PRINCESS AND THE PEA- Rachel Isadora

I am always on the lookout for new versions of fairy and/or folktales, and especially those with a bent toward diversity. While I was at the library tonight (did you notice this does NOT say bookstore?), I found a new to me version of the Hans Christian Anderson folktale, PRINCESS AND THE PEA. It's actually a couple of years old, so maybe everyone in the world has seen it, but I hadn't and I fell in love immediately. The story is set in Africa. The illustrations are one of my favorite genre, collage. This would make a fabulous addition to any folk tale collection.

NEW BOY- JULIAN HOUSTON

I vaguely remember reading CATCHER IN THE RYE when I was in high school, but I didn't remember much about it, so when Z had to read it for freshman English, I read along with him. As we plowed through CATCHER IN THE RYE BREAD (K's title), I could not help but wonder whether it is really necessary for every single high school student in America to read this "classic." What is my son, growing up in a middle class, single parent midwest home supposed to learn from Holden Caufield, a privileged white boy attending boarding school on the East Coast fifty years ago? Are there not other coming of age novels that might be more representative of the typical high school kids' experience? At the very least, would it not be worthwhile to read several different coming of age novels, or sections of novels, with the goal of comparing different parts of the country or world, different time periods, and different socioeconomic groups?

This week, I read a novel, that I think could replace, or at least complement CATCHER IN THE RYE. NEW BOY is the story of Rob Garrett, an African American teenager growing up in Virginia in the late 50's or early 1960's. As the book opens, Rob's parents, a dentist and school teacher, are dropping him off at Draper, an exclusive boarding school in Connecticut. Rob will be the first black student to attend Draper and his Aunt Gwen advises him that he would "do well to keep to himself until he sees what he is dealing with." Rob heeds her advice and has a successful, albeit lonely, year at Draper.

Predictably, issues of race do come up in this book. Over Thanksgiving vacation, Rob visits an elderly aunt in Harlem. He gets a ride from the train station with a classmate whose black chauffeur is visibly angry at Rob's more privileged status. He also visits an African American book store, and has a chance encounter with Malcolm X. Julian Houston embeds a great deal of history into these portions of the book, some reviewers have felt that there was "too much information," to coin my sons' favorite phrase. I enjoyed Houston's insights and didn't feel like the history was overwhelming at all.

The climax of the book deals directly with the Civil Rights movement. Throughout the book, Rob maintains contact with several high school friends from home. The friends are very involved in Civil Rights activities, and stage a sit-in at the Woolworth's lunch counter. These chapters, along with voting chapters from SECRET LIFE OF BEES would be terrific read alouds in any middle school or high school history class.

Unpredictably, Rob is not the main target of prejudice at the boarding school. At a meeting for new students, Rob meets Vinnie, an Italian-American student from New York. The boys at Draper tease Vinnie mercilessly- making fun of his Italian heritage and his acne-ridden face. Finally they ostracize him so totally that he is forced to move out of the dormitory. The headmaster and teachers at the school do nothing, mostly because Vinnie does not come from the old money families at the school. I can only imagine the rich discussions that might arise from closer examinations of this character.

NEW BOY is a great story. It offers much in the way of coming of age and historical fiction. I'm going to share it with my son's English teacher next week...

ROCKING DIVERSITY PUBLISHER

As a teacher in urban settings, and as a mom of two African American sons, I am hugely committed to making sure that my students and my sons see themselves in the books they read. When I started teaching, a million years ago, it was not that easy to find great children's books with multicultural themes. Ten or fifteen years ago, I became familiar with Lee and Low, a publisher specializing in multicultural children's literature, after hearing author Ken Mochizuki (PASSAGE TO FREEDOM and BASEBALL SAVED US) speak at a conference. Since then, Lee and Low has become one of my favorite publishers; most recently I blogged about Ted and Betsy Lewin's beautiful new book,  HORSE SONG, THE NAADAM OF MONGOLIA. One of the things I love most about Lee and Low is that they have books featuring people of many, many shapes, colors, and sizes. They also have terrific multicultural poetry collections for children. A few of my favorites include:

JAPANESE AMERICAN

• BASEBALL SAVED US (Japanese Americans in internment camps)
• COOL MELONS TURN TO FROGS (a tribute to Issa, a Japanese poet famous for his haiku)
• PASSAGE TO FREEDOM (a very brave Japanese diplomat saves hundreds of Jews during WW2, a must have for units on the holocaust or real life heroes)

AFRICAN AMERICAN- 

• RICHARD WRIGHT AND THE LIBRARY CARD (is there anything better than books bout books and libraries)
  
• LOVE TO LANGSTON (a must for anyone who loves Langston Hughes)
  
• GETTIN' THROUGH THURSDAY (about a family trying to make it until payday- really applicable for lots of kids right now)

MEXICAN AMERICAN

• YUM! MMM! QUE RICO I blogged about this one in my (I blogged about this one for Poetry Friday on December 26)
  
• THE POT THAT JUAN BUILT
  
• POEMAS PARA SOñAR (I apologize for the tilde over the N, I can't figure out how to do it right on Blogspot)

NATIVE AMERICAN

• GIVING THANKS: A NATIVE AMERICAN GOOD MORNING MESSAGE

Here is a list of some of their other award winners.

I'm thinking about Lee and Low tonight because they just sent me a box of new books. Three terrific new African American biographies- SEVEN MILES TO FREEDOM: THE ROBERT SMALLS STORY, HOWARD THURMAN'S GREAT HOPE, and THE LAST BLACK KING OF THE KENTUCKY DERBY. I'll be delving into these in the next few days, but in the meantime, if you are participating in DIVERSITY ROCKS, you might want to check out LEE AND LOW.