Toward the Definition of a Canon

Abstract

Toward the Definition of a Canon Darwin L. Henderson (bio) JACYL: Journal of African Children's and Youth Literature, edited by Osayimwense Osa. Volume 3. Benin City, Nigeria: Paramount Publishers, 1991-92. Osayimwense Osa has skillfully gathered essays for this special issue of JACYL on African-American children's literature. These essays trace the growth and emergence of this literature, as Osa puts it in his introduction, by exploring "the life and character of the African-American community, its ideals and dreams and its idiosyncrasies and predilections . . . revealed by its literature" (viii). The idea of exploration which seriously addresses African-American literature was prompted by the editor's perception of cultural links between children's literature of African America and Africa. The essays in this special issue are organized thematically. Nancy Larrick's landmark article of 1965, "The All White World of Children's Books," begins the volume and provides an ethnic sensitivity and focus by which to measure the growth of literature to which American children are exposed. Mary Thompson Williams and Helen Bush Caver's "African-Americans in Children's Literature—From Stereotype to Positive Representation" concerns the stereotypic depiction of African-Americans from the early 1800s to the 1900s, as they evolved into the more positive representation of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This essay is concise and highly informative. Williams and Caver trace the development of an "ethnocultural identity" (11) through literature, from the early slave narratives of Solomon Northrup and Gustaus Vassa to the present with a rich variety of stories by writers such as Walter Dean Myers and Virginia Hamilton. They conclude that "the quality of writing . . . is providing better mirrors from which African-American children can find themselves" (21). Frances Smith Foster's article, "Since the Sixties: Literature for Children by African-American Writers," adds to this background by discussing works that were produced for children by African-American [End Page 248] writers and illustrators since the 1960s. Significant to Foster's thesis is the overwhelming evidence of the pride and passion in the development of this literature that occurred before the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. She calls attention to Amelia E. Johnson's Joy magazine (1887), Ellen Watkins Harper's Iola Leroy (1892), and W. E. B. DuBois and Augustus Dill The Brownies' Book magazine (1920) as milestones. While the Williams and Caver and Foster essays are placed with Larrick's, and offer a historical perspective, they do not extend the indictment of society and the publishing world for the lack of significant representation of African-Americans in the pages of picture books or lack of significant change in the publishing industry. Foster states that "since the eighties, the stream of books for children by African-Americans has slowed to a mere trickle. . . . Only about 1% of children's books published in the first half of the 1980s focus upon African-Americans" (34). Although publishers have allowed the "delicate shadow" (2), the lack of full representation still exists. If providing a historical context was the editor's intention, then Jeanne S. Chall's "Blacks in the World of Children's Books" (1985) would have been worthy of inclusion in this volume, because it extends Larrick's work and would add depth to this historical cluster. In addition to this historical perspective, several essays examine the importance of the visual image in this literature. Theme, tone, and style of both text and illustrations focus the reader's attention on the necessity of African-American images that are not distorted and that authentically reflect Black life, as Judith V. Lechner maintains in "Images of African-Americans in Picture Books for Children." She provides insightful descriptions of the work of various well-known contemporary illustrators like Jerry Pinkney, Pat Cummings, John Steptoe, Carole Byard, Floyd Cooper, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, and Leo and Diane Dillon. Lechner discusses the visual image in the context of African-American life and genre, family, community, heroes, fantasy, and poetry. This discussion allows the reader to use context and genre as criteria. However, Tom Feelings's more personal essay, "Illustration Is My Form, The Black Experience, My Stories and My Content," is an impassioned and impressive explanation of the...