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conuly
I dared to suggest that maybe - just maybe - if 31% of the US population is non-white that it might be a great idea if picture books (especially alphabet books which have 26 or more separate people in them!) reflect that? Let's see... 1/3 of 26 is... um... about 8 people. In your average alphabet book, assuming one person per letter and that there are no repeats of people, there should be 8 people who are not white. More or less.
Anyway, upon further inspection it seems she's just hypersensitive to criticism of this particular author's books, not to me or anything. (That's a disappointing relief. Yes, the phrase makes sense.)
Here's my review.
This is a lovely book. The illustrations are beautifully done, the vocabulary is carefully chosen - and the illustrations make very clear the meaning of unusual words like "xeriscape", but there's not much you can do for x anyway.
But, it's true. Every person in this book is white, and it really is a little weird. I don't live anywhere where I can consistently expect the people I meet to be white, so it would never occur to me to draw a whole book full of people of just that one race. I wonder where the author lives that it wouldn't occur to her to draw a more normal sample of the population.
It's not a bad book, it's just - that sort of thing is very obvious, and kinda annoying.
And here is another review of the same book.
Smith
I got a chance to see Mary Azarian's new alphabet book yesterday. I think her illustrations are heartwarming and lovely, and have enjoyed them for years in the Cook's Garden catalog and in books like The Plain Reader. I'm also a gardener and a former children's librarian ,and I enjoy seeing gardening depicted in children's books. However, I must say I was sadly disapponted to see no people of color depicted in any of the illustrations in this book. Surely Ms. Azarian must have met a nonwhite gardener at some point in her life; if not, that's sad, and she is welcome to come to my house and meet me before the next book. As a person of color I felt saddened and left out as I looked through the pages; how would a small child (of any ethnicity) feel? Had it not been for this exclusion I would have joyfully given this book five stars.
I gave the book four stars, R Smith gave it two.
Let's look at our esteemed friend's replies to our reviews:
She lives in Vermont, USA! Vermont isn't predominately white because they don't want other ethnic people to live there - on the contrary - anyone is welcome to live there! Please don't knock this author's amazing portrayal of the beauty of her State and neighbors and her natural surroundings just because of your ignorance and lack of scope! What a narrow minded review!! What world do you live in?
This is another narrow-minded reviewer! Why should white people have to "create" something outside of their world to make you feel comfortable reading THEIR book based on THEIR life? Why can't you explain to your non-white children that there are places in the world where people aren't black just like I explain to my non-black children that there are places in the world where God has made different colored people. I go to great lengths to introduce my children to the wonderfully diverse world God has created even though all of my Maine neighbors happen to be white. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece is my children's God-mother - that doesn't mean I would include her in a book about my childhood in Maine!!! Come on - enjoy this lady's life!!!! Learn from it and teach your children about it - maybe one of them would like to move to Vermont and live the same kind of life that this author has lived and then they can create a gorgeous book about their life as a black gardener in Vermont - I would read it!!!!!!!
One of the three of us is narrow-minded, but I'm not sure it's me, nor yet that it's R Smith.
But you know, maybe I'm just judging this woman's replies because she types like a drunken monkey. Very narrow-minded of me to care how she chooses to present herself online! Clearly she was very upset by our terrible, terrible reviews of this book and our cruel comments about the author. Perhaps if I were to take out the extra exclamation points... and turn some of them into regular periods*... oh, and add some paragraph breaks... hm.... *squints a little*
Nope! She still comes off as narrow-minded, irrational, and - worst of all - defensive.
Oh well. I tried. Can't say I didn't put in my best effort!
*Exclamation points are like salt. A little goes a long way.
Anyway, upon further inspection it seems she's just hypersensitive to criticism of this particular author's books, not to me or anything. (That's a disappointing relief. Yes, the phrase makes sense.)
Here's my review.
This is a lovely book. The illustrations are beautifully done, the vocabulary is carefully chosen - and the illustrations make very clear the meaning of unusual words like "xeriscape", but there's not much you can do for x anyway.
But, it's true. Every person in this book is white, and it really is a little weird. I don't live anywhere where I can consistently expect the people I meet to be white, so it would never occur to me to draw a whole book full of people of just that one race. I wonder where the author lives that it wouldn't occur to her to draw a more normal sample of the population.
It's not a bad book, it's just - that sort of thing is very obvious, and kinda annoying.
And here is another review of the same book.
Smith
I got a chance to see Mary Azarian's new alphabet book yesterday. I think her illustrations are heartwarming and lovely, and have enjoyed them for years in the Cook's Garden catalog and in books like The Plain Reader. I'm also a gardener and a former children's librarian ,and I enjoy seeing gardening depicted in children's books. However, I must say I was sadly disapponted to see no people of color depicted in any of the illustrations in this book. Surely Ms. Azarian must have met a nonwhite gardener at some point in her life; if not, that's sad, and she is welcome to come to my house and meet me before the next book. As a person of color I felt saddened and left out as I looked through the pages; how would a small child (of any ethnicity) feel? Had it not been for this exclusion I would have joyfully given this book five stars.
I gave the book four stars, R Smith gave it two.
Let's look at our esteemed friend's replies to our reviews:
She lives in Vermont, USA! Vermont isn't predominately white because they don't want other ethnic people to live there - on the contrary - anyone is welcome to live there! Please don't knock this author's amazing portrayal of the beauty of her State and neighbors and her natural surroundings just because of your ignorance and lack of scope! What a narrow minded review!! What world do you live in?
This is another narrow-minded reviewer! Why should white people have to "create" something outside of their world to make you feel comfortable reading THEIR book based on THEIR life? Why can't you explain to your non-white children that there are places in the world where people aren't black just like I explain to my non-black children that there are places in the world where God has made different colored people. I go to great lengths to introduce my children to the wonderfully diverse world God has created even though all of my Maine neighbors happen to be white. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece is my children's God-mother - that doesn't mean I would include her in a book about my childhood in Maine!!! Come on - enjoy this lady's life!!!! Learn from it and teach your children about it - maybe one of them would like to move to Vermont and live the same kind of life that this author has lived and then they can create a gorgeous book about their life as a black gardener in Vermont - I would read it!!!!!!!
One of the three of us is narrow-minded, but I'm not sure it's me, nor yet that it's R Smith.
But you know, maybe I'm just judging this woman's replies because she types like a drunken monkey. Very narrow-minded of me to care how she chooses to present herself online! Clearly she was very upset by our terrible, terrible reviews of this book and our cruel comments about the author. Perhaps if I were to take out the extra exclamation points... and turn some of them into regular periods*... oh, and add some paragraph breaks... hm.... *squints a little*
Nope! She still comes off as narrow-minded, irrational, and - worst of all - defensive.
Oh well. I tried. Can't say I didn't put in my best effort!
*Exclamation points are like salt. A little goes a long way.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:30 pm (UTC)Wow. That's one hell of a version of the "My best friend is black" trope. I'll bet she spends most of her time on the lookout for opportunities to throw that tidbit out there.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:30 pm (UTC)Wow. That's one hell of a version of the "My best friend is black" trope. I'll bet she spends most of her time on the lookout for opportunities to throw that tidbit out there.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-06 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-13 03:35 am (UTC)