by Steven Engelfried
One of the many interesting things about being a children’s librarian is that there are always opportunities to do “extras.” I think of extras as activities related to the field, but not necessarily part of the real job. Some you might even get paid for, which means you can’t use work time to do any part of them. For me those include doing puppet shows for other libraries and birthday parties, and an occasional paid article. Which actually works out fine for me most of the time: they do take up precious weekend and evening time, but on the other hand, I don’t have to feel guilty that I didn’t clean the gutters last weekend because “I was working.”
Once in a while an “extra” project can be a bit more of a handful than I hoped, though. A few years ago I taught a course on Children’s Literature for Elementary School Teachers for the first time, and that was a whole lot of extra. I hadn’t taught before, but I did know the subject and although it was a ton of work, it ended up going pretty well. Next time I get the chance, I thought, it will be easy. Just repeat the best parts and improve the not-best parts.
I’m getting that second chance this summer. Kind of. I will be teaching a class, but this time the topic is “Multicultural Literature for Elementary School Teachers.” Which is a very different kind of challenge. My theme for the earlier course was pretty much: “let’s look at all the great children’s book and figure out effective ways to share them with kids.” And that kept us very busy. This time it won’t be so simple. I have read a lot of multicultural books, but haven’t thought that much about the field of multicultural education, which is filled with theories, clashing philosophies, and plenty of controversy. So now, besides reading and rereading multicultural books, I’m also reading textbooks and academic articles and scholarly arguments. My commute on the light rail, which used to be a time to relax and read for pleasure (mostly short books with big print), is now a time to study and take notes and read to learn (mostly long books with tiny print).
It’s not what I’m used to, but I have to admit it’s pretty interesting. I’m learning a lot: everything from countless and varied definitions of what multicultural literature is to the crucial differences between “literary reading” and “multicultural reading.” So far I seem to be coming up with more questions than answers, but I’m okay with that. If teaching a class meant you had to know all the answers, I would be in big trouble.
Meanwhile, I’ve vowed not to read anything (besides picture books) that doesn’t fit into a multicultural literature category for the next few months. And so far I’m doing pretty well. I slipped a bit when I read The Willoughbys (but it was so short!), and have already given myself advance permission to read the new Hillary McKay and Diana Wynne Jones books that are due out soon, because I know I will anyway. But other than those exceptions, I’m having a great time discovering new multicultural titles and older ones that I had missed, plus rereading some standards (Zeely is still a great book!); and a not- so-fun, but still rewarding time reading all of that scholarly stuff with the small print.
Nicole Eva
Steven, I am trying to track down a review you may have done for “The Librarian Who Measured the Earth” by Kathryn Lasky. Could you please email me and let me know if indeed you did do this review and if so, provide the full citation so that I may track it down? Thank you very much in advance.
Ulo O.
Hi Steven, I came across your posting on multicultural books. I ‘m in a graduate program and at present – in a children’s litterature class. We have been introduced to multicultural books and so I have develpped this interest in reading more multicultural titles. Please if you have a list of titles or a website that could help I would appreciate it.