Blogger: Etta Wilson
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Looking at the American Library Association’s lists of awards and prizes over the years, I see several authors and books from other cultures. The Mildred L. Bachelder Award for best work of translation is probably the best known of these. Begun in 1966 and named in honor of a children’s librarian whose work had international influence, the award is intended to promote communication between the peoples of the world. In 2003 author Cornelia Funke won that award for The Thief Lord, originally published in German. Funke has written several best-sellers since then and is now part of a promotional tour in the US along with several other juvenile authors.
In 2009 the Bachelder Award went to Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit by Nahoko Uehashi, originally published in Japanese. Even though it was published in the U.S. by Arthur A. Levine of Scholastic, the same imprint that brought us Harry Potter from Britain, the book has not appealed to readers in the same way as Funke’s. It has also been outsold by a Bachelder honor book that same year, Tiger Moon by Antonia Michaelis, originally published in German.
I may be making too much of this, but I feel several things are at play here: The American taste for intrigue and mystery rather than for spiritual symbolism. There may also be some underlying feeling of more ethnic identity with Germanic culture than with Asian. Or it could be something more obvious–page count, helpful glossary in the back, etc.
Within the realm of Christian publishing for children and youth, I feel we have too few books about children from other cultures, and I wonder why. Are we too preoccupied with the moral development of our own kids that we focus on the culture in which they are growing up? Why aren’t we publishing and promoting stories about our children learning, giving, and receiving with children from other countries? Eager to hear your answers.
Do it have something to do with the same thing (whatever it is) that makes most publishers want stories set in the U.S.?
That’s a great question, but I don’t know the answer. I do know that periodicals like Pockets stress that story characters should be from many cultures.
What I can give you are some facts from my school district, where I work in a Latchkey program before and after school. Our district has 14,000 students. More than 1,000 are designated ELL (English Language Learners), and they speak over *fifty* different languages. Fifty!
In Latchkey, we have children whose parents are from Russia, Venezuela, China, India, Greece, and Chile (my elementary also has a large Japanese population, but Japanese moms stay home with their children). Several of the children from India don’t eat meat at snacktime. This is always a revelation to the new first graders!
The names I say every day are a true mix of cultures from all over the world. There are Arnav, Sophia, Eeshaa, Derek, Manav, Amalia, Tushar, two Claires (one Chinese, one Russian), Katherine, Linda, and Lindsey (all Chinese).
I am truly a missionary every time I step into my school. Last year Nutan asked me if saying OMG was bad. I told him that God’s name is holy and we should say it with respect, not just throw it around. He was very impressed. And I learned that many (if not all) Indian names come from the names of Indian gods.
The question that comes out of all this for the CBA is: who do we want to reach? Do we want to teach our kids about other cultures, including their religions, or do we want to teach kids from other cultures who God is? Or do we just want kids to know, as the kids in my school know, the world is filled with interesting people who may do some things differently, but we can find common ground and be friends with one another?
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