In my children's literature class (LIS 6510) with Suzanne Todd, we are covering stereotypes in children's literature. Via a discussion earlier today, I was reminded of an assignment I worked on last semester for collection development with Dr. Holley. The assignment required us to survey and analyze several review sources and give our impressions without doing outside research until the very end of the assignment. It was a pseudo-experiment! Since I am studying public libraries and services to children and young adults (see "
about me" for an explanation), I chose to evaluate a collection of reviews for the children's book
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers. The following post contains some of my observations and opinions from various parts of the assignment -- to fully understand my commentary, please read the linked articles by Murray and Fry.
My Stance: Due to the fact that many of the reviews mentioned that the text had been
adapted, and several pointedly state that the text bears no resemblance to Chief
Seattle's original speech, I was not completely surprised reading this article.
Considering that a few of the more detailed reviews openly classified Jeffers's
book as "nonfiction," my feeling is mostly disgust directed at the
public, who seemed to be more caught up in the "achingly beautiful"
pictures rather than the truth and fidelity of the book. If a parent stumbled upon a
review of Jeffers' book that classed it as an factual, juvenile non-fiction
piece, they wouldn't likely bat an eyelash. The more I ponder this, the more
angry I get!
My Stance: I
actually laughed when I read this commentary. Does Jeffers', her attorney, and
publisher have no shame? Perhaps I am a bit naive, but it truly seems that they
are in it for the money. I wonder how many people read this article in the
Seattle Times and Mary Murray's piece. What
is even more frustrating, beyond the producer modifying the credit, is the
notion that people did not fact check and readily devoured garbage!
After concluding the experiment, I browsed the ever-popular social
media site,
goodreads, and was taken
by a review posted by Lynne in February of 2009 which is quite similar to the
SLJ review:
Author, Susan Jeffers, wrote Brother Eagle, Sister Sky
with an environmental theme in mind.
I believe that her purpose was to pay respect to Native Americans and their connection with the land. With that said I
feel that Jeffers missed the mark with this text and contributed to furthering Native American stereotypes.
Jeffers's illustrations perpetuate the Indian stereotype
by including images of people dressed
in feathers, headdresses, and fringed animal skins. In addition, Jeffers does
not distinguish dress of
customs between tribes represented in the text. I would not recommend using this text in our outside
of a classroom. While it may have a moving environmental
message in it, I am sure other texts could more appropriate deliver the message.
In doing a further bit of
web-browsing, I stumbled upon an interesting blog titled
American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL), which cited an
evaluative piece by Paul Chaat Smith. Here is an
excerpt from Smith's work:
Indians have been erased from the Master Narrative of
this country, and replaced by the cartoon
images that all of us know and most of us believe. At different times the narrative has said we didn't exist and
the land was empty, then it was mostly empty and populated by fearsome savages, then populated by noble savages
who couldn't get with the
program, and on and on. Today the equation is Indian equals spiritualism and environmentalism. In twenty years it will
probably be something else.
The more I read about
this book, the even less inclined I
feel to purchase the item for my "pseudo-library." Note: I never felt that this
book would be an appropriate purchase for a small, rural public library due to
the fact that there is no instruction/follow-up like there would be in a
classroom setting.
Yesterday was incredibly beautiful outside, the front door of the mansion was open. I snapped this photo while walking to the family parlor (south) to gather more books from the shelves. 
This weekend, I visited my Alma mater, Ferris State University and the surrounding areas. As I drove by Dewey Street in Baldwin, Michigan, I could not resist giving a tribute to Melvil Dewey and his classification system.
My local observations:
