differences."

While "I don't see color" may come from a well-meaning place, studies show that it more likely does a great deal of harm. If we look closer, we often find that much of our reluctance to address race directly stems from our tendency to want to avoid discomfort. Yeah, it's hard to talk about why #BlackLivesMatter has become a rallying cry, the legacy of our government's relationship with its Native citizens, or why some individuals are called "illegal" and "alien." Clinical psychologist, author, and professor Beverly Tatum asks us to "Think about these stereotypes, these omissions, these distortions as a kind of environment that surrounds us, like smog in the air. We don't breathe it because we like it. We don't breathe it because we think it's good for us. We breathe it because it's the only air that's available."

This is the world that we inhabit; we talk about needing to talk about race without ever actually talking honestly about race. I believe that it's vital that we help our children (and ourselves) walk and talk in a way that clears that air and breathes new life into these conversations and our world. Sharing stories, real, fictional, our own, and others', is a powerful tool for that purpose. Here are a few resources and books to help us have those hard conversations with the young people in our lives.

Take Stock First
Ask yourself the hard questions first. How do you navigate race? Who are the members of your social and professional circles? Does your family discuss race? What images does your child see? What conversations does she hear from you? Take Harvard University's " Implicit Bias " test to examine your own beliefs.

Take Opportunities
When race comes up, keep the lines of communication open, even if your child says something embarrassing, insensitive, or outright racist. Don't simply condemn and shut down conversation. Ask questions to find out why they're thinking what they're thinking, and how these ideas developed. While we may want to believe that young children don't harbor biases, research has shown that, as Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman point out, " even babies discriminate."

"Young children need caring adults to help them construct a positive sense of self and a respectful understanding of others," points out Teaching for Change, in Teaching Young Children About Race. The Anti-Defamation League has an excellent collection of tips and resources for Engaging Young People in Conversations About Race. This PBS Interview with Beverly Tatum, from the series " Race: The Power of an Illusion," can also provide rich food for family conversation.

Be Authentic and Intentional
Choose books that acknowledge that all of us are "different" in some way. Look for narratives that don't only portray marginalized groups as suffering, in crisis, or being "saved" by outsiders; it's also important to avoid reading only "hero" narratives about "exceptional" individuals. Seek out stories of multidimensional characters living complex lives. I've written here about the importance of cultivating a diverse library.

Melissa Taylor's wonderful Kids Like Me book list includes more titles to share.

"Just as I am a story and you are a story and countries tell stories about themselves, race is a story, too," writes Julius Lester in Let's Talk About Race. If we speak and act with honesty, compassion, and thoughtful action, there's hope for the ending of that story.

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How to Talk to Kids About Race: Books That Can Help

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Sharing stories can be a powerful tool for talking about the complex realities of race, particularly in trying times. Here are a few resources and books to help foster conversation, empathy, and understanding with the young people in your lives.

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Soman Chainani knows how to appreciate differences. In his titular short story in "Flying Lessons & Other Stories," the author and filmmaker describes a young boy being dropped off at a beach in Spain, where he meets a boy about his own age with "wavy black hair, honey-gold skin, jade-green eyes, and look[ing] the way I always imaged Romeo would look when I read 'Romeo and Juliet.'"

When his grandmother later says she saw him staring at the boy, he protests that he wasn't. It's no bother, she replies: "The wonderful thing about Europe is that you can stare at whoever you like and no one cares."

Chainani read the story aloud late last month at the 2017 FAS Diversity Summer Panel, which addressed the importance of diversity in children's literature. The other panelists were Amitha Knight and Ellen Oh, respectively the social manager and CEO and president of the nonprofit We Need Diverse Books; the moderator was Callie Crossley, host of WGBH's "Under the Radar."

Oh cited a New York Times op-ed on "the apartheid of children's literature," which found that in children's literature, it's still a white man's world. She also described a 2014 Bookcon gathering in New York where the "power lineup" of authors included only white men. The white women in the group were angry. "Welcome to our world," said the authors of color.

That homogeneity may extend from the authors to their characters, and in turn that can have a significant impact on young readers, Oh said. She quoted a black mother telling her, "We need diverse books because my sons can be heroes too," and an LGBT teen who said, "Maybe I wouldn't have tried to kill myself if only I had seen that it was OK to be gay, it was OK to be trans."

Oh said children's books can and should create empathy.

"If you don't start that young in children, we end up where we are now, where we see hate, violence, and things that are erupting around us. Maybe that wouldn't be as problematic if we had just shown kids at a young age that the other is not something to be afraid of or to hate, that the other is a person just like you, just like me."

Chainani credited We Need Diverse Books with proving that characters of color can sell big commercial novels.

"There is this myth that happened, which we've kind of debunked now, that books by authors of color don't sell," Oh said, naming a number of authors of color who have been on The New York Times best-seller list. "That's a very important message to send. These books sell, they really do."

Knight said that when she was growing up, "I didn't know anyone who was an author, and when I read books growing up they were all mostly white people.

"When you don't see other people like you being writers, you kind of limit your imagination. It really matters, seeing you reflected on the page."

Oh stressed that diversity does not mean removing white writers from the table.

"This is not about replacement. I wish we could get rid of that idea," she said. "This is about inclusion. This is about adding. Make the table as big as you need it to be."
The Diversity Dialogues are offered by the FAS Dean's Office, FAS Human Resources, and the FAS Office of Diversity Relations and Communications.

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Harvard panelists say children's books can teach empathy as inclusion, not replacement

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Soman Chainani knows how to appreciate differences. In his titular short story in "Flying Lessons & Other Stories," the author and filmmaker describes a young boy being dropped off at a beach in Spain, where he meets a boy about his own age with "wavy black hair, honey-gold skin, jade-green eyes, and look[ing] the way I always imaged Romeo would look when I read 'Romeo and Juliet.'" When his grandmother later says she saw him staring at the boy, he protests that he wasn't.

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In the months since Donald Trump has become president, more and more people have become inspired to join the Resistance - whether that means volunteering, campaigning, donating, making calls, educating themselves and others on the issues, or otherwise. Bustle's 31 Days of Reading Resistance takes a look at the role of literature and writing in the Resistance, both as a source of inspiration and as a tool for action.
The summer Trump announced his run for the highest office was the summer before my son's first year of kindergarten. I remember walking up and down the aisles of Target loading the cart with pencils, erasers, and crayons and grabbing a box of chocolates for the teacher. I taped a handwritten cheesy note on it telling her I hoped she had a sweet and wonderful school year and sent my eldest off to school. When my child returned home after his first day of class, I asked him what he learned that day, and he asked me why his skin was brown. He asked how he could make it white because of taunts from children in the playground. He wanted to know why they kept telling him to go back to where he came from. He wanted to know what certain racist slurs hurled at him meant. I talked to the teacher, the administration, and after seeing nothing was going to change, I had to pull my child from school.

When my child returned home after his first day of class, I asked him what he learned that day, and he asked me why his skin was brown.

Like every parent, I have an innate instinct to protect my children from harm and pain. I want them to skip pebbles in streams, ride bicycles, and experience the full wonder of the transitory state that is childhood. I understand there will be squabbles with siblings, and homework that's challenging, and monsters suspected of living under beds, and I'm fully prepared to tackle those parenting challenges but the parenting part I wasn't prepared for was helping them navigate the scary monsters who are all too real and can't be dispelled with a quick scan with a flashlight under the bed. It's not just the current regime (including the complicit GOP in its entirety) and the policies they are putting in place and proposing to enact that are frightening, but also the people now emboldened to act upon the hate lurking in their hearts who then pass on the hate to their children. Until Kindergarten came with its cruel reality shock, I hoped to shield my children as best I could through the current events that haunt us, to have the tough conversations when they were older - but I learned the hard way our children live through these current events with us and so it is on me as a parent to help them navigate through it.

The parenting part I wasn't prepared for was helping them navigate the scary monsters who are all too real and can't be dispelled with a quick scan with a flashlight under the bed.

I believe it is incumbent not only on parents of children from marginalized communities and identities to have these conversations but for all parents to have these conversations. As a former educator, I know firsthand that bigotry and hate are taught (Side note: Your children are listening to the things you say, and your kid's teachers know more than you realize) and with the news cycle and the rising rhetoric there is much our children may pick up if we don't stop and actually have direct and explicit conversations about difficult topics and offer them comfort and hope and to remind them they can be the change we wish to see in this world.

Below is a sampling of the few picture books I'm reading with my children that help us navigate these current times.

This is a powerful story from the perspective of a girl who is unkind to a fellow classmate new to the school. Unlike many stories for children where there are happy endings to the tale, there is no happy ending to this one; instead it's an honest reminder that we don't always get the opportunities to undo the harm we inflict on others and that each kindness we put forward in this world ripples out to better this world no matter how large or how small our actions are.
Click here to buy.
This book follows the journey of CJ and his grandmother on their way to a soup kitchen. This book is a powerful reminder of the beauty that exists all around us, the importance of giving back to our communities and society, and our own individual power in making the world a better place.
Click here to buy.
This is a classic from my own childhood about staying true to who you are even in the face of pressure. In a world where Islamaphobia and other forms of bigotry and racism are on the rise, I find it important to remind my children that staying true to who they are and being at peace with their identity -even in the face of great ridicule and opposition - is important.
Click here to buy.
This is a book about a dog who gets into all sorts of trouble and is loved regardless. Shortly after the election, Linda Sarsour, a Muslim American activist and community organizer, spoke at an event near my home. She warned of the rising bullying and pressures our children now face and how kids, especially from marginalized backgrounds, should see their homes as a safe place because the outside world may not be. She reminded us that unconditional love now more than ever, was the greatest thing we could give our children these days. This book is a reminder to my children of the beauty of unconditional love and I hope it's a quiet regular reminder that despite the difficulties out there in the world there are people who will always be a safe space for them.
Click here to buy.
This is a biography of Rosa Parks designed for young children. I've heard many parents say they don't want their children to have to think about racism and bigotry so young and who avoid books like this one but all children need to understand the reality of racism and bigotry and this book does it in an age-appropriate way. We cannot eradicate a monster we do not know.
Click here to buy.
This hilarious and touching story of a child who thinks his mother is an alien when he sees her Resident Alien immigration card underscores just how important diverse books are for young children. With the current anti-immigration dialogues all over the country, this book brings the abstract conversations into the concrete with a look at a loving family and a mother becoming an American citizen.
Click here to buy.
These are just a handful of books of many books that children can benefit from, but however it's done, I do believe that part of resistance is providing our children unending love and support, helping them feel pride in their identities, and having the challenging conversations we must have so we can hope and pave the way through our actions for a better tomorrow.
Follow along all month long for more Reading Resistance book recommendations.

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The 6 Picture Books I'm Reading To My Kids To Help Them Deal With Current Events

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In the months since Donald Trump has become president, more and more people have become inspired to join the Resistance - whether that means volunteering, campaigning, donating, making calls, educating themselves and others on the issues, or otherwise.

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Sometimes I'm included on a panel proposal for a conference. Like most authors, I have absolutely no idea why one proposal is accepted, while another is rejected, but the real mystery of panels is titles. Many of them try to say something about diversity, but I'm not always sure exactly which aspect of diversity is being featured. Recently, I learned that I would be on a "Cuban Literature" panel at a book festival. I was thrilled. This was a specific title, clearly stated. Then I learned that the panel would also include an otherwise wonderful, wise, and revered non-Cuban author whose new book, no matter how well-intentioned, is loaded with offensive historical and linguistic errors. Many non-'own voice' authors do thorough research, but Cuba is an easy country to misinterpret. Rural Cuba, in particular, is often misunderstood by tourists who speed past impoverished villages and farms in air-conditioned buses, listening to official stories told by government guides.

I wrote to the book festival. The organizers responded immediately, changing the panel. Then, even though speaking up was awkward and quite frankly, terrifying, I wrote to the editor of Katherine Paterson's book. She and Paterson have been very gracious, but it would take a complete revision to make the book historically accurate. A few minor corrections won't make its oversimplification of a complex era any less offensive.

The basic problem with many of the books about Cuba written by casual travelers is that idealists often go to the island, listen to official propaganda, imagine Utopia, come home, and start writing. So many non-own voice books about Cuba are suddenly emerging that it's hard to keep up with them, but I try to read anything about my ancestral homeland.

Refugee by Alan Gratz makes linguistic assumptions, but is generally accurate, and the small errors are not offensive. I was in Cuba many times during the rafter crisis of the early '90s, and I know how dangerous it was to speak Fidel's name out loud. It was either whispered, or indicated with sign language, using the fingers to indicate a beard. No one would have ever pronounced his surname out loud, as characters in Refugee do, nor would they call the U.S. el norte. It was dangerous to admit that one wanted to leave the country, so a metaphor was needed, and throughout the island, everyone said Yuma, not 'the north.' Yuma was taken from old American cowboy movies where the hero would survive his desert crossing only if he could make it to Yuma, Arizona. In Cuba during the early 1990s, if secret police or neighborhood spies overheard a conversation, one could claim to be discussing the movie, not plans to build a raft.

While I was in their home, two of my cousins stepped out onto their balcony, shook their fists, and shouted, "¡Viva Fidel!" That same night, they quietly slipped away on a homemade raft. Caught by a Cuban patrol boat, they were arrested. Their parents, who were government officials, were ordered to denounce them. Their mother had been a literacy brigade volunteer, but her sons' desire for freedom of expression helped her see that literacy by itself is not enough, when accompanied by censorship. Fortunately, I was eventually able to help the whole family leave the island. I mention this story to show the complexity of Cuba. The only part of this entire saga that would have been visible to an outsider was the pro-Fidel scene on the balcony, deliberately staged to make a particular impression.

Unlike Refugee, many of the recent non-own voice books about Cuba are either wildly inaccurate, offensive, or both.

A popular young adult fantasy novel perpetuates the myth of sustainable agriculture on an island where, in reality, food has been rationed for more than half a century, and 80% of the food is imported. I think that's an injustice to the Cuban people, who are hungry.

There's a military thriller titled, Cuba Libre (Free Cuba) misspelled as an absurd and meaningless Cuba Libra (Cuba Pound).

A critically acclaimed literary novel describes women patting out tortillas with their hands even though in Cuba, the word tortilla means omelet.

There is a murder mystery featuring priests who supposedly molested children at a time when in reality, religion had been outlawed, churches were closed, and the clergy had been deported or arrested.

It wouldn't take much research for all these American authors who are jumping on the Cuba bandwagon to learn basic facts about the country they've misinterpreted. All they have to do is hire scholars-Cuban-American historians and linguists-to proofread their manuscripts.

Anyone who has read my memoir, Enchanted Air, knows that I spent the summer of 1960 in rural Cuba. Here is just a taste of the complexity of that post-revolutionary era in the countryside: My mother had around two hundred cousins. Some were uneducated, while others were highly educated. Some of the educated cousins became idealistic volunteers in the literacy brigades of 1961. However, while they were teaching illiterate people how to read Romeo and Juliet and Don Quixote-along with hard-line Stalinist propaganda-other books were banned, even burned. Poets, novelists, and journalists were arrested. Some were abritrarily executed. Many of my mother's guajiro (peasant) cousins had fought with Che Guevara in the central mountains, but now, because they were growing food in a region where it could be seized by counter-revolutionaries hiding in the mountains just uphill from their farms, they were rounded up and sent to prisons and forced labor camps. Some were incarcerated for decades, along with their entire families, simply because of the locations of farmland that had been in our family for centuries, extending back to indigenous ancestors.

The Cuban government still refers to those innocent guajiros as bandits, and so does Katherine Paterson.

I am liberal. I travel to the island of my mother's birth often. I lobby to lift the embargo. I promote peace and reconciliation. Nonetheless, I am dismayed when books written by people who don't understand Cuba's complexity decide to honor idealistic aspects of revolutionary history by simply ignoring the brutal aspects. Should a novel set in 1989 Beijing omit the Tiananmen massacre? That is the depth-or rather the shallowness-of many of these new books written by casual travelers.

People might ask me why I don't just write my own novel about rural Cuba in 1961, during the oddly juxtaposed literacy campaign/reign of terror that followed Playa Girón (called the "Bay of Pigs" by Americans). Here is my cautious answer, which I hope will stay on this page instead of circulating as a quoted tweet:

1. I don't want to be declared an enemy of the state, added to the long list of Cuban-American authors who are not allowed to visit the island.

2. I don't want relatives I have visited on the island to be accused of hosting an enemy of the state.

The basic problem is that tourists don't understand Cuba, while those of us who do understand need to self-censor.

Even though I censor myself, I have no desire to censor other writers. I believe in freedom of expression precisely because idealistic literacy brigades were accompanied by censorship, repression, and firing squads. I don't believe in any restrictions on freedom of expression-other than hate speech and inciting violence-precisely because during the 1960s, Cuba became a country where you could spend many years in prison simply for owning a Bible, reading a foreign newspaper, or listening to Beatles music.

I'm overjoyed that tourists have the right to visit Cuba. Unfortunately, they also have the right to absorb propaganda, come home, and write inaccurate books. One of the most offensive errors in the advanced review edition of My Brigadista Year is the mis-translation of Che Guevara's violent military slogan, ¡Venceremos!" (We will win) as a pacifst's "We Shall Overcome," which in the ARC is capitalized, apparently for greater emotional impact. I hope that offensive error will be corrected before the book comes out. The ghosts of my relatives who fought with Che before being arbitrarily shot or arrested, know that he wasn't a pacifist.

I don't want to censor Katherine Paterson or anyone else, but I regard inaccurate historical novels as unfinished, and even when they are finished, I don't think non-Cuban authors should be included on panels called, "Cuban Literature."

This is a year of amazing debut Cuban-American children's authors: Ruth Behar, Emma Otheguy, Pablo Cartaya, Celia Pérez! Please add them to panels, instead of inviting the authors of unfinished books. Then sit back and listen, instead of making assumptions that try to explain our complex culture and history with drastically over-simplified stereotypes.

About the author:
Margarita Engle is the 2017-2019 national Young People's Poet Laureate, and the first Latino to receive that honor. She is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner, and The Lightning Dreamer, a PEN USA Award recipient. Her verse memoir, Enchanted Air, received the Pura Belpré Award, Golden Kite Award, Walter Dean Myers Honor, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and Arnold Adoff Poetry Award, among others. Drum Dream Girl received the Charlotte Zolotow Award for best picture book text.

Her newest verse novel about the island is Forest World, and her newest picture books are All the Way to Havana, and Miguel's Brave Knight, Young Cervantes and His Dream of Don Quixote.

Books forthcoming in 2018 include The Flying Girl, How Aída de Acosta learned to Soar, and Jazz Owls, a Novel of the Zoot Suit Riots.

Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother's homeland during childhood summers with relatives. She was trained as an agronomist and botanist. She lives in central California with her husband.

www.margaritaengle.com
@YPPLaureate
Edited on 9/12/17: "Katherine Paterson's book" instead of "Paterson's book."

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Guest Post: Cuba for Beginners, by 2017-2019 National Young People's Poet Laureate Margarita Engle

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Many non-'own voice' authors do thorough research, but Cuba is an easy country to misinterpret. Rural Cuba, in particular, is often misunderstood by tourists who speed past impoverished villages and farms in air-conditioned buses, listening to official stories told by government guides.

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Books are a terrific way to celebrate and ruminate on who we are, who we've been, where we come from, and where we're going. They're also tremendously valuable in helping us gain greater understanding of cultures and experiences different from our own. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we've pulled together a list of great new books, for kids of all ages, that celebrate Latino heritage, culture, and identity. From aspiring luchadoras to determined punk rockers to men and women whose contributions to history won't soon be forgotten, these stories are great for sharing not only during Hispanic Heritage Month, but all year round.

Board Books

by Patti Rodriguez, illustrated by Ariana Stein

Share a bit of Mexican history and heritage with the littlest readers with this emotions primer that features one of the main icons of Dia De Muertos or Day of the Dead, La Calavera Catrina. Through pages filled with bold color and expressiveness, babies and toddlers will be introduced to both English and Spanish words and put names and faces to a range of feelings. For more bilingual board books from this author and illustrator, check out the full Lil' Libros collection.

Picture Books

by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

This bilingual retelling of the classic fairy tale is spunky, playful, and fun. Featuring gorgeous illustrations inspired by illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal's native Peru and cleverly crafted rhymes from author Susan Middleton Elya, it's a joy for both the reader and the listener. Don't be surprised if the kiddos can't stop talking about la reina, la niña, and that pesky little guisante.

by Cynthia Leonor Garza, illustrated by Alyssa Bermudez

Lucía thinks she has what it takes to be a luchadora (she even has an awesome mask and cape to prove it!), but she starts to doubt herself when she's told only boys can be luchadores. Then her grandma shares a family secret that inspires Lucía to feel proud of her history and empowered to follow in the steps of the luchadoras before her.

by Marc Tyler Nobleman, illustrated by Ana Aranda

In this fun and lighthearted tale, three brave goats go on the hunt for the chupacabra, a legendary predator that's rumored to feed on animals, with the hopes of scaring it away. Filled with vibrant artwork and lots of laughs, little ones will love going on this folkore-inspired adventure.

Middle Grade

by Dana Meachen Rau, illustrated by Ted Hammond and Nancy Harrison

As a labor leader and civil rights activist, Mexican American Cesar Chavez is known for dedicating his life to the improved treatment, working conditions, and wages of farm workers. In 1962, he led thousands of migrant farm workers in California and the southwest on strike, a movement that ultimately resulted in the formation of the United Farm Workers union. This biography from the popular Who Was? series tells of Chavez's early life and the conditions that led to his push for social change.

by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael Lopez

A great collection for classrooms, libraries, or home bookshelves, Bravo! Poems About Amazing Hispanics features a wide range of lyrical biographies of notable Latinos. With vibrant illustrations and tight free verse, Lopez and Engle profile figures ranging from César Chávez to José Martí, Pura Belpré, Roberto Clemente, Tito Puente, and beyond.

YA

by Melanie Crowder

Seventeen-year-old Francisco is suddenly faced with an impossible decision when his father is wrongfully accused of a crime: flee the city with (or without) his sister to safety, or live in the prison where his dad is being held. Inspired by real-life events, An Uninterrupted View of the Sky is a heartbreaking, emotional, and beautifully written novel that transports readers to 1999 Bolivia.

What other books would you add to this reading list? Share with us in the comments below.

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14 New Children's and YA Books to Read This Hispanic Heritage Month | Brightly

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Books are a terrific way to celebrate and ruminate on who we are, who we've been, where we come from, and where we're going. They're also tremendously valuable in helping us gain greater understanding of cultures and experiences different from our own.

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For 20 years, Read Across America has been synonymous with youngsters wearing red and white striped hats sitting down for story time on March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday. But this fall, the biggest national literacy awareness program, sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA), will be shifting its focus toward a year-round promotion of diverse children's books. It's a change resulting from both a heightened awareness of representation in kid lit, as well as growing scrutiny of racial imagery in the work of the beloved children's book author.

Katie Ishizuka has been analyzing Seuss' body of work for the past year. Ishizuka [a cousin of Kathy Ishizuka, SLJ's executive editor] and her husband, Ramon Stephens, founded the Conscious Kid Social Justice Library, a subscription service which sends its subscribers monthly shipments of titles featuring multicultural characters. Stephens is a Ph.D. student in education at the University of California at San Diego, home to the Theodor Seuss Geisel Library, where he first came across a collection of the cartoonist's early work-World War II political cartoons, featuring slurs and racist drawings of Japanese Americans, portraying them as a danger to nation.

Ishizuka, whose grandparents and other relatives were sent by the U.S. government to internment camps during World War II, was very upset. "My grandmother was fired from her job at Seattle schools [and] then incarcerated," she says. "This had real impact on my personal family. Thinking about how widely beloved and celebrated Seuss is as an author was another blow."

In March 2016, Ishizuka wrote a piece on the website Blavity about Seuss' anti-Japanese cartoons, along with work that used the N-word and depicted blacks at a slave auction or rendered to resemble monkeys. She also pointed out images portraying Middle Eastern men as camel-riding sultans and women as hyper-sexualized harem dwellers. But what Ishizuka found even more troubling were racist images hidden in plain sight in Seuss's popular picture books. Ishizuka, who holds a Master's degree in social work, conducted a critical race analysis of 50 children's books by Seuss and found that 98 percent of the human characters were white, and only two percent were people of color.

The Cat in the Hat and blackface minstrelsy

"In addition to how people of color are portrayed in his children's books through Orientalist and anti-Black stereotypes and caricatures, they are almost always presented as subservient, and peripheral to, the white characters," concludes Ishizuka in her study. She points out that the Cat in the Hat, perhaps Seuss' most famous character, is based on minstrel stereotypes. "The Cat's physical appearance, including the Cat's oversized top hat, floppy bow tie, white gloves, and frequently open mouth, mirrors actual blackface performers; as does the role he plays as 'entertainer' to the white family-in whose house he doesn't belong," says Ishizuka. She isn't the first scholar to point out racial stereotypes in Dr. Seuss' picture books. Kansas State University English professor Phillip Nel recently published a book Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism in Children's Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books, which examines The Cat in the Hat 's roots in blackface minstrelsy.

However the cat, along with his striped headwear, is also associated with Read Across America, just as Clifford the Big Red Dog is synonymous with the literacy organization Reading is Fundamental.

"One of the reasons we partnered with Seuss 20 years ago in 1997 was to kick-start this program," says Steven Grant, a NEA spokesperson, who has also managed the Read Across America program since 2005. "That was the strategy up front, so kids would see Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat and spark some attention." The program has successfully reached children nationwide; Grant estimates that 45 million students and teachers take part in Read Across America events each year.

But not all families think the author should be celebrated. In March, two Japanese-American children in South Pasadena, CA, saw their school's Dr. Seuss Week in conjunction with Read Across America as a chance to educate their classmates about the cartoonist's role in fanning fears that led to the internment of Japanese Americans. "Their teachers and administrators shut them down, wouldn't allow them to hand out the flyers, and told them school was not the appropriate place for that," says Ishizuka. "To me, this was alarming and represented a serious racial justice issue." Ishizuka also points out that black children may feel uncomfortable going to school on Read Across America Day. "It's very dehumanizing for black children to be expected to wear one of those hats."

In April, Ishizuka sent a copy of her 43-page analysis, along with a compendium of diverse books resources, to the NEA, which organizes Read Across America. "Last year was the first year in my 14 years [with NEA] that I had seen so much bubble up as far as concerned interests," says Grant, who praises Ishizuka's recommendations for suggested authors and partner organizations to bring wider representation to the event.

Even before Ishizuka sent the material, NEA's Read Across America advisory committee (comprised of teachers, education support professionals, librarians, and others) had already been discussing issues surrounding Seuss' early work, based on Richard H. Minear's 2001 book Dr. Seuss Goes to War, which critiques the cartoonist's early political drawings, including the anti-Japanese works.

Grant adds that that for the past two years, the NEA board has already shifting Read Across America's mission towards promoting diverse literature and reaching a broader range of readers.

Ishizuka and Stephens emphasize that they're not trying to ban Dr. Seuss. "It's not about reading or not reading certain books, it's about raising awareness around the social and systemic bias that such books promote," says Stephens. "Dr. Seuss and whiteness is a reflection of the overwhelming silence in literacy regarding matters of race, especially with both young people and white people."

This fall, for the 20th anniversary of the program, Read Across America will place greater emphasis on year-round literacy with its annual calendar. In its 10th year in print, the calendar features monthly book recommendations along with online resources. The 2017-18 calendar features the theme of "Building a Nation of Diverse Readers" and gives monthly suggested titles for elementary, middle school, and high school students. For example, September's choices include All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engle, The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet by Carmen Agra Deedy, and The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande. Read Across America will also be highlighting literacy events, such as El día de los niños/El día de los libros. NEA will distribute 80,000 calendars.

NEA to offer $60K in grants for diverse books

Grant says raising exposure for diverse books is one thing, but putting them in the hands of educators is another. "In a lot of cases, the teacher has to buy the books with her or her own money," he explains. During the 2017-18 school year, NEA will award $60,000 in grants for diverse books. Over the past two years, the organization gave a total of $250,000 in funds for diverse books, thanks to a contribution from Walden Media and the Weinstein Company. Reading is Fundamental will also offer digital resources to accompany the calendar, and First Book and the publisher Lee & Low Books will provide diverse titles at a discount for Title I schools.

Like the story of the black-and-white cartoon cat, the NEA is finding that something that started off as whimsical fun might be challenging to put back into a box. Grant says Read Across America has never required participants to use Seuss material, but "after 20 years, it's easy for some folks to just pull Seuss stuff off the bookshelves from last year." The annual Read Across America Day event may be hard to untangle from its mascot, particularly since the annual event takes place on Dr. Seuss' birthday. The Read Across America logo -along with all the event merchandise sold on the website-features the black-and-white feline sitting on top of a silhouette of the United States.

Since 1997, the NEA has contracted with Seuss Enterprises for the rights to use the images without royalty fees. The current agreement runs through August 2018. "This is really going to be a transitional year for us," explains Grant. "We're going to be trying different things and moving in some different directions to see if that works." That could include collaborations with other authors or illustrators to re-brand Read Across America Day to appeal to a more diverse student body. "The goal is to encourage the educator, because we can't force him or her to do anything."

This article was featured in our free Extra Helping enewsletter.
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Is the Cat in the Hat Racist? Read Across America Shifts Away From Dr. Seuss and Toward Diverse Books

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For 20 years, Read Across America has been synonymous with youngsters wearing red and white striped hats sitting down for story time on March 2, Dr. Seuss's birthday. But this fall, the biggest national literacy awareness program, sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA), will be shifting its focus toward a year-round promotion of diverse children's books.

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Fattal: You talk about the need for a parent or teacher to facilitate discussions on the racist elements of children's books with students who may be too young to do this kind of critical reading on their own. What might that conversation look like?

