Final Post: Reflection on the class

I was so excited to take this course and I heard awesome things about it. I learned that there was a lot of criteria that needed to be looked at and considered when looking for and picking out diverse literature for your classroom library. I learned a lot about insiders and outsiders and who is "allowed" to write a story about a specific culture. I have learned that the author does not need to be from that specific culture and I have found that interesting. While doing my final project, I noticed how little children's literature there is on all the different cultures in the world. I think that for the most part, I learned a great deal about diverse children's literature. I would have liked to discuss the books in more depth and what made them diverse literature. I loved all of the books that we read. There was so much to each of them that I looked at while reading them and our discussion group had so much to talk about when it came to these novels. The novels were ones that I think children and young adults could relate to. I liked how books were brought into the classroom for us to look at and browse. It gave me a lot of ideas to look for when I go to create my classroom library filled with diverse literature books. Overall, I think back on everything we have talked about in this course and I learned a lot. I liked the topics that we covered in class and enjoyed learning about all of the different cultures there are out there that are portrayed in children's literature and I am excited to start getting different books in my growing library for my future students and library. I really enjoyed the content that was covered in this course.

Critical Resource Review

Krishnaswami, Uma. Common Errors in American Children's Books with South Asian Characters or Content. 2000.
http://www.umakrishnaswami.com/commonerrors.html

While looking for scholarly pieces that reviewed one of my books or critically reviewed my focus topic, Asian Indian children's literature, I noticed one of the major themes of all of the articles I looked at was that there are many errors found in children's literature that depicts Asian Indian characters, traditions, and/or customs. Uma Krishnaswami is an Asian Indian author that writes children's literature and books for young adults. I chose to use this article as my scholarly piece because it was a great overview of all of the little articles that I had found and it was written by an Asian Indian children's author. Krishnaswami talks about having the right to write books on cultures outside of your own and making sure that since young readers are still developing their sense of the world, what they read should be accurate. While reading her first statements, I am reminded of the insider/outsider debate and who can write a story about a different culture/race. Also, I think back to, is what is written about a race/culture outside of your own, going to be accurate? Krishnaswami then goes on to back her argument up with errors that are commonly found among Asian Indian children's literature.

She starts out by stating errors that are found within the facts that are given in a story such as historical dates or even forgetting important facts. She then goes on to talk about the misnaming of things: errors in representations of the different religions or tribes. She talks about how having misrepresentations of facts can create the stereotypes that children form and will then have as their sense of the world progresses and grows. She goes on to talk about errors in spelling of names and words in the different languages and the errors in the voice of the books.

The main point the Krishnaswami is trying to get across in this article is you can write about races and cultures other than your own, you just have to be sure that what you are saying, putting down on paper, and illustrating is and accurate and factual portrayal of the culture/race that you are writing about. This could prevent stereotypes and misrepresentations of different cultures and races when children need that accuracy in reading material like diverse literature to develop their sense of the world.

Asian Indian Text Set

While I looked for books for my text set, I had a hard time finding children's literature that accurately portrayed the Indian culture. The books that I found were all written very well with accurate portrayals of the Indian culture and their lifestyles. Having as hard of a time finding children's literature for this underrepresented group, I realized that it is hard to put together a diverse library with a well rounded group of books when there are very few stories written about all of the different cultures. For my text set, I reviewed two picture books and to chapter books geared for young adults. The four books I used were: Shiva's Fire, In the Name of God, Here Comes Diwali! the Festival of Lights, and Sacred River: the Ganges of India.

The two chapter books I read were Shiva's Fire and In the Name of God. They had many differences and there were aspects of the books that they had in common. In Shiva's Fire, the main character, Parvati knows that she was born to dance. She is born into a life where both tragedy and luck prevail. She is asked to dance a sacred dance at a sacred event in the Indian culture and supports her family through devoting and committing herself to the strict and strenuous training for this sacred, traditional dance. In In the Name of God, the main character, Nadia is putting herself in risky situations to stand up for her political and religious views and beliefs. Her family is becoming Westernized while she is standing strong for who she is. Her cousin Fowzi inspires her to stand up for beliefs and political views. This story shows a strong, independent woman who is struggling with risky encounters as she tries to find herself and stand strong for what she believes in. Both of these novels that are geared for young adults share the fact that teenagers reading these stories can relate to them. Although these two women are from different countries and different cultures, students can see that they share common interests and struggles and that they go through the same things as they do at these ages.

The two picture books I read and reviewed described big customs and traditions that you see in the Indian culture. The author for Sacred River studied the customs that he so accurately portrays through his phenomenal illustrations and little text. Here Comes Diwali! was a book written by an Indian author that tells about the Indian holiday, Diwali. The text was very dull along with the illustrations. It did not grab the readers attention nor did it seem to accurately portray the Indian customs and traditions.

All four of my books were written by authors that had studied the Indian culture by living in those parts of the world. They experienced first hand the struggles, traditions, and customs of this very sacred and different culture. The text accurately portrayed the Indian traditions and customs through facts and historical and cultural settings.

Shiva's Fire

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Shiva’s Fire. New York: Frances Foster Books, 2000.

Shiva’s Fire is a story about tragedy and luck for a young girl named, Parvati who lives in a small South Indian Village named Anandanagar. Her father is killed when a storm hits and her family goes to live with her father’s brother and his family. One day, she is asked by the Guru Pazhayanur Muthu Kuman Pillai to study a sacred dance form called the bharata natyam. Although this sacred dance form is strict, this is how Parvati supports her family and learns that she was born to dance.

