Exploring Racial Diversity in Caldecott Medal-Winning and Honor Books
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Master's Theses Master's Theses and Graduate Research Spring 2016 Exploring Racial Diversity in Caldecott Medal-Winning and Honor Books Angela Christine Moffett San Jose State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses Recommended Citation Moffett, Angela Christine, "Exploring Racial Diversity in Caldecott Medal-Winning and Honor Books" (2016). Master's Theses. 4699. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.8khk-78uy https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/4699 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses and Graduate Research at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EXPLORING RACIAL DIVERSITY IN CALDECOTT MEDAL-WINNING AND HONOR BOOKS A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Information Science San José State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Information Science by Angela Moffett May 2016 © 2016 Angela Moffett ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The Designated Thesis Committee Approves the Thesis Titled EXPLORING RACIAL DIVERSITY IN CALDECOTT MEDAL-WINNING AND HONOR BOOKS by Angela Moffett APPROVED FOR THE SCHOOL OF INFORMATION SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY May 2016 Dr. Joni Richards Bodart Department of Information Science Beth Wrenn-Estes Department of Information Science Nina Lindsay Oakland Public Library Abstract EXPLORING RACIAL DIVERSITY IN CALDECOTT MEDAL-WINNING AND HONOR BOOKS by Angela Moffett The Caldecott Medal, awarded annually by the American Library Association to the illustrator of the “most distinguished American picture book,” is the oldest and most prestigious award for children’s picture books in the United States. While the award winners have occasionally depicted racially diverse characters, it was not known to what extent the chosen winning titles have kept pace with changing racial demographics in the country. Diversity in children’s literature, and the lack thereof, has become a critical issue for our time. The social implications of failing to provide an exemplary collection of picture books and other literature representative of all of the United States’ citizens can be seen in our continuous struggle to reduce the impacts of racism. Research into how the Caldecott Medal awards have or have not kept pace with the racial composition of our country will help guide an informed discussion going forward and provide critical data to drive our conversations. Acknowledgements This Master’s Thesis is the result of support from many individuals. My appreciation goes to my committee: to Dr. Joni Richards Bodart for agreeing to chair this committee and for her invaluable advice, to Beth Wrenn-Estes for her encouragement and support in pursuing this topic, and to Nina Lindsay for her extensive review, difficult questions, and encouragement to always look deeper. The support of the staff at the Arne Nixon Center, Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno was critical and this research could not have been completed without the assistance of Jennifer Crow, Curator and Jami Sanford, Library Assistant. My enduring gratitude goes to many friends and to my family for their support and to Robert Dillman for giving me the space, resources, encouragement, and sometimes indignation, to pursue this research. Thanks also to Hannah Dillman and Margaret Rodriguez for their assistance and for keeping me company on the lengthy research trips. v Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement .......................................................................................................... 4 Literature Review................................................................................................................ 7 Methods............................................................................................................................. 14 Results ............................................................................................................................... 18 African and African American Representation ............................................................. 19 American Indian Representation................................................................................... 44 Asian and Asian American Representation .................................................................. 55 Latino Representation ................................................................................................... 64 Indeterminate Representation ....................................................................................... 70 Limitations and Further Research ..................................................................................... 75 Summary and Conclusion ................................................................................................. 77 References ......................................................................................................................... 82 Appendix: Caldecott Award Winners ............................................................................... 98 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Representations of African American, African, Caribbean and Jamaican people in Caldecott winning and honor books, 1939–1991. ..................................... 21 Figure 2. Representations of African American, African, Caribbean and Jamaican people in Caldecott winning and honor books, 1992–2016. ..................................... 22 Figure 3. First images of African Americans in the 1939 biography of Abraham Lincoln. ...................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 4. Images from different editions of the Lincoln biography. ................................ 26 Figure 5. Caldecott titles from 1938 to 2016 including images of American Indians. ..... 44 Figure 6. Images of Abraham Lincoln and Chief Blackhawk from different editions of the d’Aulaires’ biography of Abraham Lincoln. ................................................... 46 Figure 7. Caldecott titles in which Asian and Asian American people appear, through 2016. .......................................................................................................................... 57 Figure 8. Caldecott books in which Latinos were represented, 1939–2016. .................... 65 Figure 9. Multicultural representation vs. US population. ................................................ 79 Figure 10. Racial diversity in Caldecott books. ................................................................ 80 vii Introduction In 1937, Frederic G. Melcher suggested establishing the Randolph Caldecott Medal, named for an influential nineteenth century illustrator, for best illustrated children’s book annually (American Library Association, n.d.). He had previously launched the American Library Association’s annual Newbery award for “most distinguished American children’s books,” and felt that an award honoring the best illustration was timely as illustrators’ contributions to children’s literature were just as critical as those contributions encompassed by the Newbery award. Accordingly, the Caldecott Medal was begun in 1938 and has been awarded annually since then. A winning medal (gold) is awarded each year to one illustrator and honor (silver) books are named as well, though there is no minimum or maximum number of honorees. Recipients of the prestigious award are all but guaranteed immortality in children’s book publishing as they are very likely to remain in print in perpetuity (Smith, 2013). Presently, there are 332 books—79 medal winners and 253 honor titles—encompassing the entirety of the collection which are set forth in Appendix A. The process of granting the award has been fine-tuned over the years to become what it is today. A revolving 15-person committee is selected annually and is composed of members of the sponsoring association (Association for Library Service to Children, a branch of the American Library Association), who work diligently throughout the year to identify the best illustrated children’s books of the year. Their year-long work culminates in a days-long meeting at the American Library Association’s annual midwinter meeting where they gather to hash out the details and make their final selections (Killeen, 2012). 1 Selection criteria require that the work “be awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children published in the United States during the preceding year,” and that the award go to the artist, who must be a U.S. resident or citizen (American Library Association, n.d.). Controversy often follows the award announcement as not everyone agrees with the year’s choices for a variety of reasons. Yet even those who are not satisfied with the year’s selections recognize there are strict selection guidelines in place and a professional committee overseeing the process to ensure the best outcome. Significantly, additional awards specifically for racially diverse children’s literature have been created over the years to ensure acknowledgement of exceptional work by diverse authors