Multicultural Review

For my Multicultural Review, I chose to read five books on Native Americans. As I am a Children’s/Youth Librarian I wanted to write about children’s book. However, for this project I felt that picture books would not bring enough breadth and depth to my subject, so I chose five Native American books that would be appropriate for a middle school library.

The books I chose, Morning Girl by Michael Dorris, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie and The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich are all great books about Native Americans for ages 10-14.

The books cover a wide range of learning in that each book, although about Native Americans, is also about themes that everyone can relate to, Native American or not. The books vary from being set hundreds of years ago, like Morning Girl, to being recent, such as The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian. These books are inclusive, rather than exclusive and all people will be able to relate to the changes the characters go through.




Morning Girl by Michael Dorris

This book begins with Morning Girl describing how she got her name: “I don't tell this to anyone because they might misunderstand, but I like the aloneness of the early morning.... Another thing: if the day starts before you do, you never catch up. You spend all your time running after what you should have already done, and no matter how much you hurry, you never finish the race in a tie. The day wins.”

These are telling sentences in that not only does it let readers know that this story is a first person narrative, but also it is a ponderous story. There is not a lot of drama and suspense in the story. Although a hurricane hits Morning Girl’s island and her mother miscarries, these are told in almost a poetic language.

The chapters alternate with Morning Girl sharing her thoughts and feelings in one chapter, and her brother, Star Boy, sharing his perspective in another. In a way, it is good in that we get to hear from both main characters, but it also disrupts the flow of the story as we are never with each character for very long.

The story is basically about Morning Girl’s relationship with Star Boy and the rest of her family, including extended family. They live on an island in the 1400s, before Christopher Columbus’ time. They live a relatively simple, peaceful life. The story discusses their customs and relationships amongst each other: how they pull together during the hurricane, how they mourn the baby the mother never had, and how their day to day life changes.

The book is the shortest of the five I read for this assignment at only 80 pages –over 100 pages less than any other book I read for this assignment-, and for that reason I thought it would be good for 5th graders. After reading it, however, I changed my mind and think it should be reserved for those older. Younger children may dislike how the story flips back and forth between brother and sister and while the words are few they have more meaning than meets the eye, which may confuse younger children. I enjoyed the book, though!



Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

When I chose my theme of Native American I had to include this book, as I recall reading it when I was in 5th grade. My school even did a play of it! It’s a probably the classic book about Native Americans. I had not read it for a long time, so I picked it up again for this project and loved it just as much as I did in 5th grade.

The book begins with Karan, who tells the story is first person narrative. She relates the history of her village, how otter hunters came and killed many of her tribes’ people. Missionaries soon come and want to take Karana and her tribe to mainland California. 12 year old Karana was excited to go and readily packed her few belongings while keeping an eye on her ever mischievous brother, Ramo.

They board the ship and the reader begins to have hope for Karana’s new life when Ramo jumps off the ship for a treasured belonging he left behind. Karana jumps after him and as she catches up to him they both watch the ship –their hope- leave.

The island is a dangerous place and the very next day Ramo is killed by wild dogs. Karana is alone and will remain alone on the island for the next 18 years. The story is about those 18 years of rough survival. As a woman, Karana is forbidden by her tribe to make weapons, yet she must to survive. The wild dogs that killed her brother are still out there.

The story is about Karana’s determination. She wants to live. But to do so she has to change her behaviors as she’s no longer protected by her tribe. There is no one else she can turn to, so she must do everything –hunting, gathering, building, and weaponry- all by herself.

The first time I read this book I did not realize that it was based on a true story. I think that makes the story more poignant to know that there really was a 12 year old girl left behind when missionaries came to the island off of California in the 1800s. She truly did live there, and survive there, by herself for 18 years. The sense of loneliness she must have felt must have been immense.


The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill

The book is written from the point of view of 10 year old Fredricka, Fred, and it details the year that Miss Agnes came to teach in her remote Alaskan school in the year 1948.

Teachers have come and gone from Fred’s Athabascan school. The Alaskan wilderness –and the ever present fish- seem too much for most traditional teachers to handle. Then enters Miss Agnes from the far away country of England. Her teaching is unorthodox, to say the least. She immediately throws away the old textbooks the students have been using and tells them to make pictures to decorate the schoolhouse with.

Miss Agnes begins reading to the children, puts a huge map of the world on one side of the classroom, writes out a timeline of the history of the world, and makes learning real for these children. She gives them reasons to learn, such as when she explains how by adding and subtracting money the students can know that they aren’t being cheated by people buying fur.

Additionally, she, unlike any of the previous teachers, wants Fred’s deaf older sister to come to class. But how can she learn if she can’t hear? Fred’s mother doesn’t think it is possible… until Miss Agnes teaches not only Bokko, but the entire class sign language. Now for the first time Bokko can communicate with those around her.

