Literacy and Responsibility

      “I don’t like hyenas so this book would never have been my first choice if I had been buying it… my dislike grew somewhat because the story is longer than I like for a bedtime story…”
     This is a quote from a recent “review” of my children’s picture book I Don’t Want To Be a Hyena, published in the “Read of the Week” section of Africa Community Media’s stable of free newspapers.
     We learn two things from these comments:

• The reviewer approached the book with a preformed bias against hyenas;
• The reviewer approached the book with a preformed bias against the literary genre known as “the long-form picture book”.

     An examination of this beyond the level of the superficial pinpoints a deep concern when considered against the backdrop of the urgent issue of literacy in South Africa. As individuals, the attitudes we convey to children around books, reading, learning, and mutual engagement are vital.
     The above-mentioned “review” is one example of an approach that is damaging to efforts toward a strong culture of literacy. It conveys only what its author does not know, therefore does not value and is reluctant to engage with. She does not know much about hyenas or the long-form picture book genre which includes titles like Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile and The Giraffe, the Pelly, and Me, and is therefore not open to engaging on the basis of either.
     There is certainly no censure in not knowing. Life is a constant process of learning. However, there is censure in being unwilling to learn, and passing on this attitude of unwillingness to children and the reading public, thereby undermining the very literacy goals to which we aspire.
     On a recent book tour across South Africa with I Don’t Want To Be a Hyena, teachers and librarians thanked me for “providing books of substance” for children. Educators followed up the reading sessions by helping children discover more about hyenas, in the process learning more about these complex creatures themselves. This included playing YouTube video of hyenas laughing – which both children and adults found fascinating. Children as young as three years old remained engrossed in the story to the end.
     In a recent interview, children’s author and illustrator Molly Idle, noted, “… there are many beautifully spare or wordless picture books in existence. But there are also any number of lovely looooong picture books too. The words you use should be dictated by the story you’re telling”[i] (my emphasis).
     Yet more sobering are the social implications of an assessment like this. At the root of all prejudice and consequent social alienation is the unwillingness to engage based on pre-existing bias. One of the goals of children’s literature is to cultivate empathy and understanding. As responsible adults, we need to model these values for children.
     This is not truly a review at all. It is simply an expression of the author’s preconceptions. The benefits of children’s literature are well documented. However, as mentioned in my previous blog “Kidlit: Legit Lit”, that value is undermined when we afford it only our most superficial and dismissive attention. The quality of a review of any children’s book can either lower or raise the tone of the conversation around children’s literature.
    In this instance, a more constructive and valid approach might have included:

• Facilitating engagement with a longer text as a way of developing the child’s literacy, sustained concentration, and vocabulary, while exploring the deeper message of the story;
• Finding out more about hyenas together: “I am willing to learn along with you. Does the story itself tell us anything about hyenas?” In this way we teach children how to engage with the text. I may still not like hyenas, but I might deepen my appreciation of their unique qualities while affording children the space to develop their own opinions;
• Providing a thoughtful review that legitimately evaluates the literary merits of the story and its content, by answering the questions, “Does the story entertain? Does it teach anything, for example about our wildlife, or new vocabulary? Does it foster self-awareness, social awareness, empathy?”

     I am forever grateful that when, at the age of nine, I started reading first the works of Charles Dickens, then those of Thomas Hardy, nobody thought to hinder this exploration by telling me that the books were too long, the vocabulary too advanced, the concepts too complex and disagreeable. Advanced reading ability, a lifelong appreciation of literature, and an early awareness of and compassion for social ills were the result.
     We do our children a great disservice when we underestimate them by setting artificial limitations on their literary capacity: “A five-year-old can only tolerate books with a 100 to 500 word count on a limited range of topics, therefore we will not expose him to anything outside of this.”
     As both a writer and a former educator, my purpose is to entertain; educate; promote self-esteem, empathy and social connection; and yes, build a solid foundation of literacy that will sustain a child throughout her life. This is a task that cannot simply be abandoned to teachers, librarians, academics, and charitable organizations. It is one for which we each carry not only societal, but individual responsibility: at the most basic level, in our attitudes toward books, reading, learning, and openness toward engagement that we pass on to the next generation.
 
[i] SCBWI Fall 2019 Bulletin: About the Cover: A chat with cover artist Molly Idle by Sarah Baker p.6

Proudly a long-form picture book about a hyena!