http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090106/LIFE/901060338

Concerns over diversity among Newbery elite

By MELITA MARIE GARZA • Bloomberg News Service • January 6, 2009

In "Bud, Not Buddy," Christopher Paul Curtis tells the story of a
Depression-era black boy in Flint, Mich. The book won the Newbery Medal,
the top prize in children's literature, eight years ago. It was the last
time a black character had the lead role in a Newbery book. If you want a
Hispanic protagonist, you have to go back 43 years.

Characters depicted in Newbery winners are more likely to be white, male
and come from two-parent households than the average U.S. child, according
to a Brigham Young University study. The trend has accelerated even as the
U.S. has diversified.

"We are going to have a black president -- literature should catch up,"
National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie said in an interview. Alexie won
the award for his 2007 "Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," a
semi-autobiographical novel about a teen growing up on the Spokane Indian
reservation.

The Chicago-based American Library Association has awarded the Newbery
Medal to one book annually since 1922. All Newbery books remain in print,
underscoring their enduring nature.

About 10 percent of new children's books published last year focused on
minorities, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"We still are a largely white world in children's literature and it's
always an uphill struggle," said Roger Sutton, editor of Horn Book
magazine, an 85-year-old review of children's books.

The Brigham Young study analyzed the race, gender and family background of
the characters in 82 Newbery winners through 2007. The analysis compared
three periods, starting with 1922 through 1950, followed by the era in
which the civil rights movement gained momentum, 1951 through 1979, and
concluding with the 1980 through 2007.

Black and Hispanic protagonists became scarcer during the past 27 years.
American Indian and Asian main characters increased in number -- to two
each.

Latino protagonists disappeared from 1980 through 2007 and black ones fell
to two from a high of five between 1951 and 1979, the study found. White
main characters rose to 19 from 18 in the same period.

The last book with a Hispanic protagonist to win a Newbery Medal was
"Shadow of a Bull," by Maia Wojciechowska, in 1965. The book dealt with a
Spanish boy's struggle to follow in the footsteps of his slain bullfighter
father.

Newbery Medal winners also depict disproportionately fewer characters
living in single-parent households than the norm, the study found. About a
quarter of all U.S. children now live with one parent, compared with seven
percent of the Newbery protagonists in the past 27 years.

"Maybe the ALA should just describe the Newbery Award as 'awarded to the
writer of the best book about white, two-parent households,'" said Julia
Alvarez, a Dominican-American and a writer-in-residence at Middlebury
College, in Vermont. She won the American Library Association's Pura Belpre
Award as well as the Americas Award for "Before We Were Free," which tells
the story of a 12-year-old girl whose family is involved in resistance work
in the Dominican Republic against the Trujillo dictatorship in 1960.

"The Newbery is given for literary quality -- ethnicity, gender, nothing of
that is necessarily taken into consideration," said Pat Scales, president
of the Association for Library Service to Children, which runs the Newbery
Award for the library association.

"We certainly want children's books to mirror society," Scales said. "It's
not as magic as whether there is a boy main character or a girl main
character or an African-American or Latino or Asian character. We owe kids
good stories that reflect their lives and give them a more global view."

One out of three Americans is now a member of a minority group, according
to the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics, the largest minority, account for 15
percent of the U.S. population, followed by African-Americans at more than
13 percent. Asians represent 5 percent and American Indians more than 1
percent.

While only one book can win the Newbery Medal each year, the library
association also names Newbery Honor winners, an accolade a number of
minority writers have received. In 2008, Jacqueline Woodson's "Feathers"
and Christopher Paul Curtis' "Elijah of Buxton" were named Honor Books.
Both authors are black.

"The honor books are winners too," Scales said. "We have to look at the
whole spectrum. We now give the Pura Belpre Award, which is strictly for
Latino writers and illustrators."

Since 1982, the library group has given the Coretta Scott King Award to
black authors and illustrators depicting the African-American experience in
their work.

"Pura Belpre started in 1996 and was originally given every other year
because there weren't enough books by Latino authors and illustrators,"
Scales said. "That's changing, and starting in 2009, the association will
give the award annually."

"We are not just writing Latino books, we are writing stories for all of
us," Alvarez said. "Sometimes there are these lags. The same thing happens
in academia, minority writers, Afro-Americans. ... That is slowly changing,
and the canon itself is more diverse. Boy, I can't believe it's 2008 and
we're still having this kind of conversation."