La Bloga: WRITING MULTICULTURAL PICTURE BOOKS PART 2

“One of the first picture books portraying an African America child was THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats published in 1962. One of the first picture books depicting a Hispanic child was GILBERTO AND THE WIND by Marie Hall Ets published in 1963. But are these picture books really multicultural? The answer is no.

In THE SNOWY DAY, we see a happy Peter playing in the snow. In the same case, In GILBERTO AND THE WIND, we see a curious Gilberto playing with the wind. But are we reading about Peter’s or Gilberto’s cultures? No. We just see two children playing. If the writers/ illustrators had used a different name and had used another tone of skin color, we would have the same story. In this case the names and cultures of the protagonists do not affect the story at all.”

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