The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese

The Five Chinese Brothers is a clever tale but it is controversial for a reason. The one issue that I had when reading this book was the stereotype that this book portrayed of Chinese people. In the beginning of the book it said that the brothers all looked alike. I think that looking similar is a stereotype people have about people from China or other Asian countries. This is not true and I would be offended if people believed that all the people from the country I came from looked the same.

I found this book on a list of controversial books at Blisstree .com http://www.blisstree.com/articles/the-15-most-controversial-picture-books-366/. According to this website this book was banned from libraries around the country for how it portrayed Chinese people. According to the Blisstree websites parents at the Salem Library claimed the book was demeaning to Chinese people, which I would have to agree with. The other issue that parents had with the book was the violent plot that it contained. In the book the brothers are to be executed but they are able to escape their execution. I was disturbed by this aspect of the plot and I could see how children could be upset by this, however, I think that the stereotypes this book portrays is more of an issue then the violence. This is a classic children's' book but I would not want to read this aloud to students in my classroom. I felt that if I were to read it to my class then I would be promoting the stereotypes in the text. Children receive enough messages regarding stereotypes from other sources like TV, magazines, movies, and peers I don't want my classroom to be one of them.

Daddy's Wedding By Micheal Willhoite

A person picking this book up can see by the illustration on the cover that this book is different, there are two grooms on the cover instead of a bride and a groom. I could tell that this book deals with the issue of same sex relationship and same sex marriage . The main character, a little boy, has a mother and a father who are divorced. The little boy's mom remarried another man while the little boy's father was in a relationship with a man. One day the little boy's father and his partner inform the boy they are going to have a commitment ceremony to celebrate their love and relationship. The little boys gets to attend the ceremony and witness the love between his father and his partner.

This book is so controversial because same sex marriage is such a hot topic these days and people feel very strongly on both sides of the issue. in the book there is a kiss between the two men and even though this is just an illustration I can see parents getting pretty fired up about their kids seeing this. Personally I would shy away from sharing this book in class because I think that the potential problems that might be created would take away from the lesson that would incorporate this book. If you feel this book is absolutely necessary to share with your class I would send a note home describing the book and it's content. This is such a heated topic that it would be good to cover all bases so that not to offend parents.

The Semester so far.......

I have been blogging about children's books for 8 weeks or so. That is a lot of children's books read and reviewed! So far this blogging experience has been a growing process. When the assignment was first explained I had no idea what to say about children's books, previously I referred to children's books as cute and fun. Children's books were something fun for kids to read when they were bored and some books contained a lesson that would teach children to not talk to strangers or listen to their mom or dad. It wasn't until I started my language arts, reading course and this course, reading and responding to children's literature, that I learned children's books can be a powerful tool in the classroom. By reading a certain book a teacher is informing students of issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, families, class, and the list can go on. Students will get ideas from the material read in class on how to approach these issues. Being aware of what we read and how it could effect our students is called critical literacy. Teachers have to be aware of this when deciding what books to read aloud or what books should be read in a guided reading group. As teachers we want each of our students to feel valued and if we read a book that doesn't include diversity or read stories only with characters that have two, heterosexual, married parents that might make the children, whose lives don't mimic the characters in the book , feel as though they are weird and different. I don't want any student in my class to have experience the discomfort and awkwardness of thinking they are different, and all these feelings could have been avoided had I been more critical of the texts we read.

Being a critical reader of children's books has been a significant part of the course but I have also enjoyed learning about the components of children's books as well. Noticing illustrations and commenting on them was and will be a big part of my blogs. Illustrations are so key in children's books and adult readers, who focus mainly on the text, the illustrations are pointless. TO children illustrations help them to follow along with the story and to help make sense of what is happening. How well the illustrations are done makes a difference as well as the amount of details included in the pictures. I have learned through different interactions with children and picture books the more detail in the pictures the more engaging it will be for children. They love pointing out fun little details in the pictures and talking about them. By looking at the illustrations and the detail of the illustrations. I have found books where I am absolutely blown away by the illustrations and sought out books illustrated by the same illustrator.

By blogging and looking through various books I have gained a good idea of what to look for in a children's book. I have a better understanding of what the text and illustrations are implying to my students and how that might effect them. I also have a better understanding of illustrations and their importance to the text. I have gained an idea of what authors whose work I really enjoy and which authors I don't enjoy so much. I can then take all of this knowledge with me when I enter the classroom and hopefully it will enhance the reading experience for my students.

The Story of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff

I read Babar when I was younger and loved it. I was very surprised to see it on the list of controversial books. It was hard for me to imagine Babar being controversial so I went through it and looked at the text from a critical eye. At first I did not see anything that I would consider controversial by any means but when I began to look at the illustrations I started to understand why this classic children's book could subject to such criticism.


In the book Babar runs away from home, which resembles a a certain warm, tropical continent, to a town, that seems to resemble a certain city in Europe, and there he becomes sophisticated. Through a series of events Babar returns to his home where he is crowned king. At first I thought that this book could address classicism and because when Babar returns from his adventure in the city he is very sophisticated and well groomed. Eventually he get voted king of the elephants. This is what I though until I looked at the website, Blisstree.com (http://www.blisstree.com/articles/the-15-most-controversial-picture-books-366/). On this website I read that the reason for Babar being controversial is because it advocated for colonialism of the African countries by the French. This political message could be offensive to some and proves that even timeless children's books, which are meant for the enjoyment of children, are not free from political messages

Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron Illustrated by Joe Cepeda

I did not know what to expect when I got this book. When I began reading I was confused by the format of the text. The text is set up so that there is a narrator and then another voice that responds to the narrator so it is like a conversation that is occurring within the text. This is a very interesting idea but as the reader at times it can get confusing because I don't know necessarily who is all in the conversation. It can also be hard to make sense of the text because it jumps around a lot and at times doesn't seem to make sense. The reason for this could be due to the use of grammatically incorrect words, like hisself and chile. The text is written how people would speak it which can cause children to believe it is okay to use those words when talking or writing. The use of grammatically incorrect words could be one of the reasons that this book might be considered controversial. Some parents would be upset if their child came home speaking like this because of a book they read in school. another reason that it is controversial is because it addresses the subject of nappy hair, which is a hair type that some people, especially in the African American community, have. I think that anything that has to deal with race in anyway can be considered controversial by some, especially since race and racism is still prevalent in our society. I would say that this book is not controversial and I would read it to my class. I think by choosing not to read a book like this you are choosing not to acknowledge racial an cultural differences between your students. By not acknowledging differences it makes the students ignorant and uniformed and can lead to teasing of the students that are "different."

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

I found this book on a controversial book list and recognized the author as the same author who wrote Where the Wild Things Are. I was intrigued so I picked this book out. About two pages into the book I could clearly understand why this book made it on controversial book lists. In the book a little boy, Mickey, is having a dream and in this dream he loses his pajamas. Since Mickey loses his pajamas he is naked and his male genitalia is visible in the illustrations. The illustrations are, in my opinion, questionable and based on that I would not be comfortable reading this book to the class or even having it in my classroom. I feel like having this book around would bring about concern and questions from parents who don't want their children seeing male genitalia in picture books. Besides the illustrations this is a really fun book about Mickey's dream, he ends up in a kitchen where he is incorporated into the food. Parents might love the story and feel comfortable reading this to their children at home and that is great, but I think this story has no place in an elementary classroom.