Latest Forum Edition—Winter 2024

Comics in Focus: The Middle East, Muslims, and Jews

by Liza Halley

Liza Halley is the Library Teacher at Plympton Elementary School in Waltham, MA. She has loved graphic novels since reading Bone and Amulet with her son. She reads every graphic novel she can find-- and is a big fan of Monstress, Hellboy, and Saga. She is a founder of the Boston Kids Comic Fest.

Given the events in the Middle East since the last forum article, I wanted to offer resources for you and your colleagues. These resources can be used to build knowledge, introduce topics, and offer educators resources that provide windows and mirrors into the experiences of Muslims and Jews.

I want to start off by offering three reading lists on Google Slides for teachers and librarians: one related to living in the Middle East, one that offers comics that feature Muslim characters and one that offers comics featuring Jewish characters. All three are linked, and each reading list slide show is set in age order from youngest to oldest reader. The description of each book comes from the Minuteman Library catalog. I see these as a starting point for exploring resources that exist right now so that you can make decisions on what will be a good fit for your school community.

The Limits of Reading Lists

We are all super busy in our school libraries. I offer these lists as encouragement for your own reading or reading promotion. Trying to read as many of these books as possible is helpful to get a sense of how they might be helpful to your community. Reading lists are not comprehensive, but I have done my best to offer books that are well reviewed, current, and more recently published for the most part. Please contact me if you have any other books to recommend.

Middle East: the majority of the books in this collection are for high school readers, with some that can be accessed by middle school readers. Many of these books may be found solely in the adult section of public libraries; I have added the ones on the list that I have read and believe are accessible and important for many high school students to read and learn about life in the Middle East.

Muslim and Jewish characters: Just as with reading lists related to African and Native American characters, I was hoping to find a mixture of books that touch on a range of experiences and from various genres– fantasy, realistic, sports, historical fiction. At this moment in time, the medium of sequential fiction and nonfiction offers some powerful, humorous reads; sadly these books do not reach as broad a range of experiences as I would hope for books that feature Muslim and Jewish characters. The publishing world of sequential storytelling (comics/graphic novels) is burgeoning with all types of stories and yet, like the rest of the publishing world, it lags behind in representing all voices. 

Teaching Tools

Now let’s turn our attention to teaching with these graphic novels. I am going to offer a list of discussion questions that can be used in your lesson plans. The ideas I am offering are tools for you to incorporate to best meet the needs of your students. Think of them as jumping off points and tools for the moment. 

Art

• How does the art in the comic connect to the message the author is trying to convey? (the use of color, the heaviness or lightness of the line, etc.)

• When you look at the art in the comic, how do you feel? What emotions come to mind? Do you feel invited inside or like an outsider? Do you feel confused or clear? How does that connect to the story being conveyed?

• Does the point of view remain constant or change? Is that important?

• Think of the placement of word balloons? How does that impact your reading and understanding of the comic?

• Look at the panels throughout the comic. How does the shape and size of the panels convey meaning and connect to the overall content in the comic?

Social Justice

• In what ways are the characters in the comic free? 

• In what ways are the characters in the comic oppressed?

• In what ways do the characters in the comic create change for themselves or those around them?

• Who is included and who is excluded in the comic?

• What questions does this book raise for you?

• What connections can you make in your own life while reading this book?

Short Lesson Ideas

• Copy one page from the comic. Blank out the words in the speech bubbles and transition boxes. Ask students to fill in the words based on what they think is happening. Then read the original page in full. Discussion questions that could be included: What is similar and different to the words you wrote and to what the original text conveys? What in the art and the body language in the characters made you write what you did for dialogue?
• Choose a page to read together. Ask students to continue the story with three to nine more panels of their own creation. 
• Read the entire book together. Ask students to make a new one-page comic with however many panels you choose (e.g. 3, 6, 9) that continues the story several years later. Use small groups, pairs, and larger class discussions to talk about the students' comics once they are finished.
• Visual representation in graphic novels offers students a wonderful opportunity to see themselves and also see people who are different from themselves. Using books from the book lists offered in this article,  begin a conversation about why it is important to see ourselves in books. Some teachers even create a character checklist (female, male, trans, animal, white, black, Asian, American Indian) and ask students to scan the selection of books for specific identities. Then, use the data to discuss who is included and who is excluded from the stories.
  
