Mirrors and Windows

Author Mitali Perkins employs a useful metaphor when thinking about books: mirrors and windows. Mirrors are books that remind you of yourself and your own life, while windows are books that give you insight about a different kind of life. She makes a compelling argument about why children, just like adults, need both: we must not narrow our recommendations, directing children with one (presumptive) set of experiences to literature featuring characters with similar experiences. Writes Perkins,

"The publishing industry doesn't seem to expect adults to appreciate only those books that are mostly mirror-ish. Why, then, do we seem to hold that expectation for young readers? Here are a couple of phrases I overhear when people are talking about Kid/YA books:

'I just don't have that kind of population in my town. Nobody's going to want to read it.'

'Hey, I'm going to need more multicultural books now. My community's changing.'"

In developing the fiction collection here at the Paideia library, I think hard about our diverse array of students. I buy some books that will reflect our students' own experiences and other books that will portray radically different takes on life. The first time I fired Scholastic Book Fairs, I wrote a letter complaining that there were virtually no books by or about African-Americans. The response was, "Oh, we didn't realize you would want the 'diversity book collection' -- your school doesn't fit that profile." Grrr. There are so many things wrong with that excuse that I don't want to dignify it by addressing it. I did tell Scholastic that (surprise!) white children enjoy books about African-Americans.

How about a positive example? A 10 year old girl comes to the library and needs a book, any book. I know her. She is a native speaker of Spanish but her reading in English is getting stronger every month; her parents are recent immigrants; and she is shy but happily making new friends this year. So I pull an assortment of choices. Some, like Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, might be considered a mirror, featuring a young Latina immigrant. Another mirror possibility, The Gold Threaded Dress by Carolyn Marsden, movingly portrays the anxieties of a young Thai immigrant as she begins to make new friends in her classroom. At the same time, I offer "window" titles: books featuring kids from other times and places, having adventures, solving mysteries, navigating friendships. My student leaves with a stack of titles. Several weeks later she confides that she read one aloud to her mother and they both loved it. I can't imagine how the school libraries across the country are going to function without the professional librarians that they are laying off. If we remain "A Nation at Risk," cutting librarians means children won't have personal guides into the world of reading, either for mirrors or windows.