With all the new and wonderful changes Fred begins to dread the thought of Miss Agnes leaving, going back to England, at the end of the year. How can Miss Agnes ever be replaced? Or will she decide to stay, after all? To find out, you should read it! Actually, everyone should read it anyway, as it is really well told and a fun read.



The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

This was the longest book I read for this assignment at almost 300 pages. However, it should not intimidate most middle-schoolers as the first person narrative from Arnold Spirit, usually known as Junior, is accompanied by many drawings, which truly enhance the words he writes in his diary.

Junior is a 14 year old boy who lives on an Indian Reservation in Spokane, Washington. He is a “part time Indian” because he transfers from his reservation school to a school in Reardan –whose mascot is, ironically, and Indian-, full of rich white students, after his reservation teacher pushes him to want more out of life.

He goes, and is not happy at his new school. He deals with racism, and bullies, a stuttering issue, and other similar trials magnified about by being a Native American in a predominantly white school. He is heart breaking in many ways. His father is an alcoholic and later in the story his grandmother and sister both die.
It’s definitely a tragic-comedy, as many lives are. Junior has a beautiful indomitable spirit and he overcomes many trials. It is a coming of age book and, yes, there are references to sex and also some swearing which probably makes this story better suited to 8th graders, if it was in a middle school library.

Actually it may be too mature for a middle school library, but I wanted to read it for this project as it has won numerous awards and garnered many accolades… for good reason! The chapters are short and the line drawings add interest. This story can easily be read in one or two days despite the number of pages.



The Birchbark House by Louise Eldrich
This is a story about an Ojibwa girl, age 7, named Omakayas. She lives in the year 1847 and unbeknownst to her, she is adopted. Her community had a smallpox epidemic and she, at less than 2 years of age, was the sole survivor. She is rescued by an elderly Ojibwa woman and brought to live with another family.

The story tells readers about Omakayas life, her relationships with Tallow, the woman who found her, her mother, her older sister and her two little brothers. She leads a simple life and the chapters describe common household chores such as readying moose skin for moccasins and chasing crows out of the corn.

Omakayas father is absent for about the first half of the book as he is a hunter and trades fur. He is a stern but loving figure and although Omakayas is a little afraid of him, she loves him. Omakayas has a unique relationship with animals and this is illustrated through the book, such as when she visits her “brother bears” and when she, while chasing crows out of the corn, adopts a wounded crow for a pet.

Omakayas life is not without trouble, however. Towards the middle of the book a smallpox outbreak occurs within her new village. Everyone in her family is sickened, except her. She takes care of the family as best as she can, but her beloved baby brother dies. She doesn’t understand how she did not get sick until the very end of the book when Tallow explains that she, Omakayas, had smallpox when she was a little girl. Here, for the first time, Omakayas learns of her adoption.

The author has a pet crow herself and thus the relationship between the crow and Omayakas is very real. The author tells a very authentic tale. Ojibwa words are used throughout, and there is included a glossary of Ojibwa words and terms. Eldrich studied the culture of the island before she wrote the story and talked with native chiefs to make the characters more authentic.




Dorris, M. (1999). Morning girl. Hyperion Book.

O'Dell, S. (2010). Island of the blue dolphins. Sandpiper; 50th Anv edition.

Hill, K. (2002). The year of miss agnes. Margaret K. McElderry.

Alexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part time indian. Little Brown.

Erdrich, L. (2002). The birchbark house. Hyperion Book.

Scholarly Review

"There are several important reasons to bring more focus to ongoing research about diversity, inclusion, and underrepresentation in LIS, as well as to encourage more work in this area. Consistent exposure to this area of research stands as a key means through which students in LIS programs can become ready to provide inclusive information services to the wide range of patrons they will encounter in their professional lives." ((Jaeger, Bertot, & Franklin, 2010) )

I like this quote! I think multicultural services should be about how to provide the best service possible to a wide range of people. Much of this class has been studying one race versus another race, whereas it'd be fun if instead of focusing on racial tensions we learn how to resolve them. Or at least manage them better.

There are so many people in this world and so many races that go to libraries in the United States. I want to be a Children's Librarian and I want to make sure that all children from every race feels accepted in my library. I want to offer programs and stories and books that speak to each person where he or she is. I want to learn how to be a good librarian for children who are not just my race, but any race.

I guess it is hard to except that a class can teach one how to resolve racial tensions. Obviously all of us acknowledge that they exist, or we wouldn't be taking a class about multicultural services.

I've gained knowledge through this class about projects and activities that I can do with children to broaden their understand of different cultures, and I think that's great. I'm currently reading up on Children's books about Native Americans for my Multicultural Review due next week. I like being more familiar with multicultural literature and wish I had an opportunity to study it more in depth: more races and more books!

