DOCUMENT RESUME ED 127 556 CS 002 868 AUTHOR Roberts, Patricia; Chambers, Dewey TITLE Sugar and Spice and Almost AlwaysNice: A Content Analysis of tl- Caldecotts. PUB DATE 76 NOTE 11p EDFS PRICE MF-$0.83 HC-$1.67 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Awards; *Childrens Books; *ChildrensLiterature; Content Analysis; Elementary Education;*Females; Illustrations; Sex Discrimination; *SexRole; *Sex Stersotypes IDENTIFIERS *Caldecott Awa-rd ABSTRACT The children's books which havebeen awarded the Caldecott medal for each year's finestillustrations in juvenile literature exemplify the best in bookmaking and in color reproduction and are among the bestexamples of art available to children. However, a recent study of thecontent of these books shows that both the text and theillustrations portray female characters as subordinate to the other sex, as the onewho fails, