The 2010 Best Illustrated Children's Books list by the New York Times was announced on November 3rd and shows a slight bias. There are only two books that show another race. One, called A New Year's Reunion, is a story about a Chinese family celebrating the Chinese New Year. The other is a book about a boxer named Joe Louis called, A Nations Hope.I am very surprised that all eight other books were about animals or white people. I understand that these are just suppose to be a refection of what society see as the "best" but the term itself is very subjective. The New York Times never lists what the criteria was to pick what was the best, so one can only assume that the judges picked the most notable ones. I also feel that their could have been a slight bias because all of the judges are of the same race, white. I think in order to be fair that they should have had multiple races represented on their judges board.
I completely agree with the choices that the judges chose and find that, of the books I know, do deserve to be on this "best of" list, but just wish there would be more races represented.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/the-2011-best-illustrated-books/
I enjoyed your post, thanks! The New York Times is such a popular resource that I feel like not enough people take the time to be critical of what they publish. So I appreciated what you had to say about their top book list choices. I believe that when it comes to teaching about diversity and culture through literature, being critical on whether or not a text is reputable, is essential. Hopefully students will pick up on this skill by your example, but otherwise consider making it an intentional lesson to discuss these relevant life issues!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is bizarre that their system of choosing these books is NOT included in the article. In order to defend a stance, one must provide evidence for their reason. While it's a small start, I hope that more progressive books are seen in medias and classrooms. It is a goal that I have for myself as a future (urban) educator.