Murphy Library News

A Month of Paradox

By Teri Holford

Now that the temperatures have dropped below freezing, people are starting to dust off sweaters, scarves, gloves, and discover random leftovers from last year in the pockets of puffers.

‘Tis the season for warming drinks: hot cocoa, hot toddies, mulled wine.

November is also the season of post election stress and preparation for harvest festivities, known in the United States as Thanksgiving. 

In other words, it’s how division, the state of separation and disagreement, co-exists with unity, coming together, bringing together, celebrating the collective. 

We’re coming off of intensity. Book bannings continue, mis/disinformation continues, and there is much uncertainty for what libraries and librarians fight for as originally stated in 1939 in the Library Bill of Rights of the American Library Association: equity and access to information. 

November is indeed a paradox.

November: Native American Heritage Month

We may not have come far enough, but we’ve come a long way since “The Last of the Mohicans”. Progress is slow. In November, we’ve been celebrating Native American Heritage Month. Using our Native American Heritage Month Library Guide, you can mull over the tabs at the top, from local highlights, books available at the library, electronic resources including databases, and curated web resources. 

Despite this celebration, there is some truth lurking around that continued book bannings affect contemporary Native American authors and literature in particular. When authors from the dominant culture are censored, it makes headlines, and people want that book, so they go and buy that book, and sales increase. 

However, when native authors, and authors from other non-dominant cultures, are censored, it doesn’t necessarily make the headlines. Native authors, for example, write what industry standards have long indexed as folk tales, creation myths and stories that are often considered as entertainment. These stories, however, are sacred to Native communities. 

Food for thought: Isn’t it interesting that stories that are fundamental and sacred to dominant cultures are not usually indexed as folk tales or creation myths?

November is also Picture Book Month.

The representation of Native Americans in picture books has come a very long way. Picture books from the first half of the 20th century with Native characters are few and far between. We start to see more popping up in the book industry in the 1970s, but these characters are represented as stuck in the past. These picture books of the second half of the 20th century were indexed principally in libraries in the nonfiction area, the area called 398.2, where stories mingle under the broad category of folk tales, creation myths, and fables. Written essentially by Caucasian authors, Native American voices were hardly, if ever, existent.

It was a situation that existed until roughly 2010, when a new generation of Native authors started writing their picture books. Not only did their own tribal affiliation appear as their identity, instead of being unrecognized under the blanket term “Native American”, but we started to see Native children in contemporary settings. They were kids being kids but still within their own contemporary tribal communities. Roughly after 2010, we’ve started to see the tribal community settings open up--picture books where children’s tribal heritage is represented and maintained, but starting to blend with other children from other heritages, in groups and with other communities. 

This kind of progress and evolution is fascinating to track. Picture books being published today are showing more integration. Instead of concentrating on a single story, we are seeing children of different backgrounds together on the pages of a picture book, co-existing and just being kids. 

Below are a few titles of picture books in the Curriculum Center of Murphy Library that celebrate this integration and universality:

A Kid is a Kid is a Kid by Sara O'Leary / Call Number: E Ole

All of Us by Gökçe İrten / Call Number: Coming Soon

All Moms by Sarah Kate Ellis and Kristen Ellis-Henderson / Call Number: E Ell

Here are a few titles that show contemporary Native children in contemporary settings, written by Native authors, with their tribal affiliation, complete with author-provided information at the back of the book that will help expand the conversation with children:

My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom / Call Number: E Lin

Bowwow Powwow by Brenda J. Child / Call Number: E Chi

A Letter for Bob by Kim Rogers / Call Number: E Rog

Picture books today represent the infamous idea that Rudine Sims Bishop brought to light in 1985 that children need mirrors, windows, and doors in the books they read. Not only does this notion help them to see themselves reflected on the pages of a picture book as a form of self-affirmation, but also helps them to see others who have different customs and life styles. Children learn about the many other ways to be, to live, to love, and to come together to celebrate.

To sum up, November can be experienced as a month where we just need to be. After all, mulled wine, a season favorite for many, is just that: a bunch of spices and fruit hanging around together in warm wine within the confines of a mug. No one’s going anywhere. And just like that, mulled wine can make one feel relaxed and grateful, even if it’s just for a short moment.

Recent additions of picture books about gratitude and respect from a Native perspective:

When We Gather (Ostadahlisiha): A Cherokee Tribal Feast by Andrea L. Rogers / Call Number: Coming Soon

Can You Hear the Plants Speak? by Nicholas Hummingbird / Call Number: Coming Soon

Being Home by Traci Sorell / Call Number: Coming Soon

Now that November is almost behind us, how about a moment to practice gratitude, even at a tiny level. And because the ultimate truth is often revealed in a picture book, check out the message in this new picture book by Crescent Dragonwagon. Written for the “yes, but what if” among us, the answer to “will it be okay?” is simply, “Yes, it will. It will be okay.”

Will it be Okay? by Crescent Dragonwagon / Call Number: Coming Soon