Why Multicultural Literature?
When I was an English instructor at the College of Micronesia, I struggled to find literature that my Micronesian students can relate to or understand. Often, teaching the standard European/American literary canon fell short because most of my time was spent explaining American/European culture to them rather than the text itself. Imagine that just in 2019 the first Micronesian literature anthology entitled “Indigenous Literature of Micronesia”, published through the University of Guam, was launched featuring Micronesian voices of the Pacific (“Anthology of Micronesian Literature to Launch This Week”)? That means that the Pacific region lacked literary tradition because Pacific Island culture valued oral traditions.
Growing up in the Philippines and going to a U.S. military installation school as a Filipina American, I never read stories that reflected myself even though more than half of my classmates were of Filipino descent.
A homogeneous culture such as a library in an affluent white population can also benefit from diverse children books. Learning and understanding other cultures will pique the children’s curiosities and interests for different types of people outside from their local community that have rich cultural perspectives. Because of it, they “are exposed to a variety of texts that enables them to develop a well round insight into the world” (Youngs).
By including multicultural children’s books to mostly all-white patronage, “is to encourage librarians to …use multicultural materials for young people that humanize the cultures portrayed” (Doll and Garrison 4) and thus broadening perspectives and understanding outside of their realm and knowledge that is in fact mostly heterogeneous.
More importantly, according to Judy Moreillon, the responsibilities of libraries “who serve youth [is] to learn and practice cultural competence” (36).
Works Cited
Anthology of Micronesian Literature to Launch This Week, University of Guam, 4 June 2019, www.uog.edu/news-announcements/2018-2019/2019-anthology-of-micronesian-literature-to-launch-this-week.php (Links to an external site.).
Doll, Carol, and Kasey Garrison. “Voices of Experience: Promoting Acceptance of Other Cultures.” Diversity in Youth Literature: Opening Doors Through Reading., 2013, pp. 3–15.
Moreillon, J. (2013). Building bridges for global understanding. Children & Libraries: The Journal of The Association For Library Service To Children, 11(2), 35-38.
Youngs, Elyssa, “Effects of Multicultural Literature on Children’s Perspectives of Race And Educator Implementation of Multicultural Literature” (2015). Education Masters. Paper 319. https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/education_ETD_masters/319
Below are the case studies and the top 5 suggested book lists in each category. My main focus was YA, though I have read quite a bit of various children’s literature, too. I also included a short, multicultural literature activity plan for middle grade children.
- Latino/Caribbean-American Literature for Youth
- African-American Literature for Youth
- Filipino American Literature for Youth (Asian/Pacific-American)
- Native/First Nations/American Indian Literature for Youth
- Diverse Experiences Literature for Youth
- A Multicultural Literature Activity Plan
By the Stacks 