This list of literature intends to reflect and honor the lives of all young people. Recognizing diversity is essential in education, especially given globalization and our increased access to diverse lives and lived experiences, including LGBTQ, people of color, gender diversity, people with disability, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities.
However, diversity can mean “outside the majority” or “from the margins,” which can privilege the white, western, heterosexual, middle class experience and can stereotype anyone “other.” As a teacher I have a lot of power in selecting which books get into the hands and minds of students (and which books don’t). My philosophy of teaching and reading is (or can be) imposed upon my students, and so I believe I have an ethical responsibility to offer students a wide range of literature that just might trouble stereotypes and make conscious the “othering” of humanity.
Still, diversity is not enough; when some students do see themselves in literature, the stories are often distorted, negative, or on the fringes or margins of the plot. I worry about only offering students literature that some say “mirror” their lives. Some multicultural literature advocates the importance of children seeing themselves represented in the texts. I agree, but I also think that we have to offer students a “window” into unfamiliar lives to promote empathy and even inquiry.
The quality of literature and the way we teach students to read is also a consideration for me when I bring new literature into the classroom. Does the literature trouble stereotypes? Does the story work toward some deeper understanding of humanity? Children are hurt from not seeing the true nature of the world around them in the texts they read; this can also distort the world around them and how they connect to other human beings in and beyond school. In my view, it is important that our students not only see themselves in the stories they read (both current and historical) but that they witness stories of diverse lives, that their reading experiences are inclusive of many voices, faces, experiences, and points of view.
I have not read the books on this list, so I will read them critically, but they seem to explore different topics, lives, points of view, and places. The list comes from from my mentor and friend David Schaafsma’s young adult literature syllabus at UIC and We Need Diverse Books with a few others recommended by friends.
I will be traveling a lot this summer by car, so a few of them are on CD. Have you ever listened to a book? Give it a try. I hope to review a few for this blog (or perhaps you will read and review a few for Ethical ELA). Do you have other suggestions to add to the list?
