Posted by Tasha Saecker on February 7, 2008 6:42 AM
I was lucky enough to get to participate in this week's blog tour with Robie Harris. For years, I have been in awe of her courage to create books that others would shrink from and also to have moved from those to a series of picture books that capture children at points where they are not cute and sweet. Robie's books are about freedom both for her readers and herself. My series of questions for her focus on that freedom:
Kids Lit:
Recently, I have seen articles about the topics of children’s books and had people ask me in person about them. There is some concern that books for children are crossing a line into topics better left to older readers. Through your books, you often show a more honest and less saccharine version of childhood. How would you address complaints that children’s books should show only the best behavior and the best aspects of childhood?
Robie:
Here’s how I would address this type of complaint: As a children’s book author, I believe one of my major responsibilities is to be honest when writing both the nonfiction books and the picture books I write. And of course, in particular with my books on sexual health, along with the responsibility for honestly comes the need to make sure the material one is writing about is age-appropriate and accurate and that is something I have always done. If one only writes about what some people feel are the best aspects of childhood, we would not be honest with our audience — the result being that our words will have no credibility for our audience. Our children do not grow up in bubbles, so they already know about a lot about risky behavior. However, they also have a lot of misinformation about what is risky and what is not. That’s why they need to have an honest understanding and not a sugarcoated understanding of sexuality. And I believe that is what serves our
children and teens best.
I would also add that if a piece of information or drawing in a book is “too old” or “too much” or “too overwhelming” for a child, children of all ages will either stop listening to the book the adult is reading to them, or if they are reading a book on their own, they will put down the book, and read no further. We have to respect the fact that kids, most kids, know in one way or another what is too much, and “tune out” when they have had too much. In my newest picture book, MAYBE A BEAR ATE IT!, a book about how a child feels when his or her favorite book of the moment goes missing, worries that maybe a bear really did eat it. Should I not put in that worry because it would be best for a child not to be afraid? I don’t think so. Children do have fears. In a forthcoming picturebook, MAIL HARRY TO THE MOON!, the older brother strong feelings about baby brother Harry burst out as he yells, “Throw Harry in the trash!” Should this child not have feelings of jealously and displacement about his new baby brother and should I not write about those feelings. I don’t think so. And in another forthcoming picture book, THE DAY LEO SAID, ‘I HATE YOU!’, should the young child in this book never, ever say I HATE YOU!, or have or express those kinds of strong feelings?
Kids Lit:
The American Library Association often comes under fire for its defense of the Freedom to Read for children. What do you see as the importance of children being able to read what they want?
Robie:
I too hold dear the concept that it matters big-time that our children have the freedom to look for books the give them the information or reassurance they need or want, or come across by happenstance in a library. Here is a case in point and I quote from a 1997 Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine article: “As it happens,” the article states, “IT’S PERFECTLY NORMAL was indirectly involved in a case of child abuse… Last year, a 10-year-old girl in Delaware showed her mother… [the chapter on sexual abuse] and said, “This is about me.” The girl’s comment led to a criminal investigation. In September, her father was convicted in Superior Court of Wilmington of multiple counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, and two months later sentenced to 62 years in prison.”
The book was used in the trial. The judge said there were two heroes in this case. The child and our book. I respectfully disagreed with the judge and thought there were three heroes in this trial — 1) the mother who allowed her child to choose what she wanted or needed to read, 2) the child, 3) and the child’s school librarian who believed that kids and teens have the right to have access to information they may want or need. I believe this could have happened with any book for kids and teens that included sexual abuse. But the fact that Michael’s and my book may have helped in some tiny way in making this child’s horrific and traumatic life better is why I continue to work on books that I hope are honest. And I am sure that the same kind of thing has happened with many who work with children, that something a person may have written or did that made a huge difference in a child’s life, and that person may not even know that words they wrote or said to a child had a major positive impact on a child’s life. So a resounding YES, to your question. It can and often does matter that children be free to read what they want or seek out or come across in a library.
Kids Lit:In follow up, should the decision of what to read be in the hands of parents and adults or do children themselves have an unalienable right to read what they wish? Are there certain ages you would see that right starting?
Robie:Every parent has the right in his or her home to decide what his or her child can read and when his or her child is ready for a particular book or type of book. So that is a decision I would leave with a child’s parent.
Kids Lit:With that in mind, what role should a community play in deciding what children should be able to have access to?
Robie:My view is that as citizens, we should respect the professional judgments of our children’s book librarians — be they librarians in public libraries, public school libraries, or independent school libraries — to choose those children’s and young adult books for their library collections and for their communities that are well reviewed, responsibly written and illustrated. And I would add that I think we should respect the librarians choices of individual books that a librarian may decide should be in his or her library collection no matter what the reviews say, because that book would be in the best interest of that community. And if any citizen, and that includes any parent, disagrees, most every children’s book librarian’s has a system in place, so that a citizen can ask for a library board hearing to discuss a complaint about or the removal of a particular book from that particular collection.
Kids Lit:As a librarian, we often struggle with what books to select for our community. One aspect of that, sadly, for many librarians is how many complaints a book will generate, especially when selecting for children. Yet the Freedom to Read is especially powerful for our youngest readers who are looking for information on their world. How would you address the concerns of librarians worried about defending your titles in their collections?
Robie:First of all, let me say loud and clear, that I believe that our librarians are the real heroes in our democracy. They are the keepers of our democracy by allowing children, teens, and adults to choose the books they want to read or may randomly come across in a library. This allows them to have access to ideas and information they may seek, or need, or come across by happenstance. Every librarian is on the front line of his or her community — defending that freedom. As a children’s book author, I am only in front of my computer.
And then I would say to every librarian that you do not have to be alone in the time-consuming and often stressful job of defending the books I write, that organizations such as ALA, to PEN American Center, The Authors Guild, The National Coalition Against Censorship, and others will be happy to help you in any way they can, along with my publisher, Candlewick Press. I am always happy to talk with the librarian and the press in support of the librarian. In addition, in every community where there is a book challenge, there are most often as many, or almost as many citizens, who do not want other citizens to decide what books they find acceptable for their children to read and do not want books taken out of their librarian collection because one citizen thinks it not be in the collection.
Kids Lit:The Freedom to Write is directly tied to our Freedom of Speech. Some of your books have been challenged in libraries. How do you defend your right to express yourself in the face of such focused opposition? Is it directly connected to your audiences’ right to read?
Robie:I feel no need to defend my right to create any of the books I write or any topic I write about despite the fact that some of my books, the books on sexual health, are opposed by some groups and some individuals. As a citizen in our democracy, I have the right to speak out, and/or write what I think is in the best interests of children in the form of children’s books, no matter what others think. I would never ever say that every family, or school, or library, or health organization, or religious groups must have the books I write. But those who choose to should have the right to that choice. And yes, all the work I do is also connected to not only to my right to read and write, but to children’s and teens’ right to read.
A huge thank you to Robie Harris for participating in the blog tour and for her obvious appreciation of librarians. What a treat for me to be able to interview one of my heroes in children's literature and to find out in turn her respect for my profession.
To tune in to the rest of the blog tour head to the following blogs:
Monday: Fuse #8 talked about Fiction & Nonfiction
Tuesday: Book Buds talked about Writing with Honesty for Children
Wednesday: MotherReader talked about Writing from the "Child's Eye-View"
Friday: Bookshelves of Doom talks about Challenged Books
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