A Review of Child Lit

      In this class I have gained a more critical eye to view children's literature with.  There are many questions that I now use to analyze children's books that did not seem all that important before.  What are the underlying messages in books?  Who is being represented in these books and how are they being represented?   What stereotypes are being reinforced and what kind of society does this book portray?  Is this a realistic or idealistic commentary on our society?  What is this teaching the next generation about the world?
     From reading various books that deal with the social issues of gender, race, and class and from listening to fellow classmates share, it became apparent to me that books that these books are out there and plenty of them are good, interesting, well written stories that children will enjoy.  The resources from this class will be so valuable in the classroom when trying to find books that represent all different cultures so that students can see themselves in their literature.  The research in the community also helped me to see how much is out there but how disproportionate it still is and the importance of looking beyond the main display.
     I found our class discussion about children's literature in the media especially interesting, in particular the conversation about how the story book characters are sexualized.  The paradox that exists there has always been strange to me but I had never considered why story book characters.  I think we find some kind of amusement in the corruption of naivety and purity.  Hence the slutty nuns costumes and the humor of a character like Tartuffe (a con-man priest).  Why is that though?  Because then we feel less guilty about our own corruption?  It's an interesting concept to ponder and I'm glad that that discussion got me thinking about it.
      Lastly I found the conversation on banned books extremely interesting.  I had never realized how many of my favorite books and books that I find extremely important are banned.  It made me realize just how strongly I believe that censorship is wrong.  Also our discussion brought up the question of whether they were popular because of the issues that caused them to be banned and their importance in society, or whether they were popular because they were banned and thus mysterious: the age old question of the chicken or the egg.
      Taking this class has opened my eyes to a lot of issues that surround children's literature and the prejudice that lives in so many beloved children's books, that we refuse to acknowledge.  We tend to ignore the racism or the sexism because it is a story we grew up with and love and cannot bear to acknowledge the messages that it send to children about our society.