Finding a New Home for Immigrant Children
in Children's Literature
Home and Immigrant Children in Children's Literature
“America is like a melting pot” is a phrase commonly used to describe American culture. New phrases are clarifying America even further, by calling America a “mosaic” or “stew”. Whatever the phrase, the point is clear: America is made up of many different peoples from different countries, cultures, and ethnicities. The stories of child immigrants to the United States are unique in that though they must make America their new home like adults do, it is during their developmental years. Their stories have been recorded in biographies, journals, essays, surveys, etc. Some of the more creative immigrant narratives are found in children’s books. These portrayals communicate to us the transition children go through as they leave one home and learn to make a foreign country their new home, and they open our eyes to critique whether these portrayals are true to children’s experiences.
Home itself in children’s literature is a common motif, because it is an idea most children are very familiar with and therefore it holds value to child and adult audiences alike. The popular structure for the idea of home in children’s literature is that “it is the beginning and end of a children’s story” (Wilson & Short, 2011, p. 130). For example, in Where the Wild Things Are, Max leaves his home, travels away to adventure, but returns to his room and dinner. This portrayal of home is in actuality a representation of adults’ picture of home, as a place where they can return to after having ‘journeyed alone’ as adults (Wilson & Short, 2011). What Wilson and Short studied is that in recent middle grade novels, the home is changing from being an idealistic, warm, and comfortable place to becoming much more realistic. They write, “Postmodern children are objects of child-abandonment and child-parent alienation”, and therefore the children in these books are “making their own homes either literally or metaphorically.” (Wilson & Short, 2011, p. 133-4). This postmodern depiction of home coincides with issues of immigrant children who are also searching for a way to create their own new home.
Ever since the beginning of American history children were immigrating to North America. Being immigrants in the United States was not an easy upbringing, for most of the immigrant families lived in slavery, poverty, or oppressive working conditions. In Ronald Takaki’s retelling of American minority history, he records educational experiences of African-American slave children and Japanese and Mexican child laborers. None of the white masters wanted children to receive good educations because of racism—“God did not intend him to be [as good as a white man]; He would have made them white if He had”, or protection of their labor—in the words of Frederick Douglass’ master, “Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world.” (Takaki, 1993, p. 327, 123). We see that for many historical immigrant children, the idea of home was not an easy or comfortable one due to immense racism and social oppression. Many children’s authors have tried to make this history accessible to children by writing books about immigrant children and families based on historical records or family background, often providing rich and real stories of moving to America.
Though enlightening, children’s literature that focuses on immigrant experiences can also contain stereotypes, racism, or historical inaccuracies that betray true child immigrants’ experiences with home. One example of racism is a report from the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History that “African-Americans in mainstream American children’s literature has been, on the whole, demeaning and unrealistic” and “presented by white authors as mindless, superstitious, and shiftless” (Palmer, 2006, p. 455). Children’s literature can also portray the history of immigrant communities selectively. Jennifer Graff writes in her article Countering Narratives: Teachers’ Discourses About Immigrants and Their Experiences Within the Realm of Children’s and Young Adult Literature that, “Absent from many school texts are representations of Asians’ immigration process at Angel Island…[and] exclusionary and racist laws barring particular ethnic groups entry into the U.S. are also often absent from classroom discussions, contributing to historical whitewashing.” (2010, p. 107). The selectivity of certain topics or historical facts in children’s literature leads to inaccurate historical accounts. If race and history can be distorted like this, then the portrayals of immigrant children’s adjustment to new homes may also be distorted; therefore we as readers should be careful in our analysis and interpretation of multicultural children’s literature.
There is a lot of relevance to immigrant children today, since they exist as a very important demographic group with “important cultural assets” (Carr, 2009, p. 256). Sue Books writes in Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools that this results in “the loss of self-expression, self-identity, cultural identity, and confidence.” (1998, p. 68). In order that these children, both in history and present, are portrayed accurately and understood, it is imperative that multicultural children’s literature help to establish broader worldviews for both adults and children today. As a popular motif in children’s literature, the home provides a variety of ideas and messages. Combining this theme with stories of immigrating children in children’s literature will provide a better understanding of the lives of child immigrants.
References
Books, S. (1998). Invisible children in the society and its schools. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carr, D. (Ed.). (2009). Immigration, childhood and adolescence. In Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development (Vol. 1, pp. 256-262). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com
Graff, J. M. Countering narratives: Teachers’ discourses about immigrants and their experiences within the realm of children’s and young adult literature. English Teaching: Practice and Critique. (Vol. 9.3, p. 106-131). Retrieved from http://education.waikato.ac.nz
Palmer, C. A. (Ed.). (2006). Children’s literature. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. (Vol 2, p. 455-457). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com
Takaki, R. (1993). A different mirror: A history of multicultural America. Back Bay Books.
