The world of children’s literature is still buzzing about
“A Birthday Cake for George Washington” and the message it presented about happy
slaves serving our first president. Huffington
Post posted an article in which the author of “A Birthday Cake for George
Washington,” Ramin Ganeshram, explains her side of the
issue; you can find it at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ramin-ganeshram/ I also put a link to this article on
the library Facebook page. It is
well worth reading. The blog, “Reading While White” also continues the conversation about diversity in books. Again, there is a link on the library
Facebook page.
Meanwhile, back at the library, five interesting books
came in just this week.
“Nathan Hale’s
Hazardous Tales: The Underground Abductor” is a graphic novel by Nathan Hale
from Utah, who shares the name of Nathan Hale, the patriot executed in 1776 as
a spy. The patriot Nathan Hale somehow tells stories
from the United States of the future to his British
executioners before his death by hanging.
This book begins with the story
of Araminta Ross as a child. This strong
woman later changed her name to Harriet Tubman. The humor is a little too comic-book style
for my taste, but Mr. Hale packs a lot of history into these pages.
Shane W. Evans has written and illustrated “Und
Another Coretta Scott King Award winner, “Brick by Brick,”
by Charles R. Smith Jr., tells about a part of history that I didn’t know
about. The original White House, built in 1792, was
built by slave labor. Owners were paid 5
dollars a month for the use of their slaves.
This White House was burned in 1814 but was rebuilt and restored. Building the original White House allowed
some of the slaves to earn enough money to purchase freedom. Mr. Smith writes, “Slave hands count
shillings with worn fingertips and purchase freedom brick by brick.”
“Freedom in Congo Square” was written by Carole Boston
Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie; each received the Coretta
Scott King Award for other projects. I
didn’t know that in Louisiana slaves were allowed Sundays off, and were allowed
to congregate on Sunday afternoons in Congo Square. They preserved their language and music,
rhythm and dancing, and this rich culture must be a factor in why New Orleans
is called the birthplace of jazz. 
After all of the discussion about who can and should be
writing books about ethnic issues, I be
gin to wonder if anyone is qualified to
write about a culture not their own. Cynthia Grady attempts this in “I Lay My
Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery.”
Illustrated by Michele Wood, this book is the perfect combination of
text and art. Ms. Grady is a former
children’s librarian. Her poems are
powerful and Ms. Wood’s illustrations reflect that same power. Ms. Grady is white; Ms. Wood is black. Writing about a man and woman whose daughter
is being sold away from them, Ms. Grady writes, “Her mama moaning low, long
burying songs; greedy wheels groaning, drag my heart clean out of my chest,
leaving only the grief.”
Children’s books can provide profound insight in
unexpected places and ways.
