This week, I read the books Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh and Can I Touch your Hair? by Irene Latham, Charles Waters, Sean Qualls, and Selina Alko. Below you can find a vlog about me discussing the book Separate is Never Equal." (pg. 90). I thought that the last part was really powerful and exemplifies that we need to take action and make an effort to show our students these diverse books and make an effort to find them to include in our class because our students will
Below is a blog post that you can read about Sylvia Mendez and more about this case.
One thing that I did not talk about in my video that I really wanted to include about the book Separate is Never Equal was the last paragraph in the author's note when he writes, "My hope is that this book will help children and young people learn about this important yet little known event in American history. I also hope that they will see themselves reflected in Sylvia's story and realize that their voices are valuable and that they too can make meaningful contributions to this country." To me this is important that the author has this goal and hope in mind when creating this book because it is showing that he thinks it is important for students to learn about important events in our history and connect it to themselves and understand their worth in society. This quote also reminded me of Emily Smith-Buster's article, "Social Justice Literature and Writing: The Case for Widening Our Mentor Texts," and when she writes, "If all children had the opportunity to challenge conversations, write as citizens of society, and compare historical and contemporary forms of text and media, then imagine what they would grow up to accomplish. Imagine what this reformed generation of teachers, police officers, and politicians would achieve. Imagine what they would grow up to become, if becoming anything was taught to be the default, not the exception" (pg. 110-111). Both of these authors are making arguments to empower and lift up students in order for them to be and do better. The author's are also challenging us educators to provide better opportunities for our students and we need to accept their challenge in order to create more engaged and critical youth who seek out ways for their voices to be heard.
More about Duncan Tonatiuh can be found by clicking here.
Can I Touch Your Hair?
The second book I read this week was, Can I Touch Your Hair? This was a really powerful book that shows two different perspectives one from a girl who is white and another from a boy who is black. The authors, Irene Latham and Charles Waters, start the book out with their schoolteacher challenging their class to find a partner and write a series of poems with them. Irene and Charles were the only two students left in class without partners, so they had to work with one another. This book bounces back and forth using poems to portray their different day to day lives on each spread, there is a poem in Irene’s perspective and a poem in Charles’ perspective. The book starts out with both of them unsure of working with one another, but over time it shows them becoming friends and getting to know one another better and showing empathy to one another.
Before writing this book, Irene and Charles did not know one another and they had never actually met in person. Irene had shared the idea for this book with her editor and after sharing the idea, she then reached out to Charles to see if he would be interested in collaborating on this book with her. For most of the writing in this book, they did it through text messages and emailing, not meeting one another until later. The authors write from their perspectives as if they were current day 5th grade students in a class and they drew on events from their own lives to create these poems, which leads to a more accurate and realistic portrayal of these characters. For more information about how these authors created this book, look through the blog below.
This book also has some really interesting features throughout it. For example, the book starts off with a white end page and ends with a black end page which leads me to think that was done to portray the two lives of the authors. Additionally, on the spreads, the titles of the poems are also a different color depending on who the speaker of the poem is. For example, you can see on this spread to the left that “Beach Day” is written in black colored font and is told from the perspective of Charles and “Beach” is in white font and is told from the perspective of Irene. I also thought that the poem, "Beach Day" was really interesting and made me stop in my tracks when Charles said, "I'm so confused: why do people who want to look like me hate me so much?" I have heard a lot about this in recent years and I think that is a very good question because people do steal things from other cultures, pass them off as their own and then ridicule those who they took them from. It hurts my head to think about that people do this and their reasoning behind it, why take parts of others peoples identity and try and twist it into your own, yet make fun of those people who you took it from. It also reminds me of cultural appropriation. I watched a video recently about cultural appropriation and one take on it which I thought was very interesting and eye opening to me, as someone who does not know much about it. I know that Halloween is coming up and cultural appropriation, especially related to Halloween is a big and controversial topic that I wanted to learn more about and this video opened my mind as to what cultural appropriation is and why it is important. It reminded me a lot of what is happening to Charles here in this poem and the way he might be feeling. Below is the video to which I am referring to. This video was written and presented by Danielle Bainbridge who is currently an assistant professor at Northwestern School of Communication. For more about her, click here.
