The social climate of the United States of today is dramatically different from that which gave birth to multicultural children's literature. Conservatism's rise to political ascendancy has sharpened the contentious “culture wars” that surround virtually all aspects of American culture. One important dimension of today's conservative movement is a backlash against the multicultural movement. Conservative defenders of the traditional literary canon, for example, see multicultural literature as a threat to the very fabric of Western civilization. Within children's literature circles, charges abound that advocates of multicultural literature are ignoring traditional literary values and are focusing instead on ill-defined notions of “political correctness.” This article explores this complex issue and the challenges it poses to those concerned with the creation, production, distribution, and consumption of children's literature. The discussion addresses questions that speak to the very nature and function of children's literature: its status as art, as entertainment, as a source of role models and ideology for children's “impressionable” minds. Also discussed is the relation between the politically charged question of whether books about African Americans are to be written only by African Americans, books about Native Americans by Native Americans, and so forth, and the freedom of writers to write without restriction.
AronsonM. (1995). A mess of stories. The Horn Book, 71 (2), 163–168.
7.
BanfieldB. (1985). Racism in children's books: An Afro-American perspective. In MacCannD., & WoodardG. (Eds.), The black American in books for children: Readings in racism (2nd ed., pp. 23–38). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
8.
BanfieldB., & WilsonG. (1985). The black experience through white eyes—The same old story once again. In MacCannD., & WoodardG. (Eds.), The black American in books for children: Readings in racism (2nd ed., pp. 192–207). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
9.
BermanP. (Ed.). (1992). Debating P. C.: The controversy of political correctness on college cam -puses.New York: Laurel.
10.
BernsteinR. (1994). Dictatorship of virtue: Multiculturalism and the battle for America's future.New York: Knopf.
11.
BlockF. L. (1989). Weetzie bat.New York: Harper-Collins.
12.
BlockF. L. (1994). Missing angel Juan.New York: Harper-Collins.
CaiM., & Sims BishopR. (1994). Multicultural literature for children: Towards a clarification of a concept. In DysonA. H., & GenishiC. (Eds.), The need for story (pp. 57–71). Urbana, IL: NCTE.
15.
CartonE. (1991). The self besieged: American identity on campus and in the Gulf. Tikkun, 6 (4), 40–47.
16.
Christian-SmithL. (1991). Becoming a woman through romance.New York: Routledge.
17.
CockburnA. (1991, May 27). Bush & P. C.—A conspiracy so immense. The Nation, 252 (20), 680, 690–91, 704.
18.
CopeB., & KalantzisM. (1993). Contradictions in the canon: Nationalism and the cultural literacy debate. In LukeA., & GilbertP. (Eds.), Literacy in contexts: Australian perspectives and issues (pp. 85–177). St. Leonards, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
19.
DawesK. <dawes@uscsumter.uscccsuu.scarolina.edu> “Multicultural books.” <Thu, 16, Mar 1995. Children's Literature: Criticism and Theory> (Thu, 16 May 1995).
20.
DorrisM. (1993). Morning girl.New York: Hyperion.
21.
ElsonR. E. (1964). Guardians of tradition: American schoolbooks of the nineteenth century.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
22.
ErnstS. (1995). Gender issues in books for children and young adults. In LehrS. (Ed.), Battling dragons: Issues and controversy in children's literature (pp. 6–78). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
23.
FoxP. (1973). The slave dancer.New York: Dell Publishers.
24.
FrankT. (1995, June 18). Business and the GOP: A groovy kind of love. The Atlanta/Journal/Constitution, p. B-3.
25.
GatesH. L. (1992). Loose canons: Notes on the culture wars.New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
GirouxH. (1995). Pulp fiction and the culture of violence. Harvard Educational Review, 65 (2), 299–314.
27.
GouchJ. <jugh@deakin.edu.au> “Wilder & the Indians.” <Mon, 9 Oct 1995. Children's Literature: Criticism and Theory> (Mon, 9 Oct 1995).
28.
GreenfieldE. (1985). Writing for children—A joy and responsibility. In MacCannD., & WoodardG. (Eds.), The black American in books for children: Readings in racism (2nd ed., pp. 19–22). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow.
29.