With descriptive text and imagery usage, this novel represents traditions and customs that are found within the Indian Culture. Staples depeicts different class levels and customs through her content and researched work on Indian Culture. Staples lived in India for four years where she started writing this novel. With her descriptve text, she has created a character that young adults can relate to while reading this book. They will see a strong woman; a strong, independent character that can inspire them to do what they really want to do. This is all seen through the eyes of an Indian woman. This accurate portrayal of the Indian culture is seen through the ways in which Staples describes the traditional dancing, clothes, and language. She terms the dances and people with the correct names. A helpeful note that I liked about this book is Staples provides a glossary in the back that gives the pronunciation and definition of each word that she used in the book. This will help student's to learn more about the Indian culture while being captured in this novel.

In the Name of God

Jolin, Paula. In the Name of God. New Hilford, Connecticut: Roaring Brook Press, 2007.

In the Name of God by Paula Jolin is a story about a 17 year old girl named Nadia who is struggling to find her place in her devout Muslim family. She feels as though she is being left behind as her family members become more Westernized and she feels the need to stand up for her religious views and beliefs. Her cousin Fowzi becomes her role model as he represents her strong political and religious views. He becomes her inspriation to step into risky situations that shows her true compassion for who she is in her world. Jolin's text gives readers a glimpse into a Syrian family's daily life.

This book was an excellent read for young adults because the main character, Nadia goes through many of the same struggles that American teens go through, even though she lives in a completely different country. This helps American teens relate to the book and realize that teenagers of different cultures share common interests. Paula Jolin wrote this book when she was living and studying in the Middle East which is captured throughout this story. Jolin's studies of the Islamic culture is empowering to its readers through the text itself and the content. The text and content is strong and intense and paints a picture of what life is like in a different country. Jolin does an incredibly good job depicting the struggles that Nadia is encountering while trying to stand strong for her beliefs and her culture by subtly inserting cultural and historical facts about the Middle East which makes the text more intense. Her text parallels with what is truly going on in the Middle East. She creates a connection in this novel between Americans and Syrian's by pointing out common bonds that they share.

Here Comes Diwali! the Festival of Lights

Pandya, Meenal. Here Comes Diwali! The Festival of Lights. Masachussets: MeeRa Publications, 2000.

Here Comes Diwali! the Festival of Lights by Meenal Pandya tells a story about one of the most celebrated ethnic Hindu festivals in the world. This book allows young readers to explore the different customs and traditions that are associated with the festival. The preparations and the celebrations for this traditional five-day holiday is illustrated through the eyes of a young boy. It begins with his family cleaning the entire house and takes you through all of the traditions of this festival and ends with going to the temple. Children can learn about the traditions that every day takes on during this holiday. At the beginning of the story, there is a short introduction that explains what the holiday means to the Hindu culture and why it is celebrated.

The story and illustrations are mislead by the colorful cover of this story. Although the book does a great job introducing the traditions and customs of Diwali, the text and illustrations are rather dull. The illustrations are dark and only consist of one or two colors on each page and the text is factual and right to the point. I found that there was no plot or story line in this book, rather it was straight-forward facts about the festival. The pictures and text are not exciting and therefore do not grab the readers attention. When a child is reading a picture book, they look for a story and colorful illustrations, which is lacking in this book. The text also consists of words in the Hindu language that describe the different days of Diwali. I think it would have been helpful to have its pronunciation in parenthesis as well as a description of what the different names meant.

One thing this book does well is eliminate stereotpyes that children might have of the Indian culture. The family in this book is not always dressed in their traditional clothing, rather they are dressed in pants, shirts, dresses, shorts, and t-shirts. This helps a child realize that people who are of different cultures share common interests around the world. Another part of this book that was well done and interesting was the end that included fun activities, such as making a wick or making rangoli, and recipes for the different foods found in the Hindu culture. This helps students become aware of the different aspects of this culture. These activities can also help stimulate a child's excitement in learning about the Indian culture.

Sacred River: The Ganges of India

Lewin, Ted. Sacred River: The Ganges of India. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin, 2003

Sacred River: The Ganges of India, is a representation of the sacred river in India where millions of Hindu Pilgrims journey to the city of Benares where they renew themselves in the water each year. It is a picture book that looks at the traditions and customs of the Hindu people by showing the boatmen to the bathers seeking religious purification in the holy waters, the religious solitaires meditating on its banks, the cremation grounds and lastly, the final journey of the ashes of the departed.

Although there is little text, the illustrations are rich in detail with colorful illustrations that paint a picture of what takes place in India for the reader. The text and illustrations accurately portray the different representations of the Hindu culture. While working on Sacred River, which he both wrote and illustrated, Ted traveled to India and observed the Hindus on their pilgrimage to the banks of the Ganges River in Benares. When creating his books, Ted does research in order to truly capture the culture that he is depicting and writing about.

This picture book has the most accurate portrayal of the Indian culture out of all of the books that I found. The detail of Lewin's illustrations makes this book a great text for students to read and have the ability to learn about the Indian Culture. The artwork gives its audience a glance of what life is like in India and the process in which the Hindus release the spirit and ashes of their loved one’s into the Ganges river.