Review of <i>Side by Side: US Empire, Puerto Rico, and the Roots of American Youth Literature and Culture</i>

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract: Marilisa Jiménez García’s <em>Side by Side: US Empire, Puerto Rico, and the Roots of American Youth Literature and Culture</em> examines the power structures that have defined the field of children’s literature since its inception. The Introduction asserts that “the field has functioned and organized itself in a sort of hyper-canonical and hyper-hegemonic way”, centring “Victorian and American traditions about what it means to be young person [sic], and so whiteness and anti-Blackness, in many ways, serve as organizing factors of what is known as Children’s Literature Studies” (7). <em>Side by Side</em> analyses dominant narratives about Puerto Rico vis-à-vis Black Puerto Rican community-based aesthetics and pedagogies that have thrived in spite of institutional uninterest, resistance, and banning. It does so by way of “peel[ing] back the neutrality, and benign celebration, in what scholars have often considered the tradition of Puerto Rican children’s literature, specifically its relationship to Puerto Rican and US governments” (5). Given the school closures, budget cuts to the University of Puerto Rico, and the people's actions, atop everything else that's happening, this study is as timely as it is urgent.