Wilson, M. B., Short, K. G. (2011). Goodbye yellow brick road: Challenging the mythology of home in children’s literature. Children’s Literature in Education (Vol. 43, pp. 129-144). DOI: 10.1007/s10583-011-9138-z
Home itself in children’s literature is a common motif, because it is an idea most children are very familiar with and therefore it holds value to child and adult audiences alike. The popular structure for the idea of home in children’s literature is that “it is the beginning and end of a children’s story” (Wilson & Short, 2011, p. 130). For example, in Where the Wild Things Are, Max leaves his home, travels away to adventure, but returns to his room and dinner. This portrayal of home is in actuality a representation of adults’ picture of home, as a place where they can return to after having ‘journeyed alone’ as adults (Wilson & Short, 2011). What Wilson and Short studied is that in recent middle grade novels, the home is changing from being an idealistic, warm, and comfortable place to becoming much more realistic. They write, “Postmodern children are objects of child-abandonment and child-parent alienation”, and therefore the children in these books are “making their own homes either literally or metaphorically.” (Wilson & Short, 2011, p. 133-4). This postmodern depiction of home coincides with issues of immigrant children who are also searching for a way to create their own new home.
Ever since the beginning of American history children were immigrating to North America. Being immigrants in the United States was not an easy upbringing, for most of the immigrant families lived in slavery, poverty, or oppressive working conditions. In Ronald Takaki’s retelling of American minority history, he records educational experiences of African-American slave children and Japanese and Mexican child laborers. None of the white masters wanted children to receive good educations because of racism—“God did not intend him to be [as good as a white man]; He would have made them white if He had”, or protection of their labor—in the words of Frederick Douglass’ master, “Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world.” (Takaki, 1993, p. 327, 123). We see that for many historical immigrant children, the idea of home was not an easy or comfortable one due to immense racism and social oppression. Many children’s authors have tried to make this history accessible to children by writing books about immigrant children and families based on historical records or family background, often providing rich and real stories of moving to America.
Though enlightening, children’s literature that focuses on immigrant experiences can also contain stereotypes, racism, or historical inaccuracies that betray true child immigrants’ experiences with home. One example of racism is a report from the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History that “African-Americans in mainstream American children’s literature has been, on the whole, demeaning and unrealistic” and “presented by white authors as mindless, superstitious, and shiftless” (Palmer, 2006, p. 455). Children’s literature can also portray the history of immigrant communities selectively. Jennifer Graff writes in her article Countering Narratives: Teachers’ Discourses About Immigrants and Their Experiences Within the Realm of Children’s and Young Adult Literature that, “Absent from many school texts are representations of Asians’ immigration process at Angel Island…[and] exclusionary and racist laws barring particular ethnic groups entry into the U.S. are also often absent from classroom discussions, contributing to historical whitewashing.” (2010, p. 107). The selectivity of certain topics or historical facts in children’s literature leads to inaccurate historical accounts. If race and history can be distorted like this, then the portrayals of immigrant children’s adjustment to new homes may also be distorted; therefore we as readers should be careful in our analysis and interpretation of multicultural children’s literature.
There is a lot of relevance to immigrant children today, since they exist as a very important demographic group with “important cultural assets” (Carr, 2009, p. 256). Sue Books writes in Invisible Children in the Society and its Schools that this results in “the loss of self-expression, self-identity, cultural identity, and confidence.” (1998, p. 68). In order that these children, both in history and present, are portrayed accurately and understood, it is imperative that multicultural children’s literature help to establish broader worldviews for both adults and children today. As a popular motif in children’s literature, the home provides a variety of ideas and messages. Combining this theme with stories of immigrating children in children’s literature will provide a better understanding of the lives of child immigrants.
References
Books, S. (1998). Invisible children in the society and its schools. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Carr, D. (Ed.). (2009). Immigration, childhood and adolescence. In Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development (Vol. 1, pp. 256-262). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com
Graff, J. M. Countering narratives: Teachers’ discourses about immigrants and their experiences within the realm of children’s and young adult literature. English Teaching: Practice and Critique. (Vol. 9.3, p. 106-131). Retrieved from http://education.waikato.ac.nz
Palmer, C. A. (Ed.). (2006). Children’s literature. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. (Vol 2, p. 455-457). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com
Takaki, R. (1993). A different mirror: A history of multicultural America. Back Bay Books.
Wilson, M. B., Short, K. G. (2011). Goodbye yellow brick road: Challenging the mythology of home in children’s literature. Children’s Literature in Education (Vol. 43, pp. 129-144). DOI: 10.1007/s10583-011-9138-z