HarrisV. (1993a). African American children's literature. The first one hundred years. In PerryT., & FraserJ. (Eds.), Freedom's plow: Teaching in a multicultural classroom (pp. 167–181). New York: Routledge.
30.
HarrisV. (1993b). Contemporary griots: African American writers of children's literature. In HarrisV. (Ed.), Teaching multicultural literature in grades K–8 (pp. 55–108). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.
31.
HarrisV. (1994). Multiculturalism and children's literature: An evaluation of ideology, publishing, curricula, and research. In KinzerC., & LeuD. (Eds.), Multidimensional aspects of literarcy research, theory, and practice: Forty-third yearbook of the national reading conference (pp. 15–027). Chicago: National Reading Conference.
32.
HarrisV. (1996). Continuing dilemmas, debates, and delights in multicultural literature. The New Advocate, 9 (2), 107–122.
33.
HenryW. (1994). In defense of elitism.New York: Doubleday.
34.
HerrnsteinR. J., & MurrayC. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life.New York: Free Press.
35.
HorningK. <horning@mail.soemadison.wisc.edu> “multicultural books—reply.” <Thu, 16, Mar 1995. Children's Literature: Criticism and Theory> (Thu, 16 May 1995).
36.
HuntP. (1992). Literature for children: Contemporary criticism.New York: Rout ledge.
KellyR. G. (1985). Literary and cultural values in the evaluation of books for children. The Advocate, 4 (2), 82–100.
41.
KliebardH. M. (1975). Persistent curriculum issues in historical perspective In PinarW. (Ed.), Curriculum theorizing. The reconceptualists (pp. 39–50). Berkeley: McCutchan.
42.
LaskyK. (1996a). To Stingo with love: An author's perspective on writing outside one's culture. The New Advocate, 9 (1), 1–7.
LevitasD. (1995). Sleeping with the enemy: A.D.L. and the Christian right. The Nation, 260 (24), 882–888.
45.
LittleJ. (1990). A writer's social responsibility. The New Advocate, 3 (2), 79–88.
46.
LukeA. (1988). Literacy, textbooks, and ideology: Postwar literacy instruction and the mythology of Dick and Jane.New York: Falmer Press.
47.
McCarthyC. (1991). Multicultural approaches to racial inequality in the United States. Oxford Review of Education, 17 (3), 301–316.
48.
McCarthyC. (1993). After the canon: Knowledge and ideological representation in multicultural discourse on curriculum reform. In McCarthyC., & CrichlowW. (Eds.), Race and representation in education (pp. 289–305). New York: Routledge.
49.
MeltzerM. (1989). The social responsibility of the writer. The New Advocate, 2 (3), 155–157.
50.
MooreO. (1985). Picture books: The Un-text. In MacCannD., & WoodardG. (Eds.), The black American in books for children: Readings in racism (2nd ed., pp. 193–191). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.
51.
MorrisonT. (1992). Playing in the dark: Whiteness and the literary imagination.New York: Vintage.
52.
NeumeyerP. F. <neumeyer@ucsvax.sdsu.edu> “literature and morality.” <Fri, 2 Jun 1995. Children's Literature: Criticism and Theory> (Fri, 2 Jun 1995).
53.
NietoS. (1996). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education.White Plains, NY: Longman Publishers.
54.
NodelmanP. <nodelman@uwpgo2.uwinnipeg.ca> “multicultural books.” <Thu, 16, Mar 1995. Children's Literature: Criticism and Theory> (Thu, 16 May 1995).
55.
NodelmanP. (1996). The pleasures of children's literature (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman Publishers.
56.
OverstreetD. (1994). Winning children's hearts and minds: The Vietnam experience in adolescent fiction. Unpublished Ed.D. diss., University of Georgia.
57.
OzerskyJ. (1991). The enlightenment theology of political correctness. Tikkun, 6 (4), 35–39.
58.
PatersonK. (1978). The great Gilly Hopkins.New York: Harper Collins.
59.
PatersonK. (1994). Cultural politics from a writer's point of view. The New Advocate, 7 (2), 85–91.
60.
PowersW. F. (1995, June 18). The new censor ship: Could it give us better movies?The Atlanta Journal/Constitution, p. B-1.
61.
RadwayJ. (1984). Reading the Romance: Woman, patriarchy, and popular literature.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
62.
RochmanH. (1993). Against borders: Promoting books for a multicultural world.Chicago: American Library Association.
63.
RosenM. (1992). Elijah's angels: A story for Chanuka and Christmas.San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
64.
RosenM. (1995). Seed crystals. The New Advocate, 8 (1), 17–28.
65.
SchlesingerA. M. (1992). The disuniting of America.New York: W. W. Norton.
66.
SchragP. (1993, May 10). Class warfare: A review of Inside American education: The decline, the deception, the dogmas by Thomas Sowell. The Nation, 256, 18, 638–639.
67.
SebestyenO. (1979). Words by heart.New York: Bantam.
68.
SetoT. (1995). Multiculturalism is not Halloween, The Horn Book, 71 (2), 169–174.
69.
ShacochisB. (1995). The enemies of imagination. Harpers, 291, 13–15.
70.
SimsR. (1980). Words by heart: A black perspective. Interracial Books for Children Bulletin, 11 (7), 12–15, 17.
71.
SimsR. (1982). Shadow and substance: Afro-American experience in contemporary children's fiction.Champaign, IL.: NCTE.
72.
Sims BishopR. (1991). Evaluating books by and about African-Americans. In LindrenM. (Ed.), The multicultural mirror: Cultural substance in literature for children and young adults (pp. 31–40). Fort Atkinson, WI: Highsmith Press.
73.
Sims BishopR. (1993). Multicultural literature for children: Making informed choices. In HarrisV. (Ed.), Teaching multicultural literature in grades K–8 (pp. 37–53). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.
74.
Sims BishopR. (1996). Letter to the editors. The New Advocate, 9 (2), vii–viii.
75.
SinghamM. (1995). Race and intelligence: What are the issues?Phi Delta Kappan, 77 (4), 271–278.
76.
SmithK. P. (1993). The multicultural ethic and connection to literature for children and young adults. Library Trends, 41 (3), 340–53.
77.
SoudersL. (ND). Georgia schools for the future program. Mimeo.
78.
StoryN. (Forthcoming). The American girl series. Dissertation, Department of Language Education, University of Georgia.
79.
TaxelJ. (1981). The outsiders of the American revolution: The selective tradition in children's fiction. Interchange, 12 (2–3), 206–228.
80.
TaxelJ. (1986). The black experience in children's fiction: Controversies surrounding award winning books. Curriculum Inquiry, 16 (3), 245–281.
81.
TaxelJ. (1990). Notes from the editor. The New Advocate, 3 (2), vii–xii.
82.
TaxelJ. (1991). Roll of thunder, hear my cry: Reflections on the aesthetics and politics of children's literature. In SchubertW., & WillisG. (Eds.), Reflections from the heart of educational inquiry: Understanding curriculum and teaching through the arts (pp. 301–311). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
83.
TaxelJ. (1993). The politics of children's literature: Reflections on multiculturalism and Christopher Columbus. In HarrisV. (Ed.), Teaching multicultural literature in grades K–8 (pp. 1–36). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.
84.
TaylorM. (1976). Roll of thunder, hear my cry.New York: Bantam.
85.
TaylorT. (1969). The cay.New York: Doubleday.
86.
TrousdaleA. (1990). A submission theology for black Americans: Religion and social action in prize-winning books about the black experience in America. Research in the Teaching of English, 24 (2), pp. 117–140.
87.
TuckerC. (1995, April 1995). Not long ago, when intolerance was wrong. The Atlanta Journal/Constitution, p. D7.
88.
TuckerC. (1995, September 24). Youngest victims of reform. The Atlanta Journal/Constitution, p. C-7.
89.
TylerR. W. (1950). Basic principles of curriculum and instruction.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
90.
VincentN. C. (1992). The philosophy and politics of multicultural education and antiracist education: An analysis of current literature. In GrantC. (Ed.), Multicultural education for the twenty-first century: Proceedings of the second annual meeting of the National Association for Multicultural Education (pp. 302–318). Orlando, FL: National Association for Multicultural Education.
91.
VandergriftK. E. (1993). A feminist perspective on multicultural children's literature in the middle years of the twentieth century. Library Trends, 41 (3), 354–377.
92.
WestJ., WeaverD., & RowlandR. (1992). Expectations and evocations: Encountering Columbus through literature. The New Advocate, 5 (4), 247–263.
