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So Much by Trish Cooke and Helen Oxenbury
Nov. 22nd, 2013 03:11 pmI haven't read very much of Trish Cooke's work, but what I have I love - her retelling of How Anansi Got His Stories is as witty and beautiful as any I've read, for example. My favourite is her book Full, Full, Full of Love about the relationship between food and family and how small acts of love bind us together.
So Much is a similar story. A family is gathering together for a surprise party, and each person through the door turns to the baby first 'I want to eat him, I want to kiss him, I want to dandle him, I want to fight him'. At the end, baby drifts off to sleep thinking about all the things they said and did 'because they love him, so much'.
What makes me angry about this book, though, is that Helen Oxenbury was described as 'brave' for illustrating it. Helen Oxenbury, the renowned illustrator, winner of two Kate Greenaway medals and numerous other awards, was described as brave for illustrating a book by a former Playdays presenter, and not her first book either. You can bet what they meant was she was brave for illustrating a book by a black author with black characters. Well screw the people who think that, and thank goodness for Oxenbury disagreeing.
My children have always a ton of books with characters who look like them. As a result, they never look at a book and think 'I'm not like that' they say 'I'm like that, my mummy loves to cook with me, my cousin likes to play with me, my family love me too'. If you're not white? You're constantly being bombarded with pictures that look nothing like you, and then maybe you might stop to wonder why. Then it becomes a notable thing, that maybe you're thought of as different to the children in the book. And that's a terrible thing to do to a child.
So Much is a similar story. A family is gathering together for a surprise party, and each person through the door turns to the baby first 'I want to eat him, I want to kiss him, I want to dandle him, I want to fight him'. At the end, baby drifts off to sleep thinking about all the things they said and did 'because they love him, so much'.
What makes me angry about this book, though, is that Helen Oxenbury was described as 'brave' for illustrating it. Helen Oxenbury, the renowned illustrator, winner of two Kate Greenaway medals and numerous other awards, was described as brave for illustrating a book by a former Playdays presenter, and not her first book either. You can bet what they meant was she was brave for illustrating a book by a black author with black characters. Well screw the people who think that, and thank goodness for Oxenbury disagreeing.
My children have always a ton of books with characters who look like them. As a result, they never look at a book and think 'I'm not like that' they say 'I'm like that, my mummy loves to cook with me, my cousin likes to play with me, my family love me too'. If you're not white? You're constantly being bombarded with pictures that look nothing like you, and then maybe you might stop to wonder why. Then it becomes a notable thing, that maybe you're thought of as different to the children in the book. And that's a terrible thing to do to a child.
