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2017 - Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by
Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean--and definitely not inside the lines--to be beautiful.
This book about the young Jean-Michel Basquiat faced classroom bans in Florida and Pennsylvania for unspecified reasons (Tolin).
Tolin, Lisa. “The Most Banned Picture Books of 2022.” PEN America, 14 Feb. 2023, https://pen.org/banned-picture-books-2022/.
1995 - Smoky Night by Set amid the 1992 Los Angeles race riots, Smoky Night nonetheless "ignores the dates, causes, actions, and ramifications of the riots" (Peters 40), and the illustrator even renders the "racial identity of the characters ambiguous" (Peters 41), thus obscuring many of the very real racial tensions underlying the storyline. Has been challenged for containing "violence and horror" (Weber).
Peters, Jefferson. “Depictions of Race in Caldecott Medal Picture Books.” 福岡大学人文論叢= Fukuoka University Review of Literature & Humanities, vol. 45, no. 4, 2014, pp. 425–81.
Weber, Janet. “Challenged Caldecotts & This One Summer.” ALSC Blog, 19 Mar. 2016, https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2016/03/challenged-caldecotts-this-one-summer/.
1983 - Shadow by Shadow is an English translation of a French poem "'about the African experience' of 'Shadow'" (Peters 32). By not naming a specific African culture, Brown "moves Shadow towards the stereotypical" (33). Moreover, the people depicted live "nearly nude in huts in forests or on savannahs without any modern technology," misrepresenting "how millions of Africans live today" (34).
Peters, Jefferson. “Depictions of Race in Caldecott Medal Picture Books.” 福岡大学人文論叢= Fukuoka University Review of Literature & Humanities, vol. 45, no. 4, 2014, pp. 425–81.
1975 - Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale by This invented Native American-style tale misrepresents Pueblo culture in its portrayal of a fatherless boy as well as the dangerous kivas. Pueblo author Debbie Reese notes that "the concept of 'illegitimate' doesn't fit with our ways of caring for children" (342) and "a kiva is a place of gathering ... not unlike a synagogue or church" (342) rather than the home to frightening ordeals depicted in the story.
Reese, Debbie A. “McDermott, Gerald, Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale, Illustrated by the Author. Viking (1974). Unpaginated, Color Illustrations; Grades 2-5; ‘Pueblo’ [Review].” A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children, edited by Doris Seale and Beverly Slapin, Alta Mira Press, 2006, p. 342.
1971 - A Story, a Story: An African Tale by
The story of Kwaku Ananse, spider man, who must pay the price the Sky God asks in order to have stories to tell.
This African tale is retold and illustrated by a white author "evoking a pseudo-African look" (Peters 21). The villagers in the story appear primitive, which may be appropriate for the "pre-story age" (21) in which it is set; however, "the introductory double-page spread in which the story teller begins to tell the tale shows the same people and era as do the pictures illustrating the story itself, as if nothing has changed from the folktale era till the 'present'" (21) and thus misrepresenting contemporary Africa.
Peters, Jefferson. “Depictions of Race in Caldecott Medal Picture Books.” 福岡大学人文論叢= Fukuoka University Review of Literature & Humanities, vol. 45, no. 4, 2014, pp. 425–81.
1970 - Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by Police are depicted as pigs, which "sparked some controversy" ("List of Banned Books (J-Z)"). Public schools and libraries in some parts of the United States declined to stock it despite it being a Caldecott winner.
List of Banned Books (J-Z). 6 Oct. 2012, https://web.archive.org/web/20121006135017/http://www.banned-books.com/bblistj-z.html.
1964 - Where the Wild Things Are by When first published, the book was banned for being "too frightening" and labeled as "too dark" by psychologists (Goodale).
Goodale, Gloria. “The Wild One.” Christian Science Monitor, 4 Oct. 2002, https://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1004/p13s02-alar.html.
1963 - The Snowy Day by When first published, "some critics questioned whether a Jewish man had the right to tell a story about an African American child" (Zipp). However, the Caldecott Award and fan mail "from [Langston] Hughes and other African American activists helped stem the criticism" (Zipp).
Zipp, Yvonne. “‘The Snowy Day,’ First Picture Book with Black Child as Hero, Marks 50 Years.” Washington Post, 20 May 2023. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-snowy-day-first-picture-book-with-black-child-as-hero-marks-50-years/2011/12/04/gIQA3a8yUP_story.html.
1950 - The Song of the Swallows by The illustrations in this book depict mestizo Latinos with "respect, affection, and dignity," yet the text misrepresents the relationship between Spanish missions and Native Americans. Father Junipero Serra and his Spanish cohort are represented as kind and helpful to Native Americans; the "lasting devastation" of their "missionary conquest" is completely omitted (Peters 439).
Peters, Jefferson. “Depictions of Race in Caldecott Medal Picture Books.” 福岡大学人文論叢= Fukuoka University Review of Literature & Humanities, vol. 45, no. 4, 2014, pp. 425–81.
1941 - They Were Strong and Good by Challenged in Tigard, OR because "slavery was mentioned without being condemned, and ... stereotypical depictions of Native Americans" (Titus).
Titus, Ron. Banned Books 2020 – They Were Strong and Good – Marshall Libraries. https://www.marshall.edu/library/bannedbooks/they-were-strong-and-good/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2024.
1939 - Mei Li by Though written by a white author, this book generally avoids stereotyping the Chinese characters. One exception is an "unpleasant caricature [of] an old man reclining beneath the Bridge of Wealth and tricking children out of their coins, his clawed hands and wicked grin recalling yellow peril Chinese men from books and movies of the era" (Peters 435).
Peters, Jefferson. “Depictions of Race in Caldecott Medal Picture Books.” 福岡大学人文論叢= Fukuoka University Review of Literature & Humanities, vol. 45, no. 4, 2014, pp. 425–81.
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