It'd be fun if this class was somehow expanded over more semesters so that we had a chance to look at several different races rather than just one. I think multiculturalism is a broad enough topic that it could cover many semesters. I love learning about other cultures, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, African American, European American... I just wish there was time for them all!








Jaeger, P.T., Bertot, J.C., & Franklin, R.E. (2010). Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in lis research. Library Quarterly, 80(2), 175-181.

Social Bookmark 4

http://www.ric.edu/astal/multicultural/books.html

I want to do my Multicultural Review on 5 books for young adults. These books will all be looking at Native American culture. This website is a great source for finding multicultural books for children or young adults.

The reason I want to do Native Americans is because when we think of minorities, blacks and hispanics are the first to come to mind, usually. I think Native Americans can be overlooked a little bit.

I want to do young adult books because I want to be a Children's/Youth Librarian and those are the kinds of books that I'd be suggesting to children. Right now I can't really name any Native American young adult books off the top of my head. I think this assignment will be helpful for when I really am a librarian!

I thought it was cool that the first book listed on the website is about Amish people. I wouldn't automatically think of them as a different culture, but they really are! The book also covers classics like Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.

It looks like a great website for people who want to read multicultural books, but aren't quite sure where to start. I like how the website covers different reading levels. There are short picture books as well as long novels. Additonally, there is nonfiction as well as fiction represented on this book list.

I also like how at least one book (Goodnight Opus by Berkeley Breathed) is about the multicultural difference between a grandmother and a grandson. There are so many ways to be multicultural!

Social Bookmark #3

http://wilderdom.com/games/MulticulturalExperientialActivities.html

This is a fun site that has several activities that help to bring social awareness to children and adults alike. I thought that this was a good site as I plan on being a Children's/Youth Librarian and many of the activities can be done for or with children.

The first activity they suggest is to get a group and ask how many different ways they can say 'hello'. I think that'd be fun as many different languages and cultures can be represented. Children learn to say 'hello' from their parents, relatives, T.V. programs (such as Dora the Explorer) and through many other mediums. It'd be fun to see how much they remember and if they can say both the word hello and what country the language is from. For instance 'Hola, Spanish!' or 'Bonjour, French!'. Either way, it sounds like a good way to introduce more cultures to children.

Another activity mentioned is to have each person explain their name. Why are they named _____? What does it mean? Who named them? Where they named after a relative? What does their name mean? For instance my name, Amanda, is Latin and means 'worthy of love'. My first name is a name that both of my parents happened to like. My middle name is Jane. It is Hebrew and means 'grace'. It was my mother's middle name, and my grandmother is named Janet. I have an aunt with the middle name Jane as well.

My last name is Finnish. It is the Finnish word for beach, actually. I married a Finnish man and took his last name. Taking his last name is a cultural thing to do. Also just telling someone about my name, and its heritages, imparts many different layers of culture. I have a Latin name and a Hebrew name, and a Finnish name! In addition, being named after a relative -or more than one, in my case- is also cultural.

Another activity listed is The World Meal. It is explained as such:

A World Meal consists of a limited amount of rice and beans. This is the average meal for the average person on the planet. Cook this for a group of others and encourage them in turn to cook a World Meal for others. (Neill, 2005)

Children especially may take it for granted that there will always be enought to eat. This is a good thing in that they can feel secure, and not worried. However, showing them that not everyone is as nourished as they are may be helpful. The webpage I linked to shows an interesting chart listing the average number of calories people in many countries eat. Ethiopia tops the list of malnourished nations with 1,667 calories per person while Austrians consume 3,495.

Scholarly Review 2

"Note, too, the telling absence of specialized services to groups of northern-European descent; German Americans of Swedish Americans, for instance, are presumably too well absorbed into the librarians' mental mode of the 'normal' American to need special designation along with the supposedly more disadvantaged Italians, blacks, Asians, and so on, while the very idea of 'British American' probably makes little sense in this context." (Pawley, 2006)

This is a very interesting phenomenon to note, and something I have seen played out in the American culture. I think that what is described above is an almost invisible form of racism. When we think of 'white people' the could be anyone who has a European heritage. Russians, Welsh, Norwegians, Greeks and others are all lumped together in a form that is, supposedly, cohesive.

I would argue that this group is not at all cohesive and pretending that they are is a form of racism. If I were to fly to Greece, for example, I would understand very little of the culture and absolutely none of the language. Yet librarians and others would place me, as I am 'white', in the same race as these people. I went to England a few years ago, and even though I am partially English, I felt culture shock. The language was much different than American English, and the customs were different such as looking left for oncoming traffic instead of right. In short, it was adifferent culture completely.