Nel: It will obviously depend on the individual child, the age of the child, et cetera, but the best way is to ask questions. When you notice something in a book, ask questions about it. Would you be happy working in a factory and being imprisoned there? What do you make of presenting the Oompa Loompas as happy? What are some of the assumptions of this work? Why is it presenting this character in this way? Why are all the characters in this book white? What do you make of that? You want children to think about power in the text, whose interests are represented in the text, who is not being heard in the text. And you can focus those on the specific work.

I think with children you have to have a conversation-you have to ask them critical questions, and you have to invite them to ask critical questions about the book that they are reading. It's a conversation that's going to be uncomfortable, a conversation in which you may have to admit you don't know all the answers. It's not an easy conversation to have, by any means. One of the things that I do when I teach [college students] in class is I acknowledge my own uncomfortableness. Because sometimes students don't want to talk about this. And so I acknowledge why they're uncomfortable and that I'm uncomfortable, too, and that it's okay to be uncomfortable. I think that's the kind of tone to set when you have these conversations: that this is going to be uncomfortable.

Fattal: Is learning to engage with discomfort harder for children than it is in a classroom of college students? How might educators navigate that difficulty?

Nel: Children notice race from when they're very young. Children of color have to face it head-on. But I just got a note from a friend of mine who was talking about her 5-year-old who was worried when she was getting tan that she might turn black. And that worried her, because [the 5-year-old] knows what black means. She knows that puts you at a disadvantage based on this country's laws and values. And her mother explained, and had the uncomfortable conversation of indicating, "Well that's not how race works, but also ... black is beautiful, and we have black friends who are beautiful." Kids get it. I think the failure to have that conversation is an abdication of responsibility on the part of parents and educators.

Fattal: You talk in the book about showing children that anger can be channeled toward productive action. Are kids really capable of this move from anger or discomfort to action, and how might educators facilitate that?

Nel: The emotional experience of dealing with racism is tough, especially if you're the target. I think what's worse, though, is not dealing with it and not being given any tools for dealing with it-to experience the injury and then not know how to deal with it. I think if a teacher is able to talk to a child and say, "it's okay not to like a book or to be angry at the author or to be angry at a text; this is infuriating in the way that it's presenting this Native American character or this character of Asian descent, and I see why you'd be angry at it." I think that's actually really healthy, because it lets the child direct the anger at the appropriate target rather than internally, or rather than just kind of stewing over it.

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How Schools Can Navigate the Hidden Racism in Children's Literature

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Fattal: You talk about the need for a parent or teacher to facilitate discussions on the racist elements of children's books with students who may be too young to do this kind of critical reading on their own. What might that conversation look like?

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When artist Katie Yamasaki was in seventh grade, a teacher asked her if she wanted to tell the class what had happened on Dec. 7, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Not taking the bait, Yamasaki told the class about how that was the day her great-grandfather was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of being a spy because he owned a produce market. She also mentioned how her family was held in incarceration camps during World War II.

Artist Katie Yamasaki working on a mural. Courtesy of Katie Yamasaki

But her teacher told the class that the incarceration of Japanese Americans never happened. And after that day, Yamasaki said she never learned anything about the Japanese-American experience in school again.

"To have that shut down and then go through the rest of my education without it ever being taught just felt like, 'oh this is so wrong,'" Yamasaki said. "And I know that this is not exclusive to Japanese-American history."

Starting this semester, students in the U.S. will be able to learn about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans from Yamasaki's 2013 children's picture book, "Fish for Jimmy," which was selected to be included in the newest version of McGraw-Hill Education's anthology textbook for fourth grade students.

Inspired by a true family story of incarceration at Granada War Relocation Center in Colorado, "Fish for Jimmy" follows two brothers who are incarcerated during World War II with their mother.
RELATED: When Japanese Americans Were Caged: 75 Years After Executive Order 9066
Not understanding why they had to leave their home, missing their father who was arrested by the FBI, and unused to the cafeteria-style camp food, younger brother Jimmy stops eating. Older brother Taro sneaks out of the camp at night to catch fish in a nearby stream, and Jimmy is slowly nursed back to health.

"'Fish for Jimmy' to me was a way to humanize the internment for children, to show that kids were there too," Yamasaki said. "Kids coped in many ways, and kids helped each other, and sometimes we have to help our brothers and our sisters."

"Fish for Jimmy" by Katie Yamasaki in McGraw-Hill Education's SRA Open Court Reading, Grade 4 Student Anthology. Courtesy of Katie Yamasaki

Nancy Konkus, the director of early reading at McGraw-Hill Education, said that the story is an age-appropriate way to teach a "difficult and often overlooked part" of U.S. history.

"The bond between Jimmy and his older brother, Taro, and the sacrifices made by many Japanese American families represent courage and devotion to one's family and culture," she said. "Because of its strong ties to our theme, 'Our History, Our Heritage,' we made this story the capstone selection within the unit."

Raised in Michigan during the 1980s, Yamasaki remembers the recession during the early 80s and anti-Asian racism connected to layoffs at nearby car companies.

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She was told internment didn't happen. Now, her family's story is in school books.

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When artist Katie Yamasaki was in seventh grade, a teacher asked her if she wanted to tell the class what had happened on Dec. 7, the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Not taking the bait, Yamasaki told the class about how that was the day her great-grandfather was arrested by the FBI on suspicion of being a spy because he owned a produce market.

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Talking with adolescents about race and identity is important but may also feel daunting. At Jesuit High School (JHS) in Portland, OR, Gene Luen Yang's Printz Award-winning graphic novel American Born Chinese has made these discussions more effective. During the "Using Graphic Novels To Develop Racial Literacy in Teens" panel at SLJ 's October 7 Leadership Summit in Nashville, educators and high school seniors at JHS expounded on how the book facilitated conversations and led to often painful realizations. Though National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Yang was also on hand, it was the teens' insightful comments that had the greatest impact.

Gregory Lum, a librarian at JHS, addressed his complicated feelings about the book, which centers on Jin, a teen born in the United States but whose parents are Chinese. Yang weaves in other narratives to convey Jin's complex relationship with his ethnicity; one subplot involves a Chinese exchange student named Chin-Kee, an embodiment of stereotypes, who represents Jin's self-loathing as he grapples with how his culture is perceived by white Americans. Lum said he was repelled by the book at first but eventually fell in love with it, calling it "empowering" and nominating it for the YALSA Best Books list.

English teacher Megan Mathes explained how American Born Chinese has opened the door to nuanced discussions about race and identity at JHS. In order to spur her students, who are predominantly white, to read titles by and about people of color, she began incorporating the novel into her curriculum. Many white students, however, insisted that they couldn't relate and refused to acknowledge that Jin's struggles had to do with the racism he faced. Her nonwhite students, on the other hand, often identified with the book but felt uncomfortable expressing their opinions.

Mathes realized her white students lacked the tools to analyze books about race and racism. Using Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, an in-depth look at the history and language of comics, Mathes "developed a series of lessons that gave my students a way into conversations about race without creating too much racial stress." Mathes examined the "grammar of comics," or elements such as color, layout, symbols, and composition, to help students identify pivotal moments in the text. Though Mathes still encounters obstacles, she said, overall her students are developing a fuller understanding of race.

With guidance from Lum, the teens shared their reactions to the book. Several referenced Rudine Sims Bishop's concept of windows and mirrors (windows are titles that offer readers a perspective on a new world; mirrors reflect readers' experiences). Paul Danowski, a student at JHS, called American Born Chinese both a window and mirror: though it depicted an experience with which he was unfamiliar, it also allowed him to recognize times when he had been insensitive or hurtful.

For James Pecore, also a student at JHS, the book resonated on a personal level. He and his brother are both gay, and the teen related how his brother, feeling discomfort with his own sexuality, once said that what he perceived as Pecore's flamboyance or effeminate behavior provoked the revulsion many feel toward Chin-Kee.

Yang said, "When you talk explicitly about stereotypes, you always run the danger of perpetuating [them]." He added, "First Second, my publisher, and I were trusting that this book would be read in thoughtful communities, and that's exactly what [this] is." He called the panel "a balm for all my fears."

Sahana Jayaraman noted that while many of her fellow students felt tension when discussing the book, for her the book was "liberating." "This was me finally voicing all the things I felt for the majority of my self-aware life," she said.

She added, "But there were other moments when the mirror wasn't quite so welcome." A wordless passage in which Jin wonders if the girl he likes, Amelia, would return his feelings if he had curly blond hair, like her friend Greg, who is white, forced Jayaraman to reflect on her middle school years, when she was one of only two nonwhite students. The white students wore makeup, but Jayaraman didn't, and she seized upon this trait as an "arbitrary marker of difference." After studying the book in class, she realized that her decision to start wearing makeup was an effort to assimilate.

Pecore described a scene in the book when Jin kisses his friend Wei-Chin's girlfriend, Suzy, who is of Japanese descent but was born in the United States and can relate to the turmoil Jin goes through as an Asian American in a mostly white environment. Later, Jin takes out his frustration on Wei-Chin, who was born in Taiwan and came to the United States as a child: "Maybe I think she can do better than an F.O.B. like you." Jin's revulsion toward his heritage "inspires him to close himself off...socially and emotionally from people who exemplify that culture. It breaks my heart," said Pecore.

Yang explained that that scene was rooted in his experiences in junior high school, when he and his friends, who were of Chinese descent but born in the United States, bullied a group of Chinese boys who came to the United States as children and spoke with accents. "We felt different from the majority culture around us. We took out that difference on the kids that we thought of as even more different than we were."

For Amanda France, who is part Chinese, the very act of reading a book about Chinese culture in a mostly white class was jarring. "I felt weirdly defensive of it, and that's not the book's fault. It's just the result of not having that representation normally in class." In the end, France was pleased that many students felt a deep connection to the title, which sparked conversations.

She also warned against making this the sole narrative about Asian Americans. Though she identified with it, she didn't feel it reflected her personal experience. But through class discussions, she said, students were able to share many different stories.

Jayaraman stressed that librarians must make the book available to their patrons. "The display of diversity you see up here only happened because of this book, because of that class, because we had that conversation." However, she urged caution, stating that when she first read the novel, at age nine, it raised issues she felt ill prepared to confront as a child.

"You also have to give them the resources to process this book, and you have to give it to them at an age and at a time when...they have the mental capacity to read this book."

Pecore advised librarians to reconsider the term microaggression, which describes everyday slights that convey painful insults to people of color, LGBTQ people, and others outside the dominant culture. Referencing a time when another teen yelled a homophobic slur at him, he said that micro implies that the insult is something small and that aggression suggests that it's about one person. "I did not feel like he was angry at me...and I don't feel that he was what was making me so horrified." Pecore instead proposed macro-oppression, because it takes into account that both aggressors and victims are affected by larger, societal attitudes. "What is oppressing you to make you lash out like that?"

Macro-oppression, said Pecore, rejects the idea that "there's an enemy who has power over me and there's a victim. It starts saying we are both oppressed by the same thing that horrifies the both of us."

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"American Born Chinese" Opens Windows and Shines Mirrors | SLJ Summit 2017

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Talking with adolescents about race and identity is important but may also feel daunting. At Jesuit High School (JHS) in Portland, OR, Gene Luen Yang's Printz Award-winning graphic novel American Born Chinese has made these discussions more effective.

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I t was only as recently as 2006 that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. That book, about a Chinese American boy's struggles with his identity, drew comics for young people from the the fringes to the mainstream.

A little over a decade later, Vulture declared graphic novels for young readers to be the "most important sector in the world of sequential art." Graphic novels and memoirs, particularly those created by women, tap into the power and options in the combination of visual and written stimulation to relay stories across genres and ages.

My own graphic novel consumption has increased to include titles such as This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki, Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Adrian Alphona, The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, and excerpts of Mira Jacob's forthcoming graphic novel, Good Talk: Conversations I'm Still Confused About. I grew up reading comics - from Archie to Amar Chitra Katha  - but today's graphic novels mean so much more, especially those by marginalized women. As cliché as it sounds, it's validating to see women like me in comic panels.

The latest addition to the canon of sequential art books - and specifically the subset that is written and/or illustrated by people of color and indigenous people - is Pashmina (First Second, 2017) by cartoonist Nidhi Chanani.

