Book of the Week: The House That Zack Built

The House That Zack Built

by Alison Murray
Published by U.S. edition: Candlewick Press, 2016
28 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7844-9
Ages 2-5

The traditional patterned story is given fresh, original treatment in a lively picture book that begins with a little boy named Zack building a house of blocks beneath a tree. Enter a fly, which “buzzes on by” and is stalked by the cat, who knocks over the cream, which “roused the dog” who was “deep in a dream.” There are also lambs “calm and serene” (not for long), a cow named Daisy (the source of the cream), and one big mess for Zack. Luckily, Zack is up to the task of restoring order. Rich and surprising word choice adds to the delight of this account that turns toward a satisfying conclusion before things go on too long, making this a wonderfully paced read-aloud for older toddlers and preschoolers. Brightly hued digital illustrations on matte paper show the entire escapade taking place in a winsome farmyard.©2016 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: The Land of Forgotten Girls

The Land of Forgotten Girls

by Erin Entrada Kelly
Published by Greenwillow / HarperCollins, 2016
304 pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-223864-1
Ages 9-12

Sol and her little sister, Ming, live with their abusive stepmother, Vea, in a small Louisiana town. They emigrated with the girls’ father, but their dad returned to the Philippines and hasn’t come back. Sol once believed the stories spun by their late mother about their adventurous Auntie Jove. She now knows Auntie Jove is a fantasy, but she tells the stories to Ming and Ming becomes convinced that Auntie Jove is coming to rescue them. A book that vividly depicts realities of emotional abuse and economic hardship is ultimately not about either of these things. Instead it’s a deep exploration of the importance of trust and hope and imagination and emotional security in the lives of children. Sol’s impulse to apologize to a girl she once teased, which is the start of a new friendship, brief glimpses of Vea before she was bitter, new stories Sol spins for Ming, and small kindnesses so essential to survival, all unfold through interactions of complex and nuanced characters. When Mrs. Yeung, a Chinese woman living in their building, knocks on their door in the middle of one of Vea’s tirades, Sol realizes the older woman is letting Vea know she is watching and listening, and letting the girls to know they aren’t alone. On the one hand, little in the reality of Sol and Ming’s lives has changed by story’s end. On the other hand, everything has. 2016 Cooperative Children’s Book Center  © Cooperative Children's Book Center

Book of the Week: My Heart Fills with Happiness

My Heart Fills with Happiness

by Monique Gray Smith
Illustrated by Julie Flett
Published by Orca, 2016
22 pages
ISBN: (978-1-4598-0957-4
Ages 1-4

“My heart fills with happiness when … ” A comforting board book offers young children the opportunity for reflection, and for affirmation, too. Moments of happiness tucked into each and every day celebrated here include time with family (“I see the face of someone I love”), self-expression (“I sing”), and the natural world (“I walk barefoot in the grass”). Author Monique Gray Smith (Cree/Lakota) has written a narrative lovingly grounded in First/Native Nations culture, community, and traditions (“I smell bannock in the oven … I drum”). Illustrator Julie Flett (Cree/Métis) invites children into the book’s warm embrace with intimate and expressive gouache and digital collage illustrations of First/Native Nations children, or children and adults together in a book that invites all children to consider, “What fills YOUR heart with happiness?” ©2016 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Anna and the Swallow Man

Anna and the Swallow Man

by Gavriel Savit
Published by Alfred A. Knopf, 2016
232 pages
ISBN: 978-0-553-51334-9
price: $
Age 13 and older

Seven-year-old Anna is captivated by the tall stranger she meets on the streets of Krakow. Maybe it’s because he is kind to her; maybe it’s that he speaks many languages, like she does; maybe it’s the way he charms a small bird. On her own since the Germans took her father, Anna follows him and the two become unlikely traveling companions. The Swallow Man, as Anna calls him, rarely stops walking and reveals little about his life, but he does teach Anna about Wolves (Germans) and Bears (Russians), the natural world, and to speak the language of Road. From all this Anna constructs a story to explain their constant travels. When a Jewish man named Reb Hirschl joins them, he brings laughter and music into Anna’s life again. Reb and the Swallow Man have nothing in common except Anna. Their shared desire to protect her is enough to bind them for a while as the trio travels across Poland, into the Soviet Union, and back again to avoid the warring armies. Set during World War II, a story that movingly explores love, loss, survival, and sacrifice features an intellectually precocious child whose innocence slowly erodes in a world gone mad. The Swallow Man’s secrets are never fully revealed, but there are clues as he himself enters the wilds of madness and, with Anna’s help, finds his way back and then gifts her the chance for a future. Sophisticated language and ideas, often lyrically expressed, make this novel solidly young adult. ©2016 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Book of the Week: Pax

