Classic African American Children's Literature

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to assert that there are classic African American children's books and to identify a sampling of them. The author presents multiple definitions of the term classic based on the responses of children's literature experts and relevant scholarship. Next, the manner in which data were collected and analyzed in regard to classic African American children's books is explained. Then, three categories are elaborated—universal experiences from an African American perspective, breakthrough books, and literary innovations—in which the African American children's books identified as classics were placed. The article concludes with pedagogical implications and conclusions.

Exploring young adult texts within the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework with preservice teachers

“…This includes classroom texts. To be classified as culturally responsive, a text needs to be authentic, realistic, and uphold a culturally conscious ideology and message (Gray, 2009;Hefflin & Barksdale-Ladd, 2001;Inglebret et al, 2008;McNair, 2010;Yoon et al, 2010).…”

“…When choosing books for this course, the focus was on three elements: finding culturally responsive YA texts that were authentic, realistic, and upheld a culturally conscious ideology (Gray, 2009;Hefflin & Barksdale-Ladd, 2001;Inglebret et al, 2008;McNair, 2010;Yoon et al, 2010); centering historically marginalized voices (Ebarvia et al, 2020), and making sure each text had multiple connection points to at least two of the four HRL tenets. The researcher previously read all book choices and knew they each held connections to the pursuit of identity through characters and storylines, the pursuit of skills as a quality fiction or nonfiction work, the pursuit of intellect through the topics explored, and the pursuit of Criticality because each text showed young people looking at their world with a critical eye and each young person had the propensity to create change.…”

Valuing the Lives and Experiences of English Learners: Widening the Landscape of Children's Literature

“…The backgrounds of the characters matter; diverse populations are not included as tokens or to fill a void, but the cultural knowledge plays a critical role in the story. Such literature represents a focal culture realistically and authentically, and maintains a culturally conscious ideology (Gray, ; McNair, ; Yoon, Simpson, & Haag, ), one that values the unique diversity represented in today's classrooms. One book cannot represent the minutiae of an entire culture, but one book, in combination with others, can provide students with snapshots of different aspects of many cultures (Tschida, Ryan, & Ticknor, ), thereby increasing the chance that ELs will see themselves in books.…”

“…Authentic picture books recognize that many learners begin their schooling with scaffolds to multiliteracies (Kalantzis, Cope, Chan, & Dalley‐Trim, ). Last, picture books should contain culturally conscious ideologies, story elements true to a culture's beliefs and traditions that support biculturalism and biliteracy (Ching, ; McNair, ; Yoon et al., ), because many contemporary ELs traverse between more than one home language and culture. Although it is acceptable for a character to recognize and represent aspects of U.S. culture, it is critical that characters retain their own cultural identity and remain proud of it, thereby providing readers with spaces to respect their own cultural identities.…”

A Re-­Vision of To Kill a Mockingbird and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

“…Within this tradition, women, parallel culture groups (otherwise known as racial and ethnic minorities), certain social classes, and sexual orientations are excluded from the canon in favor of books with White, Eurocentric, male authors and subjects (Applebee, 1990;Glazier & Seo, 2005;Jipson & Paley, 1991;McNair, 2010). In terms of children's literature, traditional classic contemporary works are almost overwhelmingly written by White authors (McNair, 2010). Unfortunately, the stories of authors and characters from other cultures are "left on the margins -silenced" (Glazier & Seo, 2005, p. 887).…”