Pashmina is an unabashedly feminist tale about Priyanka "Pri" Das, a comics-obsessed teenager in Orange County, California. It features her mother, who won't speak of Pri's father or India, the country her mother left and has vowed never to return to; Shakti, the powerful Hindu mother goddess; and a mysterious shawl that transports Pri to the India of her imagination when she wraps it around her shoulders.

Chanani's illustrations dramatically alternate between black-and-white (when Pri is in the United States) and full-throttle color (when Pri is in India). In the course of this first-rate adventure tale, Pri learns about women's choices - especially her mother's - and living without fear. I talked to Chanani about magical realism, South Asian families, and how Pashmina came to be.

Pooja Makhijani: You are well-known for your short strips, yet this is your first full-length novel. In the course of writing and illustrating this book, what did you learn about sustaining plot and character?
Nidhi Chanani: On one hand, I learned things around the art - and how to keep the character consistent page after page. I also learned a lot about body language and positioning to convey emotions. In the place of words, I utilized facial expressions and positioning to give the reader insight into my characters' emotions.

On the story side, I learned to know my characters. It sounds simple but writing a lot about Priyanka, her mom, and her uncle allowed me to fully realize them on the page. The reader may never know that Priyanka hates bubble gum, for example, but I do, and that makes her grounded in reality.

And finally, throughout the process, I learned how to parse out information: to utilize the "page turn" to keep revealing parts of the story in pieces, to keep the reader engaged in Priyanka's journey.

("Pashmina" by Nidhi Chanani)

PM: Pashmina explores the ways women are constrained by patriarchy. Why is this story about the intersection of power, community and identity best told in comic form?
NC: I think the question sometimes presumes that comics is better than other mediums. But it's simply another medium to me. I do believe it has merits that are different than others. I believe there are access points to comics that traditional prose cannot touch.

I don't limit myself to comics. I want to explore all mediums. And within anything, I do want to challenge things and hopefully create dialogue and a narrative that goes beyond the page.
PM: Priyanka is the daughter of a single mother, a family structure rarely represented in young people's literature of the South Asian diaspora. Why was this representation important to you?
NC: There are family dynamics that are rarely seen from many communities - including ours. I wanted to work within a story that isn't often seen but is still relatable.

Although I grew up in your traditional Indian family (mother, father, sibling), we had tons of problems. Those problems, as much as we tried to hide them from our community, came to define us. My mom eventually left my dad.

She was ostracized from the Indian community.

I saw what a difficult time my mom had to move within our community without support. In an instance it's a triumph for women to stand up for themselves, but the community does not support moving past the traditional roles. It adds another challenge.

I wanted to explore what having a single mom from the beginning would mean for Priyanka. To have that as a norm within her life, but to have unanswered questions. I feel that she had respect for her mother, while also not completely understanding her. Then through the book, she gains the understanding she was missing.
The Best of This Year's Small-Press Comics PM: Priyanka's "India" is one of monkeys and elephants and other such touristic images of India, yet you are subverting these familiar visual tropes so that they no longer reinforce stereotypes. What was your intention in representing India in this way on the page?
NC: To put it quite simply, I wanted Priyanka, a teen who's curious about her culture but not versed in it, to have a positive introduction to India.

I wanted her to be drawn into the amazing aspects of India, but to also indicate that there's more. In many ways, Priyanka's relationship with the fantasy India is one that many people have. I wanted to mimic that, while also giving context to why later, she chooses to visit the real India. My attempt to represent it in parts had to pay respect to that truth.
PM: There is an element of magical realism in Pashmina and, in those magical realist panels, the palate switches from black-and-white to color. Can you talk about this artistic choice a bit?
NC: I love India, and I wanted to represent India in the way I eventually came to imagine it. I also wanted to fully utilize the medium of comics.

I could've done the whole book in full color - which is great and those books are very welcoming to readers. But it was very early on that I wanted to add more impact to Priyanka's story. In a visual medium, the use of color is powerful. It's one that I feel I know and understand well, so adding another layer to the story through color - and the absence of - provided for a richness that I feel is the strength of telling this story through comics.

I love India, and I wanted to represent India in the way I eventually came to imagine it. I also wanted to fully utilize the medium of comics.

PM: Pashmina also contains a lot of religious iconography - the divine mother goddess figure.Where does your interest in this stem from? Are you a spiritual or faithful person?
NC: I was raised Hindu and I describe myself as a lapsed Hindu. I find that even though I don't practice Hinduism, I have aspects of its spirituality in my life. I was very much like Priyanka growing up, where I dragged my feet at prayer time and questioned whether it made a difference.

Beyond my own interests, I felt that the pashmina had its own story to tell. And Shakti had a pressing need to connect with women. Who better to tell that story than her?

(Nidhi Chanani, Photo Credit: Angela Grammatas)

As much as there are religious components to Pashmina, I don't think of that first. I really think of it as a feminist story, and I believe gods and goddesses are feminists.
PM: MacArthur Fellow and National Book Award finalist Gene Luen Yang introduced Pashmina as the first graphic novel wholly created (written and illustrated) by an Indian American. Did you write Pashmina with this awareness? How does that label - "first" - make you feel?
NC: Oh man! Yes, I was aware of that fact. I was aware of it as I wrote and drew every panel.

I was aware of it when I chose to add Hindi into the text and refused to add asterisks within the pages. (My publisher, to their credit, never asked me to). I was aware of it when I chose how to represent India, Kolkata and every character.

I stressed about all of it, honestly.

But in my best moments of writing and drawing, I forgot that I was a "first" anything. I just approached it as my story. My chance to write and create the best story I could.

I think firsts are hard, but important. All I can hope is that Pashmina does well enough to pave the way for more Indian American graphic novels and comics. The responsibility is not one I asked for, but given that seat, I know that how I perform and how my book performs will impact others. I do my best to be intentional and aware.

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Nidhi Chanani's Graphic Novel 'Pashmina' Is Part of an Important New Genre - Electric Literature

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I t was only as recently as 2006 that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. That book, about a Chinese American boy's struggles with his identity, drew comics for young people from the the fringes to the mainstream.