With over one thousand reviews of multicultural children's books and related materials, organized by theme and reading level, The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers offers a comprehensive, definitive resource guide to multicultural books for children. The reviews are organized using an innovative thematic approach designed to aid teachers and parents in integrating these works into existing reading lists and at home. In addition, the Guide includes essays on key issues in multicultural education, such as recent immigrant experiences, human rights, and building cross-cultural relationships.
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From School Library Journal
This large, thoughtful collection of reviews and essays is indeed a "comprehensive guide to multicultural chidren's literature," with many lessons on what the term "multicultural" can mean. The book consists of thematic chapters, subdivided into age levels from kindergarten to eighth grade. Unlike similar titles, the entries offer critical reviews, not simply annotations. In addition, the 250- to 500-word entries include bibliographic information (though not ISBN numbers), the ethnicity featured, plot summaries, and, in some cases, related books. A strength of this book is the breadth of material presented. Muse employs a much broader definition of multiculturalism than is customary and includes books from the '50s, '60s, and '70s, along with newer titles. At the same time, she and her contributors challenge many of the books included in standard multicultural lists. A series of essays?from Nancy Larrick's landmark "The All White World of Children's Books" to more recent contributions?provide a variety of perspectives and valuable insights. Despite these strengths, there are notable drawbacks. Although the thematic organization was developed to help teachers use these books in the curriculum, themes like "Newcomers Establishing Roots" and "Justice and Human Rights" do not match the language of most curriculum developers. Moreover, some categories are confusing, and the single author-title-subject index does not help. There is, for example, no way to find books to augment a Columbus Day observation, although there are appropriate titles in three chapters. Of greater concern is the failure to mention well-known criticisms of some titles. Although shortcomings are noted for John D. Fitzgerald's The Great Brain (Bantam, 1972) and Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons (HarperCollins, 1994), there are no caveats in reviews of Susan Jeffers's Brother Eagle, Sister Sky (Dial, 1991) and Virginia Grossman's Ten Little Indians (Chronicle, 1991). While it can be difficult at times to access this book's riches, there are treasures inside that reward the effort. This is not an essential title but is well worth adding to professional collections.?Sue Burgess, Framingham (MA) State College
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
This new guide to multicultural literature for young people brings together more than 1,000 reviews of picture books, novels, poetry, biographies, and other resources, which cover more than 20 different multicultural communities. The purpose of the book is to provide teachers and librarians with an easy-to-use resource for multicultural materials that includes both print and nonprint titles and identifies the best of these titles. Arrangement is thematic. Each chapter covers a different theme, such as community, family, cultural traditions and ethnic stereotyping, immigration, and justice and human rights. Within each chapter, titles are arranged first by grade level (K^-3, 4^-6, 7^-8) and then alphabetically. In addition to the reviews of resources, the guide includes a number of essays on topics in multicultural education, such as "Ethnic and Gender Stereotyping in Recent Disney Animation," "Illustrating the Point: A Commentary on Multicultural and Stereotypic Picture Books," "Teaching Culturally Diverse Students," and "CD-ROM Technology in the Multicultural Classroom." A number of these essays, such as Beverly Slapin and Jill Lessing's "Handicapism Checklist: What Do We Mean by `Handicapism'?" are reprinted from other sources.
Each chapter begins with a short introduction, signed by the author. Each review was written specifically for this volume and is signed by the author, in most cases a teacher or a librarian, and includes the following information: title, author, illustrator if applicable, publication date and publisher, and the community described in the book, such as Latino, Asian American, or Native American. Information is also provided about special availability, such as braille and foreign-language versions, and related titles. Reviews contain a brief synopsis of the story, the message it intends to convey, critical comments on the way that message is handled, and suggestions for how the title might be used in the classroom. Reviews are generally 300^-500 words long. In many cases, a photograph of the book jacket is included. Publication dates range from the 1960s to 1996, with the majority of the titles published in the 1990s.
Criteria used to assess the titles included the quality of writing and illustration, the accuracy and nuance of treatment of different cultural groups, the extent to which the title provides a new perspective, and the accessibility of text to the target audience. Children's classics and other popular titles that reflect negative stereotypes or outdated thinking may be treated critically in this volume. Most of the titles deal with African American, Native American, Latino, or Asian cultures; however, there are reviews of works that deal with European cultures. The gay/lesbian/bisexual and emotionally and physically disabled cultures are not left out of this work. Titles that reflect these cultures are critiqued as part of the editor's commitment to multicultural education.