My in-laws are Finnish-American immigrants. When they arrived in the United States in the 1970s, I doubt they didn't feel some culture shock. Yet, presumably, 'whites' are all the same. Thsi presumption means that European immigrants are overlooked in our culture. Immigrants like my in-laws are such a minority that they aren't even thought of when the word 'minority' is said. When people say 'minority' Blacks are the first group I think of, then Hispanics and Asians. People like my in-laws are, as the above quote says, supposedly absorbed into the label 'normal' when they may not even be able to read the same language as most Americans.

Is this not a form of racism as well? Librarians, and really, all Americans, need to remember that this country was built on immigration. Not everyone who 'looks white' is the same and special considerations should be made for those who are new to this country.






Pawley, C. (2006). Unequal legacies: race and multiculralism in the lis curriculum. Library Quarterly, 76(2), 149-168.

Social Bookmark 2: Representative Beauty?

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/29/ethnic-models-still-mostly-excluded-on-fashion-s-runways.html?gt1=43002

This is an article I came across while reading msn.com today. The article discusses how most models on runways are Caucasian, and how minorities seem to not be able to break through. The article even said that in Asia designers, selling items in Asian countries, would prefer to use Caucasians than Asians. I find this odd considering that I would think they'd like to play to their audience. For example, I would be more willing to buy a certain item of clothing if I thought it would look good on me. Yet how would Asians, with dark eyes, dark hair and a different complexion know whether or not the same clothing looks as good on them as it does on the blonde haired blue eyed girl in the picture?

The article points out that part of the problem is that "although Americans spend 326 billion a year on clothes and shoes...only $27 billion of those dollars come from black customers." So, in this case anyway, the designers are pandering to their white customers. I would wonder, though, if more minorities are used would more minorities buy from designers?

I also found this paragraph interesting:

Edwing D’Angelo is a young black/Latino designer who recently presented his exuberant women’s and men’s collections at the Waldorf-Astoria in a show that featured a striking array of Asian, Hispanic, black, and white models. He says ethnic models face the same obstacles as minority designers, especially when it comes to being featured in print: “They suffer from the looking-alike syndrome,” he says, referring to designers and fashion publications. “They’ll say, ‘We already have that look’ ... as if you can only have one ethnic model—never mind the presence of a hundred blondes.”

I notice, with chagrin, that he specifically mentions blonde. I always disliked, growing up, how blondes were always supposedly the pretty ones. They were the princesses, the heroines, and, yes, the models. I have very dark brown hair and I think more brunettes would be nice as well! In addition, people come in different sizes, yet models are usually very tall and very thin. That is no more representative than having all blonde Caucasian models.

The article did note that there is more diversity now than there was even a few years ago. It's odd how multiculturalism effects everything and how prevalent using one stereotypical model -the tall, slender, blonde, blue eyed model- is supposedly representative of the ideal beauty. I know this model doesn't represent me!

Scholarly Review

“[Sociocultural consciousness] challenges future information professionals to expand their sociocultural consciousness, by which this author means an understanding that people’s way of thinking, behaving, and being are deeply influenced by such factors as race/ethnicity, social class, and language. Without this insight, information professionals are unable to cross the sociocultural boundaries that separate too many of them from their patrons.” (Abdullahi, 2007)

I think this quote sums up why I chose to take this class. I grew up in the south, the mountains of Virginia, and while I was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech I got a job working at the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Library. I applied to the job simply because I wanted to work, and while there I discovered that I loved being a librarian. Another discovery I made was that so many different people use libraries.

My town had a local library, of course, but the Vet Med Library I worked in had a completely different set of patrons. The town library had mostly middle class people who had lived in the area several years, at least. They usually knew what they wanted in the library, as they had been there often enough before. And frequently they had children, some of whom I worked with when I helped with the library’s summer reading program as a teenager.

The Veterinary Medicine Library had an entirely different culture in and of itself. These people were well educated, studious, and busy. They came from many different backgrounds: Asians, Europeans, Hispanics, Indians, and Africans. It was a much more diverse work setting and I really enjoyed working with these people. I liked figuring out how to speak to them so that we could truly communicate, as not all of had English as their first language. I liked it when they’d tell me a bit about their background as I was helping them, such as where they are from and what it was like in their home country.

I took this class because I wanted to understand all of these cultures better, especially the Hispanic culture as the Hispanic population is on the rise in the United States and I’d truly love to reach out to them and make them feel welcome. I want to know more about all of these cultures! I want to know how to reach them, how to best teach them and how to make them love libraries as much as I do.

I know that’s a tall order for any class, but that is still my goal in this class: to get to know and understand as many different cultures as I can so that I can help patrons of all backgrounds. Libraries are free to be utilized by anyone. I’d love to learn how to make libraries more accessible to people from all cultures.




Abdullahi, I. (2007). Diversity and intercultural issues in library and information science (LIS) education. New Library World, 108(9/10), 453-459.