Resources for globalizing your children's and adolescent literature to address issues of availability, authenticity, and access

1. Build Your
School’s
Global
Library
Kathy G. Short
University of
Arizona
Worlds of Words

2. Why is Global Literature Significant?
 Insights into how people live, feel and think around the
world
 Develop emotional connections and empathy as well as
knowledge
 Come to know own home culture and world beyond
home
 Recognize common values shared across cultures as
well as unique differences of each culture
 See how people of world view themselves, not just how
we view them

3. Story as Meaning-Making
 Story is how we make sense of our
experiences
 Narrative is a primary act of mind
 Our world view is a web of interconnected
stories
 Scientific theories are just bigger stories
 The ways in which we story are culturally-
based.

4. Say Something
 Two people share the reading of a text
 One person begins reading aloud and reads
for several paragraphs until that person
comes to a good stopping point.
 Each person SAYS SOMETHING
 A connection, question, comment, or prediction.
 The second person reads aloud the next
section and then stops for both to say
something.

5. What is an international book?
 Originallypublished in another country for
children of that country and later
republished in the U.S.
 Books set in world cultures, written and
published in the U.S

6. Availability of Multicultural/Global Literature
2011 2010 2009 2008
 Af/Af-A 123/79 156/102 157/83 172/85
 Am Ind 28/12 22/9 33/12 40/9
 As/Pac 91/76 64/60 80/67 98/77
Am
 Latino 58/52 66/55 61/60 79/48
Out of 3400-3500 books per year

7. Availability

8. Insiders to the culture who reside in
that culture and write for children of
that culture
 Batchelder Award/ALA  Kane/Miller

9. Translated
Books

10. Insiders to the Culture Who Reside
in the U.S. and Home Country

11. Immigrants to the U.S.

12. U.S. Authors who Write from
Family Heritage

13. Authors/Illustrators who Spend
Significant Time within a Culture

14. Authors Who Research a Culture

15. Authors who Collaborate with an
Insider

16. Books written and
published within a
specific culture

18. x Building Bridges Through Children’s and Young Adult Books x
Outstanding International Books
usbby.org
International Board of Books for
Young People --- ibby.org

20. Notable Books for a Global Society
International Reading Association

21. International Children’s Digital
Library


22. Data Bases
 Children’sLiterature
Comprehensive Data base –
requires a subscription
 Titlewave – Follett – free to
school librarians

23. Worlds of Words –
wowlit.org
 WOW Books – book search
 Author’s Corner
 My Take/Your Take
 WOW Currents

24. Accuracy, Authenticity, and
Representation
Extent to which a book reflects beliefs and
values of a cultural group and depicts
accurate details of everyday life and
language for that group
• Diversity within any cultural group
• Readers from within are able to feel affirmed that
what are reading rings true – “you know it when
you see it.”
• Readers from another culture are able to identify
and learn something of value about cultural
similarities and differences

25. Accuracy
 Details of everyday life and language

26. Authenticity
 Reflects the core values at the heart of the
culture.
 Believability – acts and thinks in a way that
is viewed as possible by insiders

27. Representation
 The relationship of an individual book to
images of a specific culture within a
collection of children’s books and society
 Having few available images overemphasizes
those that are present
 Over-representation of a particular theme or
image
 Power relationships -- who solves the problem
 Perspectives and audience

31. WOW Review
 Critical
book reviews that focus on cultural
authenticity, accuracy, and representation
 Provides background info on author and
illustrator
 Suggestions of related texts

32. Access for Students
Engaging students with global literature can be
difficult because of :
 Unfamiliar stylistic devices and terms
 Experiences and settings far removed from
children’s lives
 Struggle to make connections to go beyond
viewing global cultures as strange or exotic
 Adopting strategies that are tangential or in
opposition to global understandings

33. WOW Stories
 Publish vignettes from classroom teachers
and librarians on their use of global
literature with students
 Global Literacy Communities
 Resources
 Language and Culture Book Kits
 Family Story Backpacks
 Cultural Community Back packs
 CREATE – www.createarizonal.edu

34. Paired Books

35. wowlit.org
WOWReviews
WOWStories