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This is a book my sister owns and I thought it was great for what we were talking about in this class. I did do research to find out when the book was published and it said 1966. I tried to do more research, but all that came up for me was book reviews and to buy the book. Other then that I didn't find anything else, which made me very sad actually. I wanted to know more about the author. The story is of the world having many different things, people and colors, and that we see these things with our eyes. But to understand what love is we have to see that with our hearts.
I would definitely use this book with young children. This story has a great meaning about being nice to all people and not looking on the outside (skin color, way someone talks, etc.), but to look at the inside, at what love looks like.
As I was skimming through the 10 ways handout I was looking at what I could find in this book that was on this list. There were some stereotypes, but it was apart of the story. It was in no way to insult the children, but to tell a the story. As you will see below I posted a picture of said page. You can decide for yourself weather or not it's stereotypical or not.
I think that the only sort of racist remake about the book is that it all seems to be white children in here, but some of the pages don't have any color on them, so the author could have made it that way to keep an open mind. Number three on the 10 ways handout asked if I saw any minority in the book or not. I think that is hard to say because you do see farm like clothing and non farm like clothing on the children, but it looks like they're all "middle class" for when the book probably would have taken place in the authors mind.
Number four, as I said earlier there were only white people, but other pages had no color at all to them. So I would say it was up to the imagination of the reader. With all said white children in the book I feel like children of other races and ethnicity might feel offended later in life, but if they are actually reading the book and listening to the words it is talking about not looking at outside appearances, but on the inside where feelings and love are. The children in the story don't look rich or poor, they look happy (10 ways, number 4).
I think the characters aren't depicted as caricatures at all, but as individuals. It doesn't follow stereotypes too much, other then the picture I posted above, but that is also for others to decide for themselves. No one in this story has power or wisdom either, it is talking about what we see with our eyes and what we feel with our hearts. The narrative and pictures used show that everyone is different, but that we should get along. On the last two pages of the book is says:
"An apple is red, the sun is yellow, the sky is blue, a leaf is green,
a cloud is white...and the earth is brown.
And, if I asked you, could you tell me...
what color is love?"
This is a great lesson for children so they can possibly get a grasp on how to treat others.
All in all this was a very heart warming book that made me smile at how cute it was, I would highly recommend this book to parents to read to their children because of how the story has kids looking at things that they know (the colors of the sky, sun, a leaf, etc.) and having them look at something bigger, love for others.
References:
10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children’s Books For Racism and Sexism
What is love by Joan Walsh Anglund
I was looking for a video of a read along for this book or an online version to read the whole story, but sadly I couldn't find one. Anyways I think that this is a good book for parents to read to their children as well, children identify the world by colors as in your quote "An apple is red, the sun is yellow, the sky is blue, etc.". The picture you posted to me, seems like its mostly white children as you stated, but they are dressed up as different cultures, such as the headdress for Native Americans, the conical hat for Asians, and so on. I wish I was able to read the rest of this book at the moment, but other than that small stereotyping of different cultures. This book seems like a great read for children. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis does sound like a good book with a positive message for children. I did like how it compared colors of things children could relate to "the color of love". On the one page that you did show I really liked the text "In our world all the people are different colors, and, sometimes, they live happily together side by side." It is interesting that the author included the word sometimes here. Also regarding the picture on that page it does look like a bunch of white children dressed up as stereotypical "characters" from another culture. I don't know why the author couldn't include accurate images with children from different cultures; maybe the white children were celebrating diversity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, it was really great. The book definitely sounds like it sends a positive message to children, especially that the characters look like individuals, instead of cartoons. I definitely learned a message that the quote provided at the end.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean about the presentation of stereotypes, it seems like that page was intended to condense the illustrations to fit the book's message. Instead of devoting a page to Dutch, Native American, Chinese, and Indian children, there's one page with generalizations of them all, as shown in the 'School Fair' page you included. It's hard to say if this is truly stereotypical or just illustrative.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis, it's really complex. It was great how you identified the message of the book and then considered whether or not the text actually maintained that message. I think you could say it's debatable if this book really shows diversity or not. Personally, from what little I've seen of the book, I would say a bit more could have been done to really bring the point home. However, I think it can be argued that it decently handled a rather advanced subject matter for its time, which isn't a small feat. Great review!
This book sounds very adorable and from what I gather it would be a good book for children. There didn't seem to be many stereotypes I would worry about. Now more diveristy would be better but as you said there are pages with no color to leave it up to the reader. I like that because as we have seen throughout life you and label someome to just one skin color. Thanks for the review, I will definitely check out this book.
ReplyDeleteThis activity is perfect for children to learn about their family. Where they come from, their culture, religion, their cousins, aunts and uncles. Its a hands on learning experience and definitely helps children to get that feel of their family line. I would do this activity in classroom if i was a teacher.
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