Twenty years ago, I graduated from college and entered the world of public education, bright-eyed and eager. After nearly two decades in that field, I returned to academia and began working with pre-service teachers at Bowling Green State University. It’s unsurprising that pre-service teachers want to know so much, and it often feels overwhelming trying to fill those gaps of knowledge. I’ve found myself, though, focusing on exposing undergraduate education majors to children’s literature that highlights and reflects the experiences of marginalized populations.
Most pre-service teachers (and teachers) know about the major literary awards for children: the Newbery and the Caldecott. I want, however, to draw more attention to awards that may not be as well known to educators. In January, working with the Special Collections Exhibit Committee at Bowling Green State University, I designed and created a small exhibit about four Youth Media Awards: the Coretta Scott King, the Pura Belpré, the Stonewall, and the Schneider Family Book Award. The idea here was to draw attention to quality literature written for underserved communities.
To create context for the exhibit, I created a parallel structure for each award: background information about the award, biographical sketches of the individuals for whom the award is named, books that first won the award, and current (2018) winners. By creating this contextual narrative, I wanted viewers to look beyond the “major” awards and to see, not a hierarchy, but an equilibrium. Winning a Stonewall Award is not “less than” winning a Newbery: it is just as valuable, just as powerful, and just as meaningful… perhaps even more meaningful, especially for children whom it represents.
Classes started in earnest this week, and next week the education library will begin delivering our curriculum to visiting classes. As usual, my lectures to these classes will include the importance of reading to children and selecting books that represent all children when creating lesson plans. Having an exhibit in the library that reinforces these ideas will further encourage the implementation of #ownvoices literature in classrooms and deepen the understanding of listening to voices from underserved populations.
Joe Prince is a former middle school librarian, and currently the Curriculum and Outreach Educator at Bowling Green State University’s Jerome Library. He is a member of the Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee. He lives with his husband, and has recently begun hosting a Great Bowling Green Bakeoff, inspired by The Great British Bake Off.