Donaldson_Christine_Blog#3_FreeChoice

Collection Development has been on my mind as of late as I have started my first librarian job at a small rural public school in Spartanburg County. Some of the questions that I ask myself are how to choose the best books? How do I best utilize my budget? What are my students going to like? Where will the time come from to catalog all these new books. Will this book offend a parent? How will I defend my choices if there is a challenge? These are just a few of my questions and most of the answers have been presented to us or made available to us through our classes to obtain this degree. What we cannot find online or in a class is what do you do in that moment? How do you handle a parent when there is no warning or preparation time? I can read through the ALA’s guidance on book challenges but if I am ever in a room with a parent challenging a book, will I be confident and strong in my beliefs and arguments? Who knows? What will help is hearing some of the people this week speak about the stories they hear and how those stories shaped their views as young children.  

Listening to teenagers speak so emotionally at the Youth Speaks gathering about how the world sees them added to my own drive to provide those books. Reading about the struggles these students face is good, but hearing their impassioned voices speak will stay with me a little longer. Seeing these teens reaffirms that when developing a collection, providing books that show culturally different people working together is important. Making available books with diverse characters written by diverse authors changes how others see those around them. The two teens from Washington DC spoke about how stifling cultures and youth. They were impassioned about youth refusing to “let the way the world sees us get in our way” (Youth speaks, 2013).  

Teens are influenced in so many ways by the world around them that we need to find opportunities for those teens to counter those influences. Teens struggle every day attempting to fit a preconceived mold. I recently read “Starfish” by Lisa Fripp and was reminded how vicious peers and family can be. As an adult, time mutes some of those emotions we had as teens and we forget how the words and actions of others affected us. I recently read an interview of A.S. King and was reminded that the number one killer of teens is mental illness and that 70% of teens suffer from undiagnosed mental illness (Jensen & Jensen, 2022). Teens are fighting a battle on multiple fronts. If providing one book can help a child see themselves as valuable, then we must try to find a way to get that book into their hands.  

In my ISCI 757, I read a book by Trevor Noah called Born a Crime and many of the difficulties that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also mentioned. Both recalled how hearing and reading only about one race or culture affected their views of the world. Young minds draw incorrect conclusions that if you only ever read about one race, then that is the only race you are allowed to write about. Adichie stated that “seeing only one thing means a reader does not realize other people or cultures exist in literature.” (Adichie, 2009) As adults we all know this is untrue, children are impressionable and if there are no texts or other information that contradicts what you read then it must be true. Many of us grew up living in a white lens and reading books through a white lens. Making an effort to find books of differing lens can only benefit the students in the schools where we work. Where once oceans divided cultures, social media and the internet now connect all those cultures. The literature in our libraries is beginning to reflect what the world is becoming, but it is a slow process. Collection development is also slow, a little weeding here and there and some timely cultural additions can help our students become a little more open minded.  

Reading through one lens is not the only way that opinions and beliefs are made. Hearing and watching through one lens are also a factor. Adichie also points out that what we tell people and the videos we watch also contribute to people seeing only one aspect of a culture or individual. As teachers we are notorious for warning each other about a difficult student or who to watch carefully. We are placing a lens over that student and asking our colleague to place that same lens over the student. She states that if we “show a people as one thing, as only one thing. Over and over again, that is what they become.” (Adichie, 2009) Knowing how hearing and seeing only one side or viewpoint can affect our views gives us another argument for providing books that offer diverse perspectives. This is not new to me but reading about how Noah’s and Adichie’s experiences shaped their viewpoints gives just another justification for continued acquisition of diverse books. Continued exposure to diverse stories provides viewpoints that allow students to look at the world through another lens. 

The drive for power is another aspect of our world that perpetuates and distorts how people are viewed (Adichie, 2009). The more views a video gets means more money for the creator. Now the creator is looking for videos that get more views regardless of the content or the authenticity of that content. Money equals power. Commercials tell us that frosted flakes are Grrrrrreat! You see this every day, maybe many times a day. You are going to believe they are great whether you have eaten them or not. When you go to the store and see them, you think they will be great, and you buy them, or your kids beg you to buy them. There are many other examples and most have some connection to money and thus power. This will not stop, and it is not logical to try to stop it. What we can do is educate students to better prepare them when they are faced with. Educating students to resist clicking on that link, helping them to discern fact from fiction, and providing tools to help them see the world through a variety of lenses. 

Viewing and reading all of the perspectives this week has armed me with additional arguments and reasons for developing a collection that is diverse and creates opportunities for students to see the world through multiple lenses. Knowing that students need materials from many cultures and offering many perspectives makes the purchase of those books a little easier. Understanding that we want students to see a world view before they enter the workforce makes the purchase of these books easier. Knowing the mental health of our students can be improved makes these purchases easier. Building reasons and justifications for the inclusion of books that offer students a worldly and culturally diverse lens to look through becomes the focus and a way to help the opposition understand that looking through the world from one lens is detrimental to the overall growth, development, and happiness of all children.  

 

 

References 

Adichie, C.N. (October 7, 2009). The danger of a single story [Video]. TED Conferences. https://youtu.be/D9Ihs241zeg?si=aZ3q-NIOJCLZrjkp  

Fripp, L. (2021). Starfish. New York, Ny: Nancy Paulsen Books. 

Jensen, K., & Jensen, R. (2022). Truth Teller. (Cover story). School Library Journal, 68(6), 22–25.  

Noah, T. (2016). Born a crime: Stories from a South African childhood. New York, NY: Spiegel & Grau. 

Youth Speaks. (Aug. 19, 2013). Brave new voices-Washington D.C. Team [Video]. https://youtu.be/tv00xjClbx0?si=4PrJbKIYOQIujzQs 

Myths

Edda: A Little Valkyrie's First Day of School

by: Adam Auerbach

Hercules

by: Adele D. Richardson

Pandora

by: Robert Burleigh

Cyclops of Central Park

by: Madelyn Rosenberg

A First Book of Myths

by: Mary Hoffman

Young Zeus

by G. Brian Karas

Perfectly Pegasus

by: Jessie Sima