Comments on: Multicultural Literature

By: Mark Steidler

Mark Steidler — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:17:56 +0000

Thanks for your post. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Maya & Miguel, a show on PBS in the afternoons — http://pbskidsgo.org/mayaandmiguel — that emphasizes cultural diversity and language learning but I’m reaching out to talk to parents about the program as part of a marketing project I’m working on with Scholastic.

I found your post and thought I’d reach out to say hello and ask if you’d like to receive a free Maya & Miguel DVD. If you’d like to receive the DVD just email me at mark@boldmouth.com with your address and I’ll have it shipped it out to you.

If you do choose to blog about Maya & Miguel show or episodes on the DVD, please make it clear how you received the information. Our goal is to be open and honest with everyone we reach.

If you’d like to add Maya & Miguel images from the show on your blog you can pick them up here – http://www.boldmouth.com/maya_and_miguel/

Mark Steidler, BoldMouth

By: Marie Lamba

Marie Lamba — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:01:05 +0000

Great discussion! I have biracial daughters (half Asian-Indian) and have long felt the lack of biracial heroes in literature. I feel very strongly that they need to be represented in the media and that their ethnic background should NOT be the story. Too often the story is: “I’m (fill in the ethnic group) and trying to fit in but my family is so different/weird.”

That’s why my YA novels feature a half-Indian heroine, and her background is merely part of who she is. Just like a normal American teen: completely unique.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:55:57 +0000

The brown skin/green eyes thing is really interesting. I’ve read that description several times before. The thing is, I can’t think of a single book with cover or interior art that reflects that image. It’s a great combination, but cover art almost always shows white kids. I had no idea the protagonist in Chasing Vermeer was of mixed race, all three kids look totally white on the cover of The Wright 3!

By: Alkelda

Alkelda — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:04:33 +0000

Sylvia Louise Engdahl said that when she wrote Enchantress from the Stars, she deliberately wrote the characters’ descriptions in such a way that the readers could imagine the characters as looking like themselves (the readers). Did it work? I don’t know, but I appreciated the Dillions’ new cover that supported the idea.

Diana Wynne Jones points out in her Tough Guide to Fantasyland that characters are often portrayed as having “brown skin” and “green eyes.” I don’t know what that says about readers and writers except that brown skin and green eyes is definitely a striking and unusual combination. I think of the woman from Afghanistan on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic, in particular.

By: cloudscome

cloudscome — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:50:51 +0000

“And it’s about white kids reading books with non-white heroes too. They need to see that it’s normal for non-white characters to be heroes too. It needs to become normal because it would be better for everyone.” Amen! I hear that!

When I asked this type of question on my blog a few months ago readers suggested the series Chasing Vermeer by Bue Balliet – the protagonist is mixed race. And also the Greggor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins, where Greggor is African American. In both of these race is not important to the plot and the cover illustrations are not indicative of the character’s race.

Thanks for writing about this. We need more conversations going around these questions.