The table of contents lists the essays included in each chapter. Theme and grade level are listed on the top of each page, making the volume easy to use. Other useful features include a time line called "Milestones in Children's Literature"; a list of catalogs, media materials, organizations, and books on children's literature; a list of children's book awards; lists of special library collections and notable bookstores; and biographical data about all of the contributors. The guide concludes with an index of titles, authors, and ethnic groups. Under ethnic group, titles are listed by page number only, which makes it cumbersome to locate all those titles dealing with Asian Americans, for example.
A number of other books on multicultural resources have been published in recent years. To name a few, Rebecca Thomas' Connecting Cultures: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children (Bowker, 1996) provides subject access to 1,600 titles. Multicultural Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, Grades K^-8, by Beth Beutler Lind (McFarland, 1996), lists 1,000 titles under four ethnic groups. This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults (Greenwood, 1994) annotates nearly 600 books of poetry and oral tradition. The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers provides good background and context, as well as longer reviews. The culmination of five years of work, it will be an essential resource for teachers and librarians. It will serve as an easy-to-use source for anyone looking for the best works to teach and learn about diversity and the many cultures that make up American life.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Detailed resource on multicultural literature for children, K-8,
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This review is from: The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers (Hardcover)
I'm currently enrolled in graduate school, and my field of interest is education. One of the classes I'm taking is about diversity in education, one which I'm enjoying immensely. I myself have a diverse background (Indian-Portuguese) and am married to an Irish Catholic,and our daughter is a living example of the mix of many cultures.So,this book also appealed to me on a personal level. There are so many perspectives on the issues of multiculturalism and diversity, and the number of materials out there is simply mind-boggling. I have found this book to be very useful in gaining insights into multicultural literature for grades K through 8. The book itself is well-organized, and contains over 1,000 critical book reviews on the subject as well as critical essays pertaining to multicultural education.
In brief, here are the chapters contained within the book: Introduction Essays included are: Milestones in Children's Literature 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism (very useful and insightful) The All-White World of Children's Books Chapter One: Who Am I? Who Are We? Addresses issues of identity and diversity in multicultural children's literature. Book reviews are provided for grades K-8. Chapter Two: The Family Very important and timely chapter as it deals with issues pertaining to marriage, siblings, divorce, single parents, blended families, foster care, adoption, and aging. On a personal level, I found Peggy Gillespie's essay, "Other" to be especially pertinent, as it addresses the interracial family and the issues they face. Chapter Three: Community/Friendship Covers the issues/themes of community service, cooperation, gangs, conflict resolution, and homelessness. Great ideas such as starting a literary club at school are also addressed. Chapter Four: Cultural Traditions Besides covering the different cultural traditions such as found in the Muslim, Christian, Jewish tradition, etc, this chapter has lots of information such as a segment on "Teaching Respect for Native Peoples", and insightful essays, such as "Ethnic and Gender Stereotyping in Disney Animation". Chapter Five: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Legends: Fantasy and Imagination Besides offering critical reviews of multicultural books in this genre, there are also interesting essays such as "Public Libraries: Cultural Repositories for Everyone's Stories" by Rose E. Warder. Chapter Six: Newcomers Establishing Roots Discusses how children come to grips with issues of isolation and language barriers, and how these themes can be integrated in the classroom context. Chapter Seven: Justice, Human Rights, Equity Discusses how literature can have a powerful impact in enabling children to recreate the world for themselves and future generations. Also stresses the importance of children learning to identify bias within books, research information, and analyze data, which is part of developing their cognitive skills in terms of abstract and critical thinking. Chapter Eight: Building Cross-Cultural Relationships Essays included provide useful strategies for developing community of learners in schools, and tips on using multicultural materials effectively (themes covered include biracial/interracial relationships, second language acquisition, unlearning stereotypes, and sharing cultural traditions). There is a comprehensive index at the end. Highly recommended resource for multicultural education Grades K-8.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Reference,
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This review is from: The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers (Hardcover)
This is a great reference point for teachers of young children. It combines short essays and comments with a huge reference of multicultural literature, broken down by themes and ages. It is a huge undertaking and does not (cannot) hold everything you'll wish it does. But this is much more than a starting point and saves a lot of personal leg work.
Well worth the investment for anyone serious about integrating a thorough multicultural curriculum for children.
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