Children's Literature @ NYPL

Children's Literary Salon in Retrospect: Latino Literature on October 31, 2015

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I was excited to learn about Latino literature for youth on October 31 at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, "the library with the lions." Karen Ginman, Youth Materials Selector for NYPL and BPL, hosted the event. We had some very interesting panelists, including Daniel Jose Older, Adam Silvera, Sonia Manzano, Torrey Maldonado, and Crystal Velasquez. Maldonado is a teacher and author, and he has been named a Top Teacher by the NYC Department of Education. Manzano, a.k.a. Maria on Sesame Street, has won 15 Emmys for television writing. Adam Silvera was a bookseller and is an author. Velasquez is a proofreader and author. This event was a panel discussion moderated by Ginman.

Ginman asked the authors what experiences in their lives led them to reading and writing.

Where Are the Latinos?

Manzano connected with books based on emotion. There were no Latinos on television when she was growing up.

Velasquez did not read Latino authors. Instead, she loved Stephen King, VC Andrews, and Nancy Drew. When she discovered that S. E. Hinton had her book, The Outsiders, published when she was 17 years old, she was inspired. She thought, 'I can do this.' At this point, she had been reading so much that she wanted to write books. She imitated Hinton, then she developed her own voice.

Silvera is 25 years old, and he grew up in the Harry Potter generation. Like the other panelists, he did not see Latinos in literature. The first Spanish character that he saw was in City of Bones

Older liked Harry Potter and The Wire. His mother is a Latin American literature professor. He loved fantasy and sci-fi books when he was young, but Latinos were not in them. He wanted to write Latinos into science fiction. 

Maldonado's mother inspired him to write. She wrote everything in a spiral notebook. He copied her. He was fascinated by Ezra Jack Keats, who wrote The Snowy Day. When he first saw and heard the story, he thought that his mother wrote a story about him since he saw a little brown boy in the illustrations. 

Maldonado read an article in which the author scoffed at magic realism. Some people do not take the genre seriously.

Ginman mentioned that Shadowshaper has a maternal feel. She inquired as to how maternal figures influence the panelists' writing.

Machismo in the Bronx

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Silvera's impression of men in his life is that the Bronx is very masculine. However, the women in his life were the heroes. He discovered belatedly that all of the male characters in his book, More Happy Than Not, "sucked."

Maldonado opined that machismo is a ball and chain around men. It holds them to this concept. He wants to embrace Puerto Ricans, but does he also have to embrace machismo in order for this to occur?

Silvera said that you can pick and choose what you want to emphasize about the culture. However, people are inevitably called out if they do not embrace the totality of the culture. 

Maldonado told us that the mother in his book, Secret Saturdays, warns her son that if he keeps his emotions contained and does not share them that he will eventually explode like a soda can that has been shaken. She tells him if he remains muy macho that he will end up like his father. 

Ginman asked Older to discuss how he created his masculine character.

Older said that males struggle to discover who they are as Latinos without getting caught up in machismo. It is important not to sugarcoat this issues in books, and kids are surprisingly eager to talk about the gender stereotypes that they see portrayed in novels.

Maldonado lamented the fact that students are not given positive male role models to emulate. A boy in his class who at first could not believe that his teacher had written a book took it home one evening. The very next day, he returned, said that he had read the entire book, and he wanted to talk about his life. He turned in two written pages about masculinity. At first, Maldonado was skeptical that he could have read the book that fast. However, these books really have an impact on kids.

Older described the world of Shadowshaper as very patriarchal. He wondered how people honor traditions while also acknowledging how those traditions have harmed us. 

Ginman mentioned that some of the characters in the panelists' books had strong magical powers. Why did the authors choose that? Also, how does Latino(a) influence their writing?

Life as a Latina

Velasquez said that it is rare to see girls in charge in literature. Even when there are strong female characters, they are often cast as sidekicks to the male characters. 

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Ginman stated that Manzano's book, Becoming Maria, is a memoir. She asked her to discuss the scene where she wanted a box of crayons and the store owner touched her inappropriately. Young women find it challenging to deflect such unwelcome advances.

Manzano wanted her character to be real. The drug store owner asked if she wanted crayons, then touched her breasts as he walked by her. She knew that she would have to let him continue in order to obtain the crayons. Then, a cop came to the door and yelled at him. Only then did she have validation of an authority figure that what happened should not have. She was 11 or 12 years old at the time, and she did not tell her mother because she was not sure if it was her fault. She surmised that perhaps wanting the crayons was a sin and that she was being punished for that. In the 1950s, this type of behavior was not considered to be abuse or a sexual assault.

Older talks about girls being street harassed in Brooklyn in his book because that is reality. He would feel dishonest if this information was not included in his novel. Some people have an idea that literature is supposed to shield people from reality, and we need to have a conversation about it. 

