Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal (Roaring Book Press, 2019). This is a wonderful book about the history and tradition of fry bread. Fry bread is also used as a metaphor for the Native American people in this lyrical story. I loved that Native people of all colors, ages, and sizes are portrayed to show their true diversity, which often gets neglected in stereotypical representations in media. There is an author's note at the end, which includes a recipe and extended historical information. I highly recommend this beautiful book.
Lump Lump and the Blanket of Dreams by Gwen Jackson, illustrated by Lissa Calvert (self-published, 2016). "Winter is coming, but the little black bear, Lump Lump, isn't ready to go to sleep! With the help of his mother, the wise Blue Bird, and his forest friends, Lump Lump gathers materials for Spider Woman to weave him a Blanket of Dreams. Inspired by Navajo/Diné culture and folklore, and featuring the work of famed weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas, this beautiful tale of family and friends takes the reader on a journey through the spectacular traditions and landscapes of the Southwest." You find more information about the book and author here, including resources and activities for the classroom.
Watch Barbara Teller Ornelas talk about weaving:
About MCBD:
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/18) is in its 5th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.
Current Sponsors: MCBD 2018 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board.
Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell (Harper Collins, 1999). I'm going to be sharing several Thanksgiving books that I found at my local library over the next couple weeks. I'm starting off with a popular book that, while well meaning, is quite problematic at times. First of all, the good: The illustrations are lovely and I like that they show a diverse range of children and multiculturally mixed families. It's the story of a classroom learning about the first Thanksgiving and putting on a play. The history that is taught is where it gets problematic. The author refers to the Native Americans by their tribal name, the Wampanoag, which is great. However, other than that, she portrays the whole situation as peaceful and caring between friends. Of course we want to promote sharing and kindness among children, but rewriting history to do so is not justifiable. One line that jumped out at me was: "Michiko was thankful that she and all the other Pilgrims were greeted kindly by the Wampanoag people, who shared the land with them." Saying that the Wampanoags "shared the land" with the Pilgrims is twisting the true history and making it seem like it's ok to just steal other people's land. I might still read this story to a child just because of the illustrations, but rewording or skipping the problematic passages.
Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature has a good critique of the book here, which also has the author's response.
The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower: John Howland's Good Fortune by P.J. Lynch (Candlewick, 2015).
When I found out about this book, I had to get it. I'm a descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley so I was eager to see how a picture book would tell their story. P.J. Lynch is an award-winning author and illustrator from Ireland. His illustrations here are beautifully rich and detailed. He also did a good job with writing the story from a teenage Howland's perspective. The title of the story comes when Howland falls of the Mayflower in a storm but of course is saved and pulled back on. It's a good thing or I, and millions of his other descendants, wouldn't have been born. Despite being a picture book, this is definitely a book for older children-- I'd say probably 10 and up. He lets readers into the mind of Howland which, while not being historically factual, helps kids put themselves in a Mayflower passenger's shoes. Being an adult, some of these thoughts and dialogues made me question how accurate some of the sentiments would have been at that time. For instance, there is a scene where Howland is given an order to steal corn from a native's home and he expresses how it weighs on his conscience. In reality, would he have cared about taking food from a native? I don't know, maybe. I think coming up with excuses for our ancestors' behavior to be problematic. But at least this is a way of conveying to kids that stealing did happen. There is also a scene where Squanto tells them how his whole village was killed off by a plague brought by the white man. So the author definitely tries not to gloss over the hard truths while still telling the story from Howland's point of view.
I also liked how he included "Lizzy" Tilley throughout the story. She has a pivotal role in the end especially. When Howland wants to sail back to London to make a fortune and suggests she go too, she tells him that her parents died trying to start a life in America and she won't let their dream and hard work be in vain, that there is still more work to do and neighbors to help. This persuades Howland to stay, which turns out to be a good thing because the boat that went back was attacked by pirates, and of course a couple years later he and Elizabeth marry. While her speech to Howland to persuade him to stay probably isn't accurate (although I don't know personally if that came from research or just an invention of Lynch), there isn't a reason why it couldn't be, and helps readers to imagine women at the time. It actually makes me want to read a story from Elizabeth Tilley's perspective now.
Overall, I thought this was a great book and definitely worth reading with older kids. It could open up a lot of questions and be great for having conversations about our history and its portrayal.
On The Mayflower
Suffering the first winter
Squanto showing them how to plant their crops and manure the fields
I'm compiling a list of multicultural Christmas picture books and will continually update. Please comment with any I've left out. Also, I haven't read all these books so if I've put any in the wrong category, please let me know.
