Finding Keepers in the Children's Library

Third graders can be a tough, challenging age group to reach when introducing them to books. Kids at eight, nine, and ten years of age are often in a transitional phase, ready for meaty fare, but without the stamina or confidence for long periods of individual reading. Complex novel plots and sophisticated young adult novels are still difficult for many of them. So when third graders respond to a story with unbridled enthusiasm, it is thrilling. You know you've got a "keeper."

For years I have been reading Ann Cameron's short chapter book, The Most Beautiful Place in the World (Knopf paperback, c.1988, $3.99) with third graders in the spring of their school year. With one unique exception, this book has always prompted only applause, questions, discussion, and compassionate concern.

The story is set in the small, fictitious town of San Pablo, Guatemala, truly a place of great beauty. The narrator is seven-year-old Juan, an appealing character whose determination to contribute to the family, to go to school, to love and be loved is compelling. Juan's teenage parents have left him, one after the other, with his hard working maternal grandmother. So busy is the Mirta in caring for an assortment of family members while selling arroz con leche in the market place that she loses track of Juan's age. She has set him up with a shoe shining kit in the town's center and taught him to work hard. While on the dusty streets of town, polishing shoes, Juan envies the children who go to school, and he manages to teach himself to read by studying the posters and billboards and the newspapers given him by customers.

Finally Juan finds the courage to ask his grandmother to enroll him in school. He is so afraid that she will refuse, and that he will then know that she, too, doesn't love him, and only values him for the money he earns. To his surprise and delight, she immediately agrees to send him to school, and she encourages him always to stand up for himself and to ask for what is important in life.

I had, at times, anticipated that there might be questions raised about my use of Ann Cameron's books with children because she is a white, North American author who often writes about children of color. I was prepared to talk about such concerns, prepared to point out that this book, as well as others by her, is unique in its simple straightforward language, that Ms. Cameron has lived in Panajachel, Guatemala (the model for San Pablo) for many years, that she is deeply involved with children in her town, tutoring youngsters and learning their stories.

I was surprised when a young mother with an entirely different agenda made an issue of my use of this book. She was disturbed by the book's grit which is what engages children: Why would a mother abandon her child? Why wouldn't parents want their children to go to school? Why can't all children go to school? What does a loving family look like anyway? What things are important? And, as the grandmother asks Juan: Why are some people rich and some poor, and why are some countries rich and others poor?

Despite this mother's threats of lawsuit and protests to the school administration, I continue to read Juan's story, to set the stage before hand, to have discussions with students afterward, to make arroz con leche, and to show videos about Guatemala.

Ann Cameron has written many other books that children respond well to. These include the Huey and Julian stories (The Stories Huey Tell, More Stories Huey Tell, Julian, Dream Doctor, The Stories Julian Tells and More Stories Julian Tells, Julian, Secret Agent, and Julian's Glorious Summer, available in paperback from Knopf and/or Random House, priced reasonably from $3.99 to $4.99).

In these collections of stories, Julian, and his little brother Huey, tell about their simple but authentic adventures. In Julian, Dream Doctor, Julian describes his dad "...a quick-moving man...a very good athlete," a man who can be "... as quiet as a turtle at the bottom of the sea." Because he loves his dad so much, Julian wants to give him the best birthday present ever. Thinking he has learned what his dad's dream present is, Julian prepares a surprise which turns out to be his dad's worst nightmare.

The humor, and the slow paced gentleness of the children's lives in these books, provide a counterpoint to the intense, over-scheduled life of many of today's children. Partly for this reason, I enjoy reading these stories to five-, six-, and seven-year-olds, hoping they are antidotal and soothing. Cameron's stories are reminiscent of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.

The strong, loving nature of this African American family is another delightful aspect to these books. There is a straight forward, no-nonsense quality to the reality of race that is a relief after reading so many children's books whose exclusive focus on children of color is as victims who have no other dimensions to their lives than an unceasing confrontation with racism. I like to put these books in the hands of all children, knowing that they affirm the universality and small dramas of childhood.

Ann Cameron's other books include an adaptation of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. This eighteenth century book written by Equiano, an African prince, enslaved and then freed, was a best seller when first published in 1789. In Cameron's adaptation, The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano (Knopf Paperback, 1995, $4.99), the narrative is still as thrilling and impressive as the original, but it is now accessible to children. Equiano's autobiography tells a story of slavery and freedom, and serves to underscore the absolute link between literacy and freedom. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explains in his introduction, Equiano's book created the tradition of the "slave narrative."

Literacy is a theme that runs through many of Ann Cameron's books, and her website <www.childrensbestbooks.com/> is filled with good advice and ideas for parents and teachers concerned with literacy issues. When looking for good books for children, this is one place to explore. As she says, "If we want to have literate children with good values, in a more peaceful and understanding society, we also need to use and support our public and school libraries. We need to see that good libraries are accessible to everyone, and that book collections continue to grow--and aren't sacrificed to the purchase of computers."

--Lani Gerson is a children's librarian who writes frequently on educational issues.

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