A future post is certain to outline The Year Of.....and it is shaping up to be a year of many things...one of which is finding out I don't really love all the things as dearly as I thought I did. Or rather, all good ideas potentially have a dark side.
Many international schools have turned their Halloween parade into a storybook character parade. Our school is no exception. From a distance, this sounds like such a fabulous idea. Use a holiday laden with candy getting, stranger door knocking and dead spirit revelling and turn it into something wholesome- encourage and endorse a love of reading while still allowing for the all important costume designing.
My class voted on a goal of achieving "Best Costumes Ever" and so, in an attempt to support this lofty objective, I decided I should dress up too. I have never been much of a costume wearer. In the US my go-to Halloween digs included a sweatsuit and a pair of headphones. Jogger. Subtle, already in my closet and different from my daily wear. I used to have red jogging pants and matching zip up jacket (I can't imagine why I ever had such a thing, but I did) and I wore it with gusto.
My current approach was similar. I did a google search for characters who had things I already own. "Character with glasses" and "characters in a blue dress" were two of my first searches. The choices came down to Waldo and Madeline. I briefly conisdered Red Riding Hood since I have a smashing red sequined thing that I thought might be fun to wear.
 |
| Blue dress, yellow hat- I can do that |
I tried to give some suggestions to my 5th graders. I tried to tell them that striving for Best Costumes Ever might mean we had to search beyond all the Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries characters- who are really just kids like us- and try for something a little more.... creative.
But the books kids are reading in 5th grade aren't filled with the most colorful characters- not in appearance anyway. At a certain point, a character becomes loveable or memorable because of their actions and words and inner thoughts and less because of their appearance.
One kid really seemed to capture the essence of it all by coming in with a cartoon mask cut-out- a nice spin on the stick figure drawing essence of those books. Another managed to create his own homemade ninja costume eerily resembling a lego ninja character gracing the cover of his book.
 |
| My Vote for Best Costume Ever |
But the more the kids searched and planned for their choices- my chocolate brown and coffee colored students- the more I saw there weren't enough characters that really resembled them. And I wanted to opt out. I suddenly found myself not wanting to support this idea- this idea rooted in literacy and cozy bedtime tales and reading and imagining characters from books- not movies. It became an idea I wanted to veto.
It's not news that there aren't enough diverse characters in children's literature. I'm not surprised just merely saddened again. I thought of all the time I used to spend searching for books to fill my classroom library and to make required reading as part of the curriculum. Hours and weeks and months and a lifetime really, always keeping eyes open for just the right tales, with a range of characters experiencing an array of life stories. Children from countries around the world, from all levels of economical backgrounds and family lifestyles, with skin colors that are pale and red and brown and beige and tan and dark. With eyes that are straight and slanted and green and blue and brown and black and seeing and nonseeing. With legs that work and those that don't.
It's one thing to search for that and acquire that and strive to put that in my classroom (my long lost and beloved classroom.) But in the libraries? In the popular culture of kid speak and kid read? They aren't going to be doing all that searching. They are taking what's readily available, mass produced, deemed a success and pushed to be popular. They are choosing from what's easy to find and it doesn't necessarily resemble them.
So my excitement for the Storybook Character Parade dwindled quickly. By the time I was talking to a colleague- who responded wryly that she would be- of course, what else- "Aya from Yopougon" I was completely disspirited. (google image search Aya and then google image search black storybook characters, or African storybook characters)
 |
| Aya- so much more than a book- in Cote d'Ivoire |
It's easy enough for the little ones to still become princesses and battlefield warriors. There are plenty of cats and rabbits and turtles in childhood books. The more imaginitve might opt to become trucks or cars or even talking, walking vegetables. Truthfully, no one is ever too old for a picture book. But the kids get it. They get the idea of taking a favorite character and making it come to life. They want to do it.
It's just that the options are sorely limited.
 |
| A subtle Madeline, already cooking up ideas about how to open minds next year |