Pax

by Sara Pennypacker
Published by Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins, 2016
288 pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-237701-2
Ages 8-11

Lonely Peter’s only friend is Pax, the fox he found as an orphaned pup and raised. And Pax, who has never really known the wild world, is completely dependent on Peter. The two are separated when Peter’s dad, about to join the war, takes him to live with his grandfather miles away. Pax, abandoned on the side of the road, has to survive on his own. Peter runs away from his grandfather’s house, determined to find Pax, but an accident lays him up in the home of Vola, a reclusive veteran. Impatient to be on his way, Peter must instead take time to heal. The more time he spends with Vola, the more he sees she is struggling to make peace with all she’s seen and done as a soldier. Meanwhile Pax gradually bonds with other foxes, but never gives up hope or intention of finding his boy. Two survival stories, told from Pax’s and Peter’s alternating points of view, are set against the backdrop of a near-future second U.S. civil war (likely over water rights). The tense and moving novel is an exquisite exploration of connectedness – among humans and nature – as well as a heartrending look at the impact of war on people, animals, and the earth itself. It will grab readers from its opening paragraphs and hold them in a spell until a bittersweet but triumphant ending. Jon Klassen’s muted, elegant illustrations add to the physical beauty of the singular book.  ©(KTH) 2016 Cooperative Children's Book Center   

CCBC Multicultural Statistics for 2015

Examining new books for our records

Continuing an annual CCBC effort of over 30 years, we’ve documented the books we received in 2015 that are created by or are about people of color or from First/Native Nations.  Here are the numbers*: 

*numbers updated April 5, 2016 (additional titles came in). The commentary that follows the bulleted numbers below reflects the numbers in our original post of February 23.

• 268 books had significant African or African American content

• 92 of these were by Black authors and/or illustrators
• 106 books were by Black book creators




• 14 of these had no visible African/African-American cultural content  

• 42 books had American Indian / First Nations themes, topics, or characters
• 18 of these were by American Indian/First Nations book creators
• 19 books were by American Indian / First Nations authors and/or illustrators
• 1 of these had no visible American Indian/First Nations content

• 113 books had significant Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content
• 45 of these were by Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American 
• 175 books were by authors and/or illustrators of Asian/Pacific heritage 
• 130 of these had no visible Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content

• 82 books had significant Latino content 
• 40 of these were by Latino/a authors and/or illustrators
• 58 books were by Latino/a authors and/or illustrators
•  18 of these had no visible Latino content

These numbers as well as those for previous years are available on the CCBC web site.

As always, we are drawing this information from the books we receive at the CCBC. We received about 3,400 in 2015.  While we can’t read every single book from cover to cover, we do our best to determine relevant content by hands-on examination of every title.  We work to identify authors and illustrators whose books should be included in our counts from information on book jackets, websites, social media, other online sources, and sometimes the authors and illustrators themselves.

In determining “significant” content, we are referencing visibility and inclusion. This in turn brings up two important things to note about our statistics. The first is that we are regularly faced with making decisions to determine if cover art depicting racial diversity is truly representative the book itself.  Sometimes it’s easy to note a book’s content (X: A Novel), while other times making that determination presents more of a challenge (Fifteen Dollars and Thirty-five Cents).  This is also reflected in the ongoing flood of paperback series publishing, many with a primary cast that includes at least one non-white character.

The second important thing to note is that in doing our counts, we are are not evaluating any of the books for cultural substance or authenticity. We are documenting quantity, not quality.  


How do the 2015 numbers compare to previous years?  Some numbers are up slightly from last year, but from the past we know a slight upward fluctuation is not necessarily sustained in subsequent years.  A few numbers have made larger leaps, some of which we conjecture about below.  

