Social Justice: Children's Literature as a Source of Information, Transformation, and Hope

Abstract

Social Justice:Children's Literature as a Source of Information, Transformation, and Hope Janelle Mathis (bio) and Petros Panaou (bio) "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela This issue of Bookbird was conceptualized with the realization of the complexity of this term education and the varied perspectives that situate it across our global readership. We acknowledge that our children need to be "educated" to become part of a global society that strives to build understanding through personal introspection and intercultural competency. However, we also recognize that this is true for us—the adults seeking resources and strategies to nurture readers as they learn to recognize discrimination and equalities. We must also develop a sense of agency to advocate for change in ways that align with the needs of other cultures and to become thoughtful decision makers. This "education" requires resources that inform about and build local and global community through understanding both universal issues and those unique to particular areas or groups. We identified articles that we believe can help to push our understandings as individuals who read and strive to educate through children's literature, a most powerful asset in this process of enlightenment and change. Just as the Call for Manuscripts uses questions to bring forth current contemplation, both personal and scholarly, around children's literature, so the reading of the selected articles elicits questions as readers confront the ideas of others. These questions keep us motivated in our scholarly work around children's literature as we share literature with all ages of readers as well as bring these books to the forefront where they can be recognized globally, synthesized with the current issues they describe, and serve as a catalyst for transformation within and across our communities of learners. So, we will introduce the articles by sharing some of the questions that evolved and remain as we read and reread the scholarship found in this issue. "Boundary Crossings and Social Justice in A Girl Called Genghis Khan" by Tehmina Pirzada shares the story of Maria Toorpakai, a Pakistani squash champion. This story focuses on "Maria's cross-dressing and her [End Page 1] fight for social justice in her native Waziristan, the Taliban-controlled tribal belt of Pakistan" (6). We questioned our awareness of the struggle of Muslim women for equity and justice as we realized stories of Malala and The Breadwinner Trilogy (by Deborah Ellis) were our main sources of information—excellent but limited. What other resources can help expand our awareness of situations as this revealing opposition to the political polarization caused by an "us" versus "them" mentality? "After They Gave the Order: Students Respond to Canadian Indian Residential School Literature for Social Justice" by Lynne Wiltse was inspired by Deborah Ellis's 2018 IBBY keynote speech, "Before They Give the Order," which was printed in Bookbird, issue 57.1. This article shares a focus group conversation with five non-Indigenous elementary students who read a range of picturebooks, memoirs, and novels about the Canadian Indian residential school (IRS) system. We are left wondering how these stories of injustice are being used in classrooms globally that bring attention to situations around Indigenous groups and their long-term effects. In what ways are these stories considered outside of history and in light of current events? "'No Place Like Home': Immigration, Migration, and Loss in Two American Picturebooks" by Colin Haines returns readers to two older American picturebooks, Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (1993) and Amelia's Road by Linda Jacobs Altman (1993), and discusses these in terms of contrasting idealizations of home using Freud's theory of mourning and melancholia. Familiar with these older books on immigration, the unique contrast here provoked the question of what current titles can be described within the tenets of this theory. How can this discussion support the use of immigration and refugee books in ways to nurture understanding in all readers around the issues that immigrants face when forced or choosing to seek a new home? "The Coin in the Rice in the Spoon: Perspectives within Perspectives in A New Year's Reunion" by Joe Sutliff Sanders and Xia Zhao...