Editing Children's literature (section)

===Stereotypes, racism and cultural bias===
[[File:Story of Little Black Sambo.jpg|thumb|1900 edition of the controversial ''[[The Story of Little Black Sambo]]'']]
Popular classics such as ''[[The Secret Garden]]'', ''[[Pippi Longstocking]]'', ''[[Peter Pan]]'', ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' and ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' have been criticized for their [[racial stereotyping]].<ref name="cracked.com" /><ref name="The Guardian">{{cite web |last1=Flood |first1=Alison |title=Pippi Longstocking books charged with racism |date=9 November 2011 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/09/pippi-longstocking-books-racism |website=The Guardian |access-date=27 October 2019 |archive-date=31 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831172157/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/09/pippi-longstocking-books-racism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Byrd |first1=M. Lynn |title=Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism: Somewhere Outside the Forest: Ecological Ambivalence in Neverland from The Little White Bird to Hook |date=May 11, 2004 |publisher=Wayne State UP |location= Detroit |isbn=978-0-8143-3028-9 |page=65}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Richard |first1=Olga |last2=McCann |last3=Donnarae |title=The Child's First Books |date=1973 |publisher=H.W. Wilson Company |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8242-0501-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/childsfirstbooks00macc/page/19 19] |url=https://archive.org/details/childsfirstbooks00macc/page/19 }}</ref>

The academic journal ''Children's Literature Review'' provides critical analysis of many well known children's books. In its 114th volume, the journal discusses the cultural stereotypes in Belgian cartoonist [[Herge]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Tintin|Tintin]]'' series in reference to its depiction of people from the Congo.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burns |first1=Tom |title=Tintin |journal=Children's Literature Review |date=2006 |volume=114 |page=3}}</ref>

After the scramble for Africa which occurred between the years of 1881 and 1914 there was a large production of children's literature which attempted to create an illusion of what life was like for those who lived on the African continent. This was a simple technique in deceiving those who only relied on stories and secondary resources. Resulting in a new age of books which put a "gloss" on imperialism and its teachings at the time. Thus encouraging the idea that the colonies who were part of the African continent were perceived as animals, savages and inhuman-like. Therefore, needing cultured higher class Europeans to share their knowledge and resources with the locals. Also promoting the idea that the people within these places were as exotic as the locations themselves. Examples of these books include:
* Lou lou chez les negres (1929) – Lou Lou among the blacks{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}
* Baba Diène et Morceau-de-Sucre (1939)
* [[Babar the Elephant|Babar]] series promoting the French civilizing mission (1931)
* [[Tintin in the Congo|Tintin au Congo]] (1931) – Tintin goes to teach lessons in Congo about their country, Belgium

''[[The Five Chinese Brothers]]'', written by [[Claire Huchet Bishop]] and illustrated by [[Kurt Wiese]] has been criticized for its stereotypical caricatures of Chinese people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cai |first1=Mingshui |title=Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults |url=https://archive.org/details/multiculturallit00caim_0 |url-access=registration |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport |page=[https://archive.org/details/multiculturallit00caim_0/page/67 67]&75|isbn=9780313312441 }}</ref> [[Helen Bannerman]]'s ''[[The Story of Little Black Sambo]]'' and [[Florence Kate Upton]]'s ''The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a [[Golliwogg]]'' have also been noted for their racist and controversial depictions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCorquodale |first1=Duncan |title=Illustrated Children's Books |date=December 29, 2009 |publisher=Black Dog Publishing |location=London |page=22}}</ref> The term ''sambo'', a racial slur from the [[American South]] caused a widespread banning of Bannerman's book.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book |last1=Jalongo |first1=Mary Renck |title=Young Children and Picture Books |date=2004 |publisher=National Association for the Education of Young Children |location=Washington, DC |page=17}}</ref> Author [[Julius Lester]] and illustrator [[Jerry Pinkney]] revised the story as ''Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo'', making its content more appropriate and empowering for ethnic minority children.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=Leonard S |title=Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture book |url=https://archive.org/details/waysoftellingfou00leon |url-access=registration |date=2002 |publisher=Dutton Children's |location=New York, N.Y. |page=[https://archive.org/details/waysoftellingfou00leon/page/164 164]|isbn=9780525464907 }}</ref> Feminist theologian Eske Wollrad claimed [[Astrid Lindgren]]'s ''[[Pippi Longstocking]]'' novels "have colonial racist stereotypes",<ref name="The Guardian" /> urging parents to skip specific offensive passages when reading to their children. Criticisms of the 1911 novel ''[[The Secret Garden]]'' by author [[Frances Hodgson Burnett]] claim endorsement of racist attitudes toward black people through the dialogue of main character [[Mary Lennox]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burns |first1=Tom |title=The Secret Garden |journal=Children's Literature Review |date=2007 |volume=122 |pages=22–103}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Arteaga |first1=Juan |last2=Champion |first2=John |title=The 6 Most Secretly Racist Classic Children's Books |url=http://www.cracked.com/article_19610_the-6-most-secretly-racist-classic-childrens-books.html |website=Cracked |access-date=8 December 2015 |date=2011-12-19 |archive-date=2015-12-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208060241/http://www.cracked.com/article_19610_the-6-most-secretly-racist-classic-childrens-books.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Sprat |first1=Jack |title=Exploring the Classics: The Secret Garden |url=https://treasuryislands.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/re-reading-a-classic-the-secret-garden/ |website=TreasuryIslands |access-date=8 December 2015 |date=2011-06-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151211150012/https://treasuryislands.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/re-reading-a-classic-the-secret-garden/ |archive-date=11 December 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Hugh Lofting]]'s ''[[The Story of Doctor Dolittle]]'' has been accused of "white racial superiority",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Egoff|first1=Sheila A. |title=Thursday's Child: Trends and Patterns in Contemporary Children's Literature |date=1981 |publisher=American Library Association |location=Chicago, Ill. |page=248}}</ref> by implying through its underlying message that an ethnic minority person is less than human.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nodelman |first1=Perry |title=The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wKosfJZhUwQC |date=2008 |publisher=Johns Hopkins UP |location=Baltimore |page=71]|isbn=978-0-8018-8980-6 }}</ref>

The picture book ''[[The Snowy Day]]'', written and illustrated by [[Ezra Jack Keats]] was published in 1962 and is known as the first picture book to portray an African-American child as a protagonist. Middle Eastern and Central American protagonists still remain underrepresented in North American picture books.<ref name="Young Children and Picture Books">{{cite book |last1=Jalongo |first1=Mary Renck |title=Young Children and Picture Books |date=2004 |publisher=National Association for the Education of Young Children |location=Washington, DC |page=37}}</ref> According to the Cooperative Children's Books Center (CCBC) at University of Wisconsin Madison, which has been keeping statistics on children's books since the 1980s, in 2016, out of 3,400 children's books received by the CCBC that year, only 278 were about Africans or African Americans. Additionally, only 92 of the books were written by Africans or African Americans.<ref>{{cite web |date= 8 October 2019 |title= Publishing Statistics on Children's Books about People of Color and First/Native Nations and by People of Color and First/Native Nations Authors and Illustrators |url= https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp#USonly |website= Cooperative Children's Book Center |publisher= School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison |access-date= 27 October 2019 |archive-date= 24 October 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191024142423/http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp#USonly |url-status= dead }}</ref> In his interview in the book ''Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book'', Jerry Pinkney mentioned how difficult it was to find children's books with black children as characters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marcus |first1=Leonard S |title=Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture book |url=https://archive.org/details/waysoftellingfou00leon |url-access=registration |date=2002 |publisher=Dutton Children's |location=New York, N.Y. |page=[https://archive.org/details/waysoftellingfou00leon/page/157 157]|isbn=9780525464907 }}</ref> In the literary journal ''The Black Scholar'', Bettye I. Latimer has criticized popular children's books for their renditions of people as almost exclusively white, and notes that ''[[Dr. Seuss]]'' books contain few ethnic minority people.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Latimer |first1=Bettye I. |title=Children's Books and Racism |journal=The Black Scholar |date=1973 |volume=4.8 |issue=9 |page=21|doi=10.1080/00064246.1973.11431316 }}</ref> The popular school readers ''Fun with [[Dick and Jane]]'' which ran from the 1930s until the 1970s, are known for their whitewashed renditions of the North American [[nuclear family]] as well as their highly gendered stereotypes. The first black family did not appear in the series until the 1960s, thirty years into its run.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kismaric |first1=Carole |last2= Heiferman |first2=Marvin |title=Growing up with Dick and Jane: Learning and Living the American Dream |date=1996 |publisher=Collins San Francisco |location=San Francisco |page=98}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Shabazz |first1=Rika |title=Dick and Jane and Primer Juxtaposition in "The Bluest Eye" |url= http://africanakaleidoscopes.com/2014/12/dick-and-jane-and-primer-juxtaposition-in-the-bluest-eye/ |website=KALEIDO[SCOPES]: DIASPORA RE-IMAGINED|publisher=Williams College, Africana |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210225618/http://africanakaleidoscopes.com/2014/12/dick-and-jane-and-primer-juxtaposition-in-the-bluest-eye/ |archive-date=2015-12-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wards |first1=Jervette R. |title=In Search of Diversity: Dick and Jane and Their Black Playmates |journal=Making Connections |date=April 1, 2012 |volume=13 |issue=2 |url=https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-2837334401/in-search-of-diversity-dick-and-jane-and-their-black |access-date=December 9, 2015 |archive-date=December 10, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210233751/https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-2837334401/in-search-of-diversity-dick-and-jane-and-their-black |url-status=live }}</ref>

Writer Mary Renck Jalongo In ''Young Children and Picture Books'' discusses damaging stereotypes of [[Native Americans in children's literature]], stating repeated depictions of indigenous people as living in the 1800s with feathers and face paint cause children to mistake them as fictional and not as people that still exist today.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jalongo |first1=Mary Renck |title=Young Children and Picture Books |date=2004 |publisher=National Association for the Education of Young Children |location=Washington, DC |page=39}}</ref> The depictions of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] people in [[Laura Ingalls Wilder]]'s ''[[Little House on the Prairie]]'' and [[J. M. Barrie]]'s ''[[Peter Pan]]'' are widely discussed among critics. Wilder's novel, based on her childhood in America's midwest in the late 1800s, portrays Native Americans as racialized stereotypes and has been banned in some classrooms.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Burns |first1=Tom |title=Laura Ingalls Wilder 1867–1957 |journal=Children's Literature Review |date=2006 |volume=111 |page=164}}</ref> In her essay, ''Somewhere Outside the Forest: Ecological Ambivalence in Neverland from The Little White Bird to Hook'', writer M. Lynn Byrd describes how the natives of Neverland in ''Peter Pan'' are depicted as "uncivilized", valiant fighters unafraid of death and are referred to as "redskins", which is now considered a racial slur.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dobrin |first1=Sidney I |title=Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism |date=2004 |publisher=Wayne State UP |location=Detroit |page=57}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nodelman |first1=Perry |title=The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature |url=https://archive.org/details/hiddenadultdefin0000node |url-access=registration |date=2008 |publisher=Johns Hopkins UP |location=Baltimore, Md |page=[https://archive.org/details/hiddenadultdefin0000node/page/272 272]}}</ref>