Its absence can be seen as the result of public shaming-but it also be seen as a a step forward in what we give to children. Roger suggested that the absence of Grace/Hiawatha in the new edition is the result of "public shaming." This change is big news in children's literature. Self-esteem is decreased for the affected peoples, an accurate portrayals are skewed for everyone else. Well, almost nobody but the children who in real life are Indian.Ĭlaiming that only American Indian children are apt to notice "playing Indian," "sitting Indian style," or picture book animals "dressed up" like American Indians does not excuse the basic mistake. reviewers.that critics relaxed their standards for evaluation? No, such images recur so frequently that when they do, nobody notices. In her article "No Single Season: Multicultural Literature for All Children, published in Wilson Library Bulletin 66 30-3, she wrote:Īre the book's multiple themes so welcome that the act of "playing Indian" escaped comment by most U.S. In 1992, a person from whom I've learned a great deal, wrote about it.
She sits cross legged, torso bare, arms crossed and raised up (I don't know why so many statues show Indians with arms crossed and lifted off the chest that way), barefoot, with a painted face and stoic look.Īmazing Grace came out in 1991. That she's "by the shining Big-Sea-Water" tells us she is imagining herself as the Hiawatha of Longfellow's imagination (there was, in fact, a real person named Hiawatha).īut see how Grace "plays" Hiawatha? In a stereotypical way. Stung-as any kid would be-she imagines herself in all kinds of roles, including Hiawatha. Other kids tell her she can't be Peter because she's a girl and he's a boy, and, that she's Black and he's White. For those who don't know the book, the main character is a girl named Grace who wants to be Peter Pan in the play her class is going to do.
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