Children's Literature in a Multiliterate World ed. by Nicola Daly and Libby Limbrick

Abstract

Reviewed by: Children's Literature in a Multiliterate World ed. by Nicola Daly and Libby Limbrick David Jacobson CHILDREN'S LITERATURE IN A MULTILITERATE WORLD. Edited by Nicola Daly and Libby Limbrick. UCL Institute of Education Press, 2018, 184 pages. ISBN: 978-1-85856-878-2 Forty percent of the population of Auckland, New Zealand, was born overseas, putting it among the most diverse cities in the world, ahead of even New York and London. That made it a particularly appropriate site for the 35th Congress of the International Board on Books for Young People in 2016, whose theme was "Children's Literature in a Multiliterate World." This volume was edited by Libby Limbrick, principal lecturer at the University of Auckland and a co-director of the Congress, as well as Nicola Daly, senior lecturer at Waikato University. It collects eleven of the presentations given at the conference. Rather than focus on the headlining speakers, such as The Book Thief author Markus Zusak and popular graphic novel writer Raina Telgemeier, the editors wisely chose to focus on presenters who wrestled with issues of multiliteracy, both in theory and in practice. They also gave preference to authors from the South Pacific, who contributed nearly half the chapters. That is a welcome choice in view of the fact that this was the first IBBY Congress to be held in that part of the world. The volume opens with the acceptance speech delivered by China's Cao Wenxuan upon receiving the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. Cao uses the metaphor of a house to describe children's books. For writers like him, children's books are objects to build, scaffolding on which he can lay his creativity. And like buildings in the real world, once he completes "construction," they no longer belong to him, [End Page 104] which makes him feel a great responsibility—a "sense of the sacred"—for the "houses" he constructs. For children, on the other hand, books are, also like houses, a source of shelter, solace, and warmth. Cao does not explicitly make the connection, but in the context of a multiliterate world, his metaphor raises the question: How can children's books become a source of shelter and solace for all children, including ethnic minorities and refugees? Those questions are raised in many of the succeeding chapters. Robin Morrow reviews the history of Australian picturebooks and finds a long-running nostalgic bent, emphasizing the country's rural roots but until recently neglecting the majority of the population that now lives in urban areas or is of non-European descent. Letuimanu'asina Dr. Emma Kruse Va'ai, herself both an educator and author, tells of the introduction of books featuring Samoan culture, stories, and mythology into the predominantly colonially imposed educational system.Not only do these instill "a sense of confidence born of recognition" among Samoan children, but "the same books and stories travel beyond the blue horizon to tell of faraway islands in the Pacific, of boys and girls, parents and children…living a different way of life but perhaps facing similar challenges, like the shared currents in the ocean." Perhaps the most compelling chapter, to this reader, is Elisa Duder's chapter on "what it means to be literate in the Māori world." A New Zealander of British descent (a "Pākehā" in the Māori language) with a Māori partner, she brings a personal angle to the discussion through her observation of her teenage son's gradual assimilation of Māori culture. That involves much more than reading and writing, she says, and encompasses learning to "read" a host of cultural cues, participate in tribal performing arts and ceremonies, and much more. "As a literate member of his communities," Duder writes, "my son will be expected to know his songs, and the songs of others." Interestingly, each of the chapters on the South Pacific brings up literacy efforts relating to indigenous communities, but none consider the growing presence of Asian immigrants and refugees, who constitute a major source of their increasing diversity. To their credit, the authors in this collection allow for complexity in their approach to multiliteracy. Samoa's Kruse Va'ai notes...