Manzano heard Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street, say, "Write about what you want to forget."

Velasquez shared the notion that girls today desire to look older, but she was never like that. By contrast, she simply wanted to cover up, not look like she was already an adult. 

Maldonado met a girl fan who wanted his book to be converted into a movie. He asked who was going to make it into a movie, and she replied that it would be Vanessa, a character in his book that delivered his sister, Isabelle. He wanted to hold up strong female characters for girls to admire. 

Velasquez sometimes hears that kids are averse to reading, but she always encounters kids who love reading. They want print books, not Kindle books or other e-books.

Manzano gets invited to many organizations who are concerned about children not liking books.

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Maldonado makes video game and movie references in his talks to kids, and this always entices them. Kids are addicted to the instantaneous reward that media brings to their lives. We need to write like the media in order to capture kids' attention. When kids look at books in comparison to TV, they say that it is mad boring by comparison.

Manzano believes that some kids simply see books as things they have to read, then answer five questions in the back. Reading is seen only as homework.

Ginman mentioned that the circulation statistics (number of books checked out) in libraries is high; therefore, kids must be reading. Kids who are interested in reading do so, but it is difficult to entice reluctant readers.

Maldonado believes that the rise of Latino literature has something to do with the growing excitement that the books have kids that are like the readers. His mother recently gave him Junot Diaz's book, Drown. He believes that when kids can relate to the characters, library circulation statistics go through the roof. 

Latinos Step Into Literature

Older stated that the kids on the covers of best-selling books are not black or brown. The industry needs to have a conversation about this. Latino books get more attention now than they did two years ago. He became a serious reader at age 19.

Ginman wondered if there is push back from publishers about putting certain things in books.

Silvera wrote a book about a Puerto Rican American boy who is gay and wants to go through a procedure. Silvera got push back while submitting his book to a variety of places but stuck to his guns and found a publisher that wasn't so timid. Silvera went on to say that his character does not speak Spanish, but that does not make him less Hispanic.

Manzano thinks that the illustrations of Latino books are subjected to more scrutiny. For example, Diary of a Wimpy Kid would not work if the diarist was a Latina. Successful works need to be clever, charming and have a good idea.

Older lamented the fact that we are still working with quotas, which do not allow us to experience the full breath of humanity. Publishers need to stop telling authors that they already have a book with a Chinese character. Also, many of these "cultural" books are being written by white authors and writers of color are still being excluded.

Maldonado's publisher wanted his book because it is unique, and it had not been written about before. The character was half Puerto Rican and half African American. The publisher was not optimistic about the book, and was publishing the book to make a dent in the industry. He has been to mostly white book festivals.

Ginman suggested that the Latino characters in the novelists' books feel authentic to her. 

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Silvera's book is about happiness. Since everyone strives for that, it is easier for him to connect with readers.

Velasquez has visited many schools in underserved communities. In one school, a girl approached her with tears in her eyes. She asked the author if anyone has ever told her that she was not good enough. Velasquez could tell that someone had told the girl that, and she was glad that she could say that she had succeeded and serve as a role model for kids. 

Ginman appreciates that the books allow kids to discuss racism, sexism, and other societal issues and to ask questions about them. She then opened the floor for audience questions.

Audience Questions

Someone from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies asked what differentiates teen from children's books.

Manzano responded that it has to do with marketing. For example, in Europe, The Book Thief is considered to be for adults, but it is a teen book here. Also, to her, Sounder is an adult book due to the themes expressed in the book. However, her niece in elementary school is reading the dog. It is considered to be a children's book because there is a dog in it and no big words.

Velasquez likes teen books because there is freedom to say more. She was told be a publisher that saying a boy is "dreamy" was too sexual for a children's book.

Manzano wrote her book as a teen novel because it is told from the perspective of a young person. 

Older thinks that teen books have a turning point that includes a push towards adulthood.

Ginman mentioned that kissing or not kissing, and having fights off-scene or on-scene can determine how books get classified. Not all teen books have high sexuality and/or violence content, but content of that sort tends to push books towards a teen or adult age-group classification. 

Maldonado has been asked how his book is teen since there is no sex in the book. Also, someone asked him why he should read the book because he is not black or Puerto Rican. There still remains much work that could be done in terms of cultural sensitivity.    

I learned much about Latino culture from attending this event. 

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Upcoming Kid Lit Salon

Alice in Wonderland: 150 Years Later
Saturday, December 12 at 2 p.m. in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Celeste Auditorium.
Join scholars and specialists Monica Edinger, Michael Patrick Hearn, Charles Santore, and artist Robert Sabuda (ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland - Pop-Up Book) as they discuss the wit, wonder, and legacy of Lewis Carroll's most iconic creation as she enters her 150th year. Moderated by Dana Sheridan, Education and Outreach Coordinator of the Cotsen Children's Library - Princeton University.