PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS

In my Literature and Literacy for Children class, we were given the assignment to browse professional journals related to children's literature, choose an article that was most interesting, and then write a response.  The following is my response an article in The Journal of Children's Literature.

Other journals educators should be sure to browse include, but are not limited to:

• The Reading Teacher
• Language Arts
• The Dragon Lode

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The Journal of Children’s Literature (Fall, 2012) focused on social justice and injustices which are topics which are close to my heart.  I read several articles but the most interesting item I read was the “2012 Breakfast Speaker Interview: Meet David Shannon” (McClure & Porter, 2012) because he has been one of my children’s and my favorite illustrators, bringing to life my daughter’s favorite, The Rough-Face Girl, and A Bad Case of Stripes, a clever story which he authored and illustrated to teach children the importance of being true to themselves.  However, I then realized that this was not considered an article so I have limited myself to this one paragraph to gush about the man, his work, and the way in which he brings literature to life, as well as the wonderful interview detailed in which some of the stereotyped beliefs of what processes authors/illustrators use were dispelled by Shannon himself.

It is rare that I find an entire journal filled with valuable articles, but this was such an exception.  I look forward to looking at other issues as the publication offers invaluable information to educators, as well as readers to children.  However, this issue, assuming it is typical of other issues, holds an invaluable source of information to educators in one place.  In addition to interviewing authors and offering summaries of books, it provides the instructor the ability to consider new teaching strategies, discussion starters, and awareness of difficult issues, new approaches, and how students can, might, or have interpreted literary works.  Without referring to professional journals, educators will stagnate and, in response, their classrooms will lack the dynamic environment which creates inquisitive and active learners.

It was difficult to select which of the articles to report on but, as history proves, I am drawn to the stories about struggle in the 1960’s for civil rights and, therefore, I found that I repeatedly returned to the Wooten and Clabough (2012) article about the Freedom Riders.  Having read this book recently, I was excited to see that the authors of the article interviewed Ann Bausum, the author of Freedom Riders:  John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement (2006), and, Jennifer Emmett, the Editorial Director for Children’s Books at the National Geographic Society, about how the book came to be, the challenges of weaving the photographs and the written word, and how to take such a violent and important historical event and create an age-appropriate book which deliberately focused on the similarity in different people.  Remembering an especially poignant photograph taken of a black and a white Freedom Rider after having endured brutal beatings, I discovered that it was the one which inspired Bausum to want to write the book.  Her explanation of the importance of this photograph and thus it being the catalyst for the extraordinary book creates an image in itself:  “John Lewis and Jim Zwerg are standing outside the depot, battered and bloody, which inspired the title of this chapter ‘Blood Brothers.’  There was just something about this image that spoke to me.  My sense is that this photo helped to attract national attention to the cause of the Freedom Riders because it showed a Black man and a White man working together to end segregation.  It helped to identify that this was not just a Southern problem.  It was not just a Black problem.  This was an American problem of social justice.  If a White man from Wisconsin, who’s only been in the South for a couple of months, was willing to put his life on the line for this cause, our country had better pay attention.” (Wooten & Clabough, 2012)

 Previously, I never considered the remarkable amount of research and foot-work (which included a 4000 mile road trip) which brings a historical fiction book to life but, I had no idea that a “book designer” existed much less the difficulties involved in the design of such a book.  I was most intrigued to learn how the book designer, aware that children can be turned off by the stark black and white photos, the designer used colored screens in some of the pictures which “adds a feeling of point-of-view to the photography by layering over a figure or setting up a screen of separation within an image…with two dueling points of view.” (Wooten & Clabough, 2012)  This article not only spotlights the inside workings of creating a book, to which students should be introduced and thereby involving literature, history, and, considering the role of the book designer, art, in the curriculum, but also gives educators who may not be familiar with the risks and significance of a white people joining the Freedom Riders an insider’s view and the opportunity to bring more understanding to their classrooms. 

References

Bausum, A. (2006).  Freedom riders:  John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the front lines of the civil rights movement.  Washington, D.C. National Geographic Society.

McClure, A and Porter, D. (2012).  Meet David Shannon. Journal of Children’s Literature, 38 (2), 74-81.

Wooten, D. A. and Clabough, J. (2012).  Freedom riders:  A national geographic journey in social justice through imagery.  Journal of Children’s Literature, 38 (2), 51-57.