Free within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children's Literature

by Rudine Sims Bishop

Overview

African American children's literature is a vibrant form of expression. Written by a leading authority on the subject, this book overviews the history of African American children's literature from the antebellum South to the present day. The volume places African American children's literature in its social, political, and cultural contexts, discusses its origins in songs and folklore, and examines its importance as a vehicle for promoting respect for the African American heritage. Included are discussions of major authors and illustrators, such as Virginia Hamilton, Walter Dean Myers, and John Steptoe, as well as important genres of children's literature, such as poetry, historical fiction, and picture books. Teachers of children's literature will treasure this book as a convenient overview of this fascinating subject, while students of literature and social studies will value it as a guide to the African American literary achievement and to the treatment of social issues in fiction. The volume also includes a rich selection of picture book illustrations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313340932
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/2007
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	618,982
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	8 - 13 Years

About the Author

Rudine Sims Bishop is Professor Emerita of Education at Ohio State University, where she has taught courses on children's literature. Her previous books include Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children's Fiction (1982), Presenting Walter Dean Myers (1990), Kaleidoscope: A Multicultural Booklist for Grades K-8 (1994), and Wonders: The Best Children's Poems of Effie Lee Newsome (1999). She has won several awards and has been on the selection committees for both the Caldecott and Newbery Medals.

Editorial Reviews

Bishop traces the evolution of fiction written for black children and by black authors and illustrators within the context of African-American social and literary history….Her writing is precise and engaging, and it really comes alive when presenting primary-source material….She provides an extensive bibliography for further exploration. Librarians as well as teachers will be enriched by this work.” —School Library Jourbanal

“Bishop covers a range of authors, subjects and developments in African American children's literature, starting with early efforts to provide reading before the turban of the twentieth century. She covers motivational literature of the 1920s, African American poetry and picture books that explained history and community, illustration specific to the genre, realistic new literature focusing on teens and preteens, and historical fiction aimed at young readers.” —Reference & Research Book News

“In this comprehensive study, renowned expert Rudine Sims Bishop explores the emergence of a distinct literature in the 19th century 'written by African Americans, focused on African American people and their life experiences, and primarily intended for children up to age fourteen' and traces its development until the beginning of the 21st century. […] The wealth of information and the engaging writing style make this an indispensible treasury for academics as well as librarians, teachers and general readers.” —Bookbird

From the Publisher

Expanding on her groundbreaking work, Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children's Literature (NCTE, 1982), Bishop traces the evolution of fiction written for black children and by black authors and illustrators within the context of African-American social and literary history. The author begins with an overview of pre-1900s writing and stories, including examples of destructive stereotypical behavior and language of black characters generally written by whites, to set the stage. Bishop explores the call by W.E.B. Du Bois for the creation of original material for the children's periodical The Brownies' Book , whose contributors included Langston Hughes, capturing the drive of these social activists and educators to create a body of literature that was guided by explicit values as well as an underlying ideology-"for Black children to recognize themselves as normal, to learn black history, and to recognize their own potential . . . ." Bishop contrasts these goals with the prevailing norm in mainstream children's books. In the concluding third of the book, she investigates modern literature by profiling contemporary writers and illustrators such as Lucille Clifton, Nikki Grimes, Rita Garcia Williams, Virginia Hamilton, Tom Feelings, Ashley Bryan, Jerry Pinkney, and Kadir Nelson. Her writing is precise and engaging, and it really comes alive when presenting primary-source material. One example is a debate in Publisher's Weekly in 1941-1942 about the controversial use of "Negro dialect," especially by white writers. She provides an extensive bibliography for further exploration. Librarians as well as teachers will be enriched by thiswork.-Lisa Von Drasek, Bank Street College Library, NY

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