Comments on: Forgotten Book: Banned Books Week

By: Bookworms Carnival – Banned Books Week « The Novel World

Bookworms Carnival – Banned Books Week « The Novel World — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:19:38 +0000

[...] @ Read Space is also celebrated Banned Books Weeks by taking a look at Forgotten Books. [...]

By: Barrie Summy

Barrie Summy — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:31:33 +0000

I love your idea of having all versions available. Seems like it would be a great trampoline for discussion.

By: susan

susan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:35:55 +0000

Susan–I agree, books do reflect the time they were written in, and discussion is the key for the most part. I loved the Peterkin Papers! Such a silly mixed up family! And Lois Lenski. I don’t think the sexism ever registered with me, although that perhaps had to do with the way I was raised, as I thought girls could do anything…It is when these books are read without any context or discussion that concerns could be raised…oh if only that were always possible. I too used to be a children’s librarian (and a teen librarian and an adult librarian involved in developing the fiction collection…)

Patti: That was how I remembered it as a child, but looking that the illustrations in the version I read, I can now see how stereotyped they were (are still.)

By: Patti Abbott

Patti Abbott — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:25:28 +0000

I loved this book as a child and I don’t think I gave the color of the children a second thought. It was just simple, sweet and fun.

By: Susan Theriault

Susan Theriault — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:20:10 +0000

Little Black Sambo was one of my favorite books as a child in the fifties and early sixties. As with so many books of that era, there were exagerated stereotypes but these were not pointed out to me. I just loved the little book with the little drawings. Still dear to my heart is the idea of little purple shoes with crimson soles and crimson linings. I’m sure I didn’t know what that meant but it sounded very beautiful and exotic. I also remember believing that tigers chasing each other around a tree could actually go so fast that they could melt into butter (or ghi [ghee]- the author at least got that right.)
I know all the reasons why the book was revised but I don’t think any of the newer versions have the magic of the first one. Ditto for The Vovages of Dr. Doolittle, except that I understand why Patricia McKissack revised Prince Bumpo’s wish to be white into a wish to be a lion.
I was a children’s librarian for 25 years and am now a teen librarian and I read to my own children all the time, including the Peterkin Papers by Lucretia Hale, the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling and all the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne. (and many other classics, including the incredible sexism of Lois Lenski’s books about the Small family).
We always talked about how things have changed since those wonderful stories were written and why it’s different today. It was a great opportunity to share my values with my children so they COULD appreciate both excellent stories and the way in which things have changed for the better (usually). There are ways to present old stories so that children can learn about the evolution of change in attitudes without changing the words of the author. I am pretty much against any revision. Books reflect the times they were written in.

By: susan

susan — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:17:47 +0000

You are certainly right, in one sense, although I do believe that the first American editions had new illustrations from American illustrators. I did struggle with what term to use, I had tried several and changed it back and forth…

By: Misrule

Misrule — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:25:45 +0000

Just a small, possibly pedantic, point: surely the depictions objected to in Bannerman’s original illustrated text were because of racial caricatures of people from Africa, not African Americans as such (Helen Bannerman was Scottish). It’s perhaps a small distinction, but the statement does suggest a US-centric view of the book, and objections to it on the grounds of racial stereotyping have not been confined to the USA.