This is the first year that the American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Awards will be announced at ALA along with the Caldecott, Newbery and all the other awards. Here's the committee! #ALAyma#NativeTwitter#IndigenousTwitter
It is SO IMPORTANT that people in this room and watching the live stream. Important info is being presented!!!! And MY GOSH the cheering in the room!!!! THANK YOU, everyone who is there, for such an enthusiastic reception!
Books published in 2018 and 2019 are eligible for the AILA awards.
BOWWOW POWWOW!!!!
I'm gonna add to this thread later, appending tweets from people in the room. I'm not able to RT and watch all at once.
AILA award for middle grade! So meaningful to so many: INDIAN NO MORE!
AILA award for young adults is Cynthia Leitich Smith's HEARTS UNBROKEN, also incredibly meaningful to so many of us!
(An aside, sort of: I have a power point presentation open. There's a slide with award names in it and then when the name was called, I pulled up images I've used in blog posts and popped them in.)
Traci Sorell got an Odyssey Honor!!!! You all must listen to that audiobook. It is outstanding!
Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop will give the 2021 ALSC Children's Literature Lecture Award (formerly named the Arbuthnot Award). Her work has been so significant. This is terrific! Congratulations to her.
1) People hold stereotypical (romantic or derogatory) views of Native people. Those with the romantic stereotype think they are "honoring" us with their mascots.
Case in point is the Port Neches-Groves, who are in the news for their performance at Disney World.
There are letters from Native organizations, asking schools to stop. In some states, Native ppl have tried to get state legislatures to pass laws abt mascots.
3) And yet, mascot-love persists. It may be due to the pervasive imagery in beloved children's books that people hold dear and can't let go of.... like these:
1) If you follow me, I assume you want to revisit what you were taught about Native peoples. That includes taking a critical look at ways we're depicted in children's books. It may include rejecting favorites and reaching for ones that actually help your child know who we are!
2) It is terrific when corporations with high visibility (and therefore power) do right by Native and non-Native children. One example: @nickjr. Take a look at this!
Great books that I hope you'll buy and ask for at the library.
3) All the books they recommend are ones I've recommended at American Indians in Children's Literature. If you want more books (at various grade levels) you can start here: …ansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/best-books.h…
Started to watch Professor Junko Yokota's "Interpretive and Hidden Controversies in Literature for Children." She begins with "Why are there controversies?" Two of 3 items on that slide are about changes (in perceptions and in norms).
Ah! Second slide is about LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE!
Dr. Yokota walks us through sites where controversy takes place: in the words of a book, in the illustration, in the translation (choices a translator makes) of a bk from one language to another... and next slide is about bk creators. Her example is Sherman Alexie and...
1) Are you going to a bookstore today? Take a look at children/young adult bk covers -- of bks by Native writers! pinterest.com/dreesenambe/am…
When you tell someone abt one of the bks, say something like "Louise Erdrich is a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians."
2) When you use a sentence like that, your use of the word "is" places us in the present, which is good!
Too many ppl don't realize we're still here. As first ppls of this continent, that mistaken idea that we don't exist is especially troubling. We weren't "wiped out."
3) And when you use a sentence that names an author's citizenship (see tweet 1), you are sharing information that tells others that we have governments.
We've got unique cultures specific to our nations but we are nations, first and foremost! That's why there are treaties.