One of the spreads that really struck out to me was the one pictured to the right which includes the poem “Hair” and “Strands.” When reading, I felt myself falling right down the middle of this page as I looked at the different stories. I resonated with Irene’s perspective because my hair is long and straight, and I often use it as a curtain that I hide behind. However, I also resonated with Charles’ perspective when he gets frustrated when people ask to touch his hair, and then they don’t wait for a response. There have been many times where people have touched my hair without my permission, and sometimes they don’t even ask if they can do it, they just do it. Much like Charles in this situation I also get a little frustrated sometimes and annoyed when people do it, especially without asking. One these two pages, I really found myself embracing both authors and their perspectives that they have about hair. It is something that I feel often times may get overlooked when we describe characters or talk about how we relate to someone, but I felt a strong connection with this book and both of these characters after reading this page.
Below is a video of the two authors sharing other poems that are not necessarily from the book, Can I Touch Your Hair? However, I do think that it is interesting to hear and see the authors reading different poems that have a similarity to some of those presented in this book. I think that it would be interesting to show this video to students before reading the book so that students can have an idea of what the authors sound and look like and how they present their work. Then, when students read the book, Can I Touch Your Hair? they can read it in the voices of the authors and not have to create a voice of their own when reading. For me, after I saw this video and hear the different authors talking and then going back and reading some of the poems, I now have a deeper connection and voice for the perspectives of these poems and a new meaning formed for me after having heard their voices and seen them.
The two books that I read for this week were very dynamic children's books that are doing great jobs at emphasizing stories that are different from our own or that we are used to. For example, in Separate is Never Equal, we learn about Sylvia Mendez and for most, her story may not be one that we have heard before which allows us to not only learn a new part of our history that is very important, but also gives us insight into the life of what it may be like to me Mexican-American because even though this book takes place in the past, it is still very relevant today. Then, in Can I Touch Your Hair? students can get one or two new perspectives from this book. Students can either get insight into what it is like to be someone who is young and black, young and white, or both. Not only can students see a new perspective and gain new knowledge from reading, but they can also see themselves presented through the story. Before reading, I thought I would connect more with Irene because she is white and a girl, but as I was reading I found myself connecting a lot more with Charles than I initially thought I was going to. Through this connection I was also able to gain empathy and respect for him and the experiences that he carries with him throughout his life.
Both of these books are very powerful because they show marginalized characters in many different ways and represent them in a mostly positive portrayals where they hold a lot of power and take charge in the stories. This is very important and I think it is important for us to include these books as educators in our classrooms so that we can better our students. I really like how Elizabeth Marshall talked about this in her article, "Counter-Storytelling through Graphic Life Writing" when she writes, "Christopher Myers notes, there currently exists an 'apartheid of literature - in which characters of color are limited to the townships of occasional historical books that concern themselves with the legacies of civil rights and slavery but are never given a pass card to traverse the lands of adventure, curiosity, imagination or personal growth.' Thus, educators have a responsibility to also chart other kinds of landscapes for youth through the inclusion of diverse books from a range of genres, such as science fiction and fantasy" (pg. 90). I thought that the last part was really powerful and exemplifies that we need to take action and make an effort to show our students these diverse books and make an effort to find them to include in our class because our students will be much better for it in the long run.
Sources:
Latham, I., Waters, C. (2018). Can I touch your hair: Poems of race, mistakes, and friendship. Minneapolis, Mn: Carolrhoda Books.
Marshall, E. (2016). Counter-Storytelling through Graphic Life Writing. Language Arts, 94(2), 79-93.
Smith-Buster, E. (2016). Social Justice Literature and Writing: The Case for Widening Our Mentor Texts. Language Arts, 94(2),108-110.
Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is never equal: Sylvia mendez & her family's fight for desegregation. New York, NY: Abrams Books for Young Readers.
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