The number of books with significant African or African American content increased by almost 50%, from 180 in 2014 to 261 in 2015.  The number of books by Black authors and/or illustrators made a more modest climb, from 84 in 2014 to 100 in 2015.  Numbers of books with First/Native Nations content or authors or illustrators, books with Asian/Pacific or Asian/Pacific American content, and books by Latino authors and illustrators stayed virtually static, while the count for Asian/Pacific heritage authors increased from 129 in 2014 to 173 in 2015, and books with Latino content rose from 66 to 82 during the same time.


While we welcome any increase in these numbers, which have stayed largely flat for decades, we also know there are several factors that are likely responsible for some of these changes. We have always received the majority of our books from mainstream U.S. trade publishers, getting most new titles annually. We also have always received some formula series non-fiction titles. In recent years, as CCBC statistics have been cited with increased frequency in the media and online discussions, we’ve begun receiving some books from publishers outside the realm of mainstream trade publishing or educational publishing who are sending titles specifically because they know we are keeping track of multicultural books. 

We are also seeing more books with “casts” of characters that are diverse, including, as noted earlier, paperback series publishing. But it extends to stand-alone trade titles, too. While white authors writing books with characters who are people of color or from First/Native Nations is nothing new (and a topic much debated and discussed), what we are seeing that is different are more books with two or three main characters, of who one – or two – are people of color.

When it comes to our numbers documenting books by authors and illustrators who are people of color or from First/Native Nations, it should be noted they include multiple books by individual authors and artists. The 100 books we noted by Black authors and illustrators, for example, do not represent the work of 100 different Black book creators. This is important to understand because part of the essential work in publishing a more diverse body of books each year for children and teenagers--books that reflect our nation's racial and ethnic diversity and the diversity of experiences within and across these dimensions of identity--is to expand the numbers of authors and artists of color and from First/Native Nations getting published.   


Of course, as noted above, not every book by every author or illustrator of color or from First/Native Nations are about those cultural experiences. This is important to keep in mind when we're considering who is writing literature reflecting diversity for children and teens. So we see, for example, that although we documented 111 books about Asian Pacific/Asian Pacific Americans, only 42 of those were written by Asian Pacific/American authors and illustrators.   That means that 68 of the 111 books (or roughly 68%) were written or illustrated by non-Asians. Author Ellen Oh recently addressed this issue in a provocative post.   

A selection of the books we documented in 2015

The CCBC began documenting these statistics back in 1985. They are one piece of a much larger effort that spans a far greater number of years. It has always been led by people of color and First/Native Nations, joined by others who also know that while books matter in the lives of children and teens, what’s in them matters, too. 


 It would be wonderful to think that a day will come when we won’t need to keep track of these numbers because publishing for children and teens will have become truly representative of the cultural diversity of the audience it serves. But we aren’t there yet. Not nearly. Year after year we can point to wonderful multicultural books that come out, and year after year that heartens us. But this work also must continue.

Book of the Week: My Book of Birds

My Book of Birds

by Geraldo Valério
Published by Groundwood / House of Anansi Press, 2016
60 pages
ISBN: 978-1-55498-800-6
Age 6 and older

Geraldo Valério’s lifelong love of birds inspired this enticing album of 50 North American birds, many of which he’d never seen until moving to Canada from Brazil. “Learning about birds makes me happy,” he notes in his introduction. His delight is evident and infectious on every page of this volume that combines eye-catching, colorful collage art with conversational text providing brief descriptions of each bird in language that is both appreciative and precise. “This sweet little bird is lively and curious,” he writes about the Black-capped Chickadee. Common ravens are “skilled and daring in flight.” And “if you are lucky on a summer day, you might spot the bright male Scarlet Tanager high in an eastern treetop.” The collage art of the birds with elements of their natural settings was created with recycled paper from magazines and gift wrap. Endpapers featuring eggs and feathers (not to scale, it is noted) add to the immense visual appeal, while a brief glossary and list of sources and places for more information are included along with an index in a book that is accessible in different ways for a wide range of readers. ©2016 Cooperative Children’s Book Center