Authors: Irene Latham and Charles Water
Illustrators: Sean Qualls and Selina Alko
"Salvation for a race, nation, or class must come from within" -A. Phillip Randolph
"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation" -Bertrand Russell
Theme: Characters that admit to faults but overcome together
Irene Latham wanted to be a writer since she was eight years old. She ironically didn’t take any writing courses while she attended college, but after looking at all of her work that she had saved up, she thought she would start publishing them. Charles Waters has a passion for poetry as well. He has done several poetry tours with groups and has even been an actor at Disney World where he developed Poetry Time. A lot of his poems are presented in a variety of genre books.
Selina Alko has art in her blood, well almost. Growing up she was always encouraged to be creative in her artistry. Her father was painter that was Turkish and spoke seven other languages. She seemed to have a culturally experienced childhood that was filled with stories. Her artistry is now influencing her own children as well!
Sean Qualls' background in art reminds me of the character Amil from The Night Diary. He grew up similarly of not having a lot of art supplies, but relied on other materials to make art creatively. He is well known for his art in the book, Why Am I Me? His artistry is designed to, “focuses on race & identity and the intersection of history & mythology, ultimately examining how we create our own identities or allow them to be scripted to for us” (Qualls, 2018). I believe this idea is the thematic concept in this book. Having his artistry mixed with Selina Alko’s mix media and collage brings new perspectives of the poems throughout the book. I think the imagery throughout the book that the authors describe would not engage younger readers without the illustrations. It brings the characters to life and allows the readers to empathize and connect with the topics discussed in each poem. Specifically in looking at the poems “Officer Brassard” and “News”, it brings readers to understand other perspectives. For this topic, it relates to police brutality and how police officers are statistically more likely to use force on a black person compared to a white person. The illustrations on page 24 are darker in color and Charles’ face looks disheartened and fearful looking at the television that has two white officers. Likewise on the next page which was written in the perspective of Irene watching the news with her dad. The mixed media and collage that are representative of Selina Alko’s work shows her deliberate artistic choices in attempting to represent social injustice. There are collaged words of “force” and “not guilty” trailing from the television in response to the white police officers. The collaged newspapers form the clouds in the sky of this poem that corresponds with the line of her dad saying, “Somewhere it’s raining” (p.25). The images of Irene and her dad sitting away from the negative news broadcast shows that not only is it difficult for one population, but it is difficult to hear the injustice occurring. Specifically in this poem it talks about Trayvon Martin, Ferguson, and Missouri.
Irene Latham and Charles Water were connected through Poetry Fridays which I never heard of until now! When Irene and Charles began to work together on this poetry book, they realized that in order for this book to be reflectful and impactful, each of their poems have to correspond in style. Irene, who is white, and Charles who is black, incorporated their pasts and personal feelings that reflect how race is discussed in society and how it influenced them personally. Their #OWNVoice in an unprecedented children’s literature set of free verse poems makes this book even more interesting for the reader. Charles Waters even discusses how his veganism affected his identity within his own family and how unstereotyped he was for deciding this lifestyle compared to his “defined culture”. One of the main aspects they want readers to take away from the book is all the themes that are represented in the different poems (Stille, Can I Touch Your Hair).
The two sets of poems that are examples of this book being a counter narrative are:
Hair, Strands
And Dinner Conversation
Hair and Strands are corresponding poems of the misunderstandings and stereotypes between different races hair. As the character Charles communicates with his poem of “Strands” how insensitivity and curiosity lead to feelings of judgment and racism. In this poem it demonstrates how characteristics of someone’s race or ethnicity influences others perceptions of them. His hair. “It feels like a sponge” (Lathem & Waters, p.9). It was like the other character felt their privileged to undermine someone else’s appearance or texture of hair just from curiosity. Charles’ response to this person touching his hair shows how the author was demonstrating dismantling this behavior in society that occurs today. Charles said, “You need to learn to wait for an answer after asking permission” (Lathem & Waters, p. 9). Below is a video of Meno Fombo explaining her No. You Cannot Touch my Hair campaign. Hair for anyone is a part of their identity, but when someone’s identity is entangled with oppression, aspects of who make them who they are are questioned, judged, and even compared to others. But why does hair have to be touched to identity the difference? Can we all just accept our differences in the world without touching? I feel like this difference and directly pointing out the difference brings those that are personally affected by hair touching then feel like they have to be like their privileged counterparts. That if they change their hair they will be perceived as being more beautiful.
“Hair” for Irene has a different background. She has long, straight, blonde hair. In the past though, she wanted an Afro. Why? She got laughed at for having an Afro. This is just another explanation of self-awareness and understanding oneself.
"Dinner Conversation" is a unique poem that addresses stereotypes of the food culture of black people in America. Charles Waters includes a personal identity component which is that he included in this book his process of becoming vegan. He was judged by his own family for this choice, but it demonstrates that the stereotype of “...crispy fried chicken coated in seasoning, gooey, creamy, baked macaroni and cheese, collard greens mixed with chunks of ham hock, red velvet cake smeared in cream cheese icing” (p.20). I wanted to do more research in where these stereotypes of food connecting race developed.
Here is a video of a news report about a response made by Lemony Snicket about Jacqueline Woodsen winning of her National Book Award. His stigma and racial comment and her response in how food and identity impact people today addresses prejudice's affects on an overall population. Along with this, the interviewer interviews six well known black individuals that work with food and psychology to explain the effects of prejudice such as food choices defining them. https://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/why-does-some-food-have-negative-stereotypes--365086787626
According to this interview, there are so many prejudices and stories related to prejudice connecting race to food. There is so much history that I didn’t know about where these sources of prejudice came from when viewing this interview.
Within the classroom, I believe that this book can be a great discussion starter in understanding identity. The Teaching Tolerance website has several lesson plan ideas that directly correlate to how one's identity impacts the way they are perceived and treated in the world. This opening discussion corresponding with this book allows students to explain their own biases and ways they have witnessed prejudice represented in their own lives.
In the lesson linked below, it directly allows readers to complete book reviews that support the critical race theory or counter narrative. The goal is to have students become more analytical in how individuals are represented in books. It's important for a teacher to understand this concept when choosing books to read aloud or choose for classroom libraries, but I think it is also important to put this responsibility on developing critical readers.