Born to Read Trainers

There is a passionate discussion currently underway on half a dozen blogs about if and how to describe a character’s race in writing for children. I wasn’t going to mention it here, since it wasn’t really about books for 0- to 5-year-olds, but when Mitali Perkins brought picture books into the discussion in her post today, I decided I could make the link.

Mitali’s post is well worth reading. She manages to distill her own significant experience and the input of a huge number of authors and critics into ten tips, which I would argue are just as useful for teachers as for writers. (Teachers who read aloud and discuss books with their classes must constantly be faced with decisions about whether or not to show a cover photograph that reveals the ethnicity of a character, or encourage kids to question the assumptions they make about ethnicity.)

Mitali is right to point out that in many picture books, “the artist casts the characters,” although some picture book manuscripts dictate the physical or language characteristics associated with particular ethnicities. That’s why illustrators played a central role in making the shift from “The All-White World of Children’s Books” to the relatively more diverse world we’re in now. But Mitali also suggests that authors ask themselves “why are you describing the ethnicity of your characters?” and suggests that “the story and characters, and not your best political intentions, should determine whether or not you provide ethnic cues in description.” Should this apply to illustrators (and publishers), too?

Mitali’s tenth tip has to do with using food metaphors to describe skin color. Picture books, including one that Born to Read uses, are certainly guilty of that particular failure of imagination. It would take someone with more expertise in child development than me to say whether the use of food metaphors is a symptom of laziness or a genuine effort to present ethnicity in an age-appropriate way.

Please weigh in!