  

In closing, because we librarians are stewards of information, presenting it in diverse ways is important for our patrons. Graphic novels serve as a powerful tool for our school communities to gain knowledge, learn about each other’s experiences, and imagine the world in new ways. I hope you are able to use the books in the book lists offered to open doors of communication, to build empathy, and to challenge us to listen deeply. If you do end up using any of the books in your library classroom or if the teachers in your schools do, please reach out to share your experiences with me.

In Conversation: Reframing Adoption in Children’s Literature 

María Valiente is the Upper Division Librarian and Carolina Ellis is the Lower Division Librarian. They both work at the Park School in Brookline MAEllis, at left, with Valiente.    

How did your collection development project about the subject of adoption get started?

María Valiente: Coincidentally, we began working together in The Park School Library as colleagues in 2022. We connected over our lived experiences as adoptees and out of curiosity began reflecting on our collection of adoption literature. We asked ourselves what resources we had available for children and their families? What resources exist that we do not have yet?

Carolina Ellis: And since we both identify as TRAs—Trans Racial Adoptees, meaning our race does not match our adopted parents—we had a particular bond and that became a conversation and then a need for finding appropriate books and weeding misrepresented books, so we began scanning the shelves, pulling books, and sorting them into bins.

How has adoption been presented in children’s books historically? Is this misrepresentation prevalent?

CE: Books written about adoption often fail to reckon with the complexities of the adoption process and the range of emotions that exist from joy to sadness. Historically, books about adoption or with adoptee characters have been written by- and center on the experiences of adoptive parents. The narrative of adoption is one of gratitude and eliminates the reality of the trauma a child experiences when they are separated from their biological mother.

MV: For transracial adoptees of a different race there is also the loss of culture, language, mirrors, and more with far fewer resources available to them and their families. 

What are some examples you can speak about?

CE: A classic example that we all grew up with is Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman. For me, it painted the narrative that the physical mirror must be present in order to be a family. The constant searching that the baby bird does for his mother is triggering as most adoptees want to or do end up searching. There's also Jeanette Yoffe's What is Adoption which features strong and uncomfortable illustrations, painting a negative stereotype of birth mothers and/or families. Another classic is Stella Luna by Janell Cannon. This book not only emphasizes the idea of fitting in with a physical mirror but the need to share common interests with your family. Also, the book shows an unhealthy attachment relationship that many adoptees have of desperately wanting to fit in, including the strategy of changing who they are to do so. This promotes insecurity. Stella Luna frames biological vs. adoptive family systems pitted against each other.

Marí and I both recommend a few books. For the lower grades, one is The Eyes that Weave the World’s Wonders by Liz Kleinrock & Johanna Ho. This book comes out this week (January 2024) and we can’t say enough good things, the illustrations are top tier and adoptee author Liz Kleinrock writes from her own perspective, acknowledging the struggle of her biological parents while embracing her experiences with her adopted parents. There's also Being Adopted by Amy Wilkerson, which describes a realistic understanding of adoption and how it affects all, including birth mothers/families, something often left out. Wilkerson's book normalizes all the feelings, both good and bad that come with adoption, and she is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker. The book includes a caregiver guide in the back.

Adoption is Both by Elena S. Hall also recognizes both ends of the feeling spectrum by repeating “both are true,” great for younger readers. Adoption is a Lifelong Journey is written by Kelly DiBenedetto and we like this book because it is written from the perspective of the adopted child, discussing what they need and how they might be feeling about their adoption. It paints all the layers of complexities that might come up for adoptees during their journey.

MV: Besides these examples, we noticed that in books written for middle grade readers and young adults, the adoption/orphan/foster care trope is a very popular storyline that has become sensationalized. While these stories are well-loved and not harmful per se, it is important to consider the support a child who has experienced family separation of some form may need when reading a book like Harry Potter, The Unwanteds, or The Giver. When looking at chapter books it can be harder to identify whether the narrative is inclusive of multiple perspectives. 

Keeping in mind publishing date, author positionality, and how the books prioritize subject's voices, different authors have helped us to build an adoptee-centered, and more child-centered, collection. Some of my favorite middle grade adoptee authors are Mariama J. Lockington, author of For Black Girls Like Me, and Mark Oshiro, author of You Only Live Once, David Bravo.

This past year some incredible YA books have been published including Monstrous, a graphic novel by Sarah Myers, and The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be by Shannon Gibney. Gibney has also co-edited an anthology titled, When We Become Ours with Nicole Chung that is the first of its kind encompassing a range of genres written by adoptee authors! Lastly, I want to recognize that the experiences of children in kinship care or the foster care system are seeking more authentic representation and own voices stories in publishing, and author Andrea Beatriz Arango, who was at one time a foster parent, writes incredible middle grade verse in Something Like Home.

Thank for these recommendations. What is next for your project? What are your future hopes and dreams for adoption in kidlit? What do you want educators to know? 

MV: I hope to see more middle grade and young adult authors writing their diverse experiences. There is still a big gap in the publishing industry, and it has been so joyful to now have books I wish I had had as a kid. Adoptees and children who have experienced family separation carry an invisible trauma that is not always known, and I hope teachers and educators will continue to learn about these identities to better support students with this experience. 

CE: I hope that more books about adoptees' lived experiences are published. Any book about adoption is going to be triggering to adoptees, but it is my hope that it is not harmful, that it does not continue the white savior myth, that it includes racial mirrors, and that more people understand what it is.  We are not a monolith and we all have different lived experiences.  I want educators to know that adoption is trauma and it should not be ignored, it should be acknowledged and it needs to be understood, especially by educators.

by Gillian Bartoo

Gillian Bartoo is the Collections Management and Cataloging Librarian for the Cambridge Public Schools District.

First things first: definitions. What is a biography?  A biography is a factual description of a person’s life or part of their life as supported by research and written by someone else. An autobiography is an account of a person’s life written by that person. A memoir is also written by the subject, but about a specific event or time in their life. Both are considered more subjective than biographies; they convey the events as the person experienced them and how they may feel about them upon reflection. There are also diaries and correspondence which may fall under the rubric of “autobiography.” 

In Dewey, the rule for biography classification is fairly straightforward: “Class biography of people associated with a specific subject with the subject…” (DDC 23, v. 3, p. 879) Dewey does not have a separate area that encompasses ALL biographies, except 920 for generalized collections of biographical entries that aren’t subject specific.

Once Dewey busted out from behind the walls of closed stack libraries to self-serve, open stacks, most people who just wanted to read a biography couldn’t find them very easily. Public libraries, mostly, began moving their biographical books into “Biography” sections to make browsing by this particular genre easier. Modern Dewey at least acknowledges this practice by offering the “option to Biography.” In modern, shared catalog records with classification, the Dewey cataloger always catalogs a book to the subject first, but then offers a “B” option as well. 

You can see this on the verso page (back of the title page) of a book where the Cataloging-In-Publication (CIP) is printed. CIP data looks like an old fashioned catalog card and is printed on the verso of most hardcover books published in the US. (Consider this a big hint if you want to know what the suggested Dewey number of any book is – you don’t need to look it up. It’s right there in the book.) It’s at the bottom of the CIP block and looks something like this:

Classification : LCC PZ7.1.P5535 | DDC 020.92 ; B –dc23

The Dewey (DDC) suggested call number for the book above (Pura’s cuentos : how Pura Belpré reshaped libraries with her stories by Annette Bay Pimentel) is 020.92. The B that follows tells anyone with top-secret knowledge (that’s YOU now!) that this book can also be classified as a biography. From here on, you classify it according to your local rules on biographical classification. In Cambridge we use 920 with an author cutter for collective biographies and 921 with the subject’s whole surname. In this case: 921 BELPRE. You may use 92 or B or Bio or just the surname or some other system in your library. It’s fine. I’ve seen a bunch of different ways, sometimes even in the same library. 

A lot of times, biographies get mis-classified because the cataloger doesn’t know about or doesn’t see the B option. This gets exacerbated by your catalog software if it’s helpfully displaying the first listed call number for the book (always the subject number) but not the second suggested call number of B. (Yes, I’m side-eying you again, Destiny.)  It’s very hard when you’re trying to crank through a pile of new books to catch biographies. I did it myself the other day: the book was African icons: ten people who shaped history by Tracey Baptiste. Destiny threw the suggested subject number into the dialog blank (960.09/9) and I went with it. If I’d looked at the CIP data or the MARC record (or thought two seconds about it), I’d know that I had an option to put this in Biography. 

But I’m going to excuse myself because the book I cataloged right before that was: The wonders we seek : thirty incredible Muslims who helped shape the world by Saadia Faruqi and Aneesa Mumtaz (297.092) which did not give me the option to B. 

Why is that? I’m not sure. When a cataloger creates a record, it is for the whole book, and it is classified to the overall subject – not genre or curriculum subject. It may be that the original cataloger felt that the main subject of the book was Islam and not biographical information. Another book I cataloged in that pile was Kind like Marsha : learning from LGBTQ+ leaders by Sarah Praeger which was given a subject number of 306.76/092/2 with no option to B. After looking closely at the book I agreed as a cataloger that it should stay in 306.76. It was a very simple book with a sentence per page: “You can be [adjective] like [name].” There is a brief paragraph about each person mentioned at the end of the book. I felt that the whole book emphasized more the values of the LGBTQ+ community, movement, and history rather than biography. But both of these are judgment calls, and I will double-check with the librarian. They may feel it belongs in Biography. 

The takeaway from this for both you and me is: go through your cataloging pile before you start and separate out the biographies. If you do them all together, you are less likely to miss one. 

So what are you to do if you don’t have a cataloger around to explain the absolute absurdity of parsing books for children this closely? Put it where you want to. The glory of “local option” cataloging is that you can put it where you want it. (But see my Forum column “Why are all the civil rights books in the 300s instead of the 900s” for more about local options before you go totally rogue on your collection.)  

Personally, I harbor a strong dislike for separate Biography sections. I am a reader by subject, not genre, and that wall of books about EVERYBODY feels chaotic and impossible to manage. I want to go to my subject and see all the books on that subject in one place (ermmm ... theoretically, anyway) so that, even if I don’t find a biography, I’ll find something I want to read. Wouldn’t it kind of be cool to send a kid to the subject area they’re interested in and let them root around there so they don’t just grab any old thing (which inevitably ends up being “John Smith, inventor of the toothpick”, copyright 1964) in frustration?  

Shelving biographies by subject can also be frustrating because they’re usually cut by author rather than the subject’s name. This results in the Alexander Hamilton biographies being scattered throughout 973.4, generally a pretty large section in school libraries in Massachusetts. The obvious elegant solution to this is to use the subject’s surname as the cutter, that way all the biographies about the same person shelve nicely together. Make it even easier to find the biographies by slapping a Biography label or color code dot on them if you want.

Ultimately, because a Biography section pulled out of subject areas is really a local classification choice, give it a definition that makes sense to you. “Any nonfiction book that uses a person’s life or action to explain or illustrate the theme of the book” is generally what I use for PK-5. I’m stricter for Grades 6-12. I tend to stick to biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and diaries, and let the other things such as correspondence, personal essays, and humor fall where they may. 

How do you handle Biography in your school? I’m always looking for better ways to hack Dewey, so if you’ve got a clever solution, let me know.