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Cameron, Ann. "Excerpts From Reviews, Criticism, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People." Children's Literature Review 1(Jan. 1, 1976): 3-5.

The children’s book author Ann Cameron wrote this article.  Cameron talks about what it is like to be an American author writing about another culture. She has had extensive experience and has done research about the places that she writes about. A great friend of hers from South America reminded her once that all of us are human beings. This advice has always influenced her writings. Cameron feels that Americans need to realize that the largest increasing ethnicity in America right now is "other" on forms and census reports, because of the large amounts of immigration, many cultures are coming together and it is hard to define exactly what race people are. Cameron feels that her knowledge, imagination, and sympathy are her license to create. She feels that the old racism and hatred is still there but has been altered over time. There are new misunderstandings about ethnicity and identity. People should realize that ethnicity is about the roots that we grow from and should be celebrated instead of criticized. Cameron's strongest argument was that children need to feel a sense of belonging in this big world and if they can relate to a character that shares similarities, they will get a little piece of that belonging.

This is an important article as it comes from someone who is inside the controversy in multicultural children’s literature.  Cameron is an American who writes about a South African character who is faced with issues that every child is faced with regardless of their ethnicity.  Cameron has a strong message that more people should listen to.

Dietrich, Deborah, and Kathleen S. Ralph. "Crossing Borders: Multicultural Literature in the Classroom." The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students 15 (Winter 1995):
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/miscpubs/jeilms/vol15/crossing.htm

This article explains the changes taking place in today's classrooms, as they become more and more diverse. Education needs to provide encouragement for students of every ethnic and culture, by helping them learn the skills to reach their highest potential. In order for every student to feel equal within the class, teachers must incorporate into their curriculum, ways for students to explore their own cultures and others. Proper literature can expand cultural boundaries, as the ultimate goal is classrooms without borders. Traditional literature needs to be reexamined as it has limited perspective, experience, and values that do not always cover all cultures. Multicultural literature will help students examine and identify with their own cultural background. It offers opportunities for personal reflection and identification with many cultures. Students can learn to cope with confusion of cultural identity by connecting with characters that are facing similar identity issues. This article also provides ways for educators to properly teach multicultural literature at the elementary level with the main importance as providing proper background information.

 This website provided good insight into the importance of multicultural literature in the classroom and gave examples of how teachers should incorporate it into their curriculum. Understanding one's own culture is also important before understanding others. This article is a fantastic resource for someone researching this topic.

Fresch, Mary Jo. "Both Sides of the Story? Searching for Multiple Voices in Children's Literature. Journal for a Just and Caring Education 2 (October 1996): 440-448.

This article discusses the critical role that literature plays in children's lives and how culture influences how students read and write. Teachers need to carefully choose books that help students gain knowledge from multiple perspectives. By exploring other cultures points of view, students will be more apt to explore ethical decisions that affect their daily lives. By doing this, students become better critical thinkers that listen to all people and better understand their feelings, emotions, and philosophies. It is easier for teachers to provide this type of education, as children's literature is becoming more culturally aware. Educators need to choose books that provide both sides of the story. Teachers need to be careful as experiences from their own culture may bias interpretation of texts. Teachers must broaden the barriers and allow students to become aware of the values and opinions of people different from themselves. Teachers need to use books that provide many perspectives that encourage acceptance of others. The only way in order for children to explore and learn proper ethical treatment of all people, is when the teacher believes in the dignity of others. Teachers need to bridge current knowledge of cultures with experiences and should encourage moral and ethical discussions as they come up. Children's literature is a great way for children to get inside other cultures. Students can live life through a character taking on new identities other than their own. It introduces students to worlds outside their own.

 This is a very insightful article that really covers the teacher’s responsibility when teaching multicultural literature.  It is true that America does teach its own version of the story, especially when discussing history.  All cultures have different perspectives and points of view and it is important for children to understand that.

Gainer, Ruth Straus. "At Home in Art." Childhood Education (Nov./Dec. 1983): 102-109 

Gainer uses her article to explain the impact that art has on all students of all cultures. Gainer stresses the importance of remembering that everyone creates art. She feels that it is unfair to welcome new students by teaching the culture of their past as some educators do. It is not realistic to try and teach a culture to students in a short amount of time. This process will result in oversimplifications and stereotypes of that culture. An individual should not be responsible for representing an entire culture either; students should be recognized as individuals and not representatives of a culture. A wide array of cultures should be introduced to students in a thoughtful, accurate way to create an environment of valuing diversity and difference among people. The study of art is a great way to recognize individuality while valuing diversity. Children's literature is a valuable way to incorporate cultural diversity into their lives. It helps the children to discover their own imagination. Lessons that uses the visual arts and literature to teach students about awareness, gives the teacher many resources in all areas. Interpreting literature is very personal and all students from all cultures should be able to get what they want from the stories. Gainer's main idea is that all people create art.

This article was a great reminder that literature is not the only way to incorporate multiculturalism into the modern classroom. Art has been influencing the world for millions of years through every culture. Art and literature can come together and help students gain self-awareness and cultural awareness.

Galda, Lee, and Janet Cotter. “Exploring Cultural Diversity.” Reading Teacher 45 (Feb 1992): 452-460.

"Exploring Cultural Diversity," is an article/reference guide to finding multicultural children's books appropriate for the classroom. The books that were reviewed by the authors of this article, "reveal the cultural wonders of our world." In reading these books the teachers and students will find that all cultures are altogether very different and similar at the same time. Educators should use these books to help children explore cultural diversity. This article stresses the importance of bringing cultural variety into becoming a basic assumption in the curriculum instead of a topic that is discussed for a week or two and then forgotten about. The books that are chosen in this review are ultimately trying to create an environment in which students are learning about their own culture while they are also learning to respect the cultures of others.

 Many great books were reviewed in this article and they had a similar opinion about multicultural literature as many of the other articles that I have read. More than a dozen books about very different characters and cultures are summarized with an explanation of the quality of the literature at the ending. This article will be very beneficial when researching which books to actually use in the classroom.

Gross, Anne L., and Libby Wyatt Ortiz. “Using Children’s Literature to Facilitate Inclusion in Kindergarten and the Primary Grades.” Young Children 49 (March 1994): 30-35.

Although this article mostly discusses the importance of using literature that shows children with disabilities instead of cultural diversities, it explains some very profound points. Teachers face the challenge of creating classrooms in which all children are accepted and included, children from other cultures as well as children with disabilities. They need to encourage positive peer relationships among children. Experienced teachers will create safe, secure environments that permit personal interaction to occur. When children feel safe, they will become more likely to freely express their fears and feelings by asking questions that are on their minds. These students learn to see situations from another person’s point of view and will in turn be motivated to contribute to the well being of others. This article continues on for several pages showing assignments that teachers can use that incorporates collaborative learning so students with differences can come together and contribute ideas from many points of view.

 This article is especially great for teachers that have disabled students in their classrooms and need ways to include the children in working together to create a positive learning environment. Showing students that just because someone is not physically like them, they really are all human beings that share similarities.  This article reminds readers that multicultural literature is about more than ethnicity, it is about anything that a person has felt marginalized because of.  Age, gender, family structure, physical and mental disability, religion, sexual orientation, the list goes on and on.

Hopkins, Dee, and Shirley A. Tastad. “Censoring by Omission: Has the United States Progressed in Promoting Diversity through Children's Books?” Youth Services in Libraries (Summer 1997): 399-405.

In “Censoring by Omission,” the authors stress the great need for libraries to provide the increasing numbers of diverse populations with materials that reflect their cultures. One of the problems with this is the amount of multicultural books that are published within the United States per year. Fictional stories are the most scarce which is unfortunate as fictional characters allow readers to become the character and live their life while in turn, gaining understanding of how the people of that culture live. Around the seventies when people began to get more “politically correct”, there was a larger percentage of multicultural children’s books published. The problem was that instead of using a person from whatever different culture that was being displayed, the characters were assuming completely stereotypical roles. There are large debates about whether or not a person that is not from the culture that is represented can create a story within another culture. Some people feel that the best representatives would be from that culture and others say that as long as a writer has appropriate research and or experience with that culture, then they should be able to write a story about it. Folk literature is a great tool to use as it focuses more on the social and cultural history of ethnic groups. By showing awareness of an existing culture, folk literature covers information of a shared history, which can help raise the self-esteem of minority children by celebrating diversity. It is important to show the lives of characters as believable as it is crucial that the story maintains the child’s attention. Teachers need to show children that we are all different. Children need to be able to see themselves portrayed without being idealized. Also, the literature chosen for the multicultural benefit needs to be able to reflect the high standards of good literature. It must culturally and authentically reflect a real sense of what it is to be part of an ethnic group.

This is a terrific resource for multicultural literature.  It shows what it is, why it is important, the teachers responsibilities, and the problems with multicultural children’s literature.

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Annotated Bibliography
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©Erin Donnell 2002
Last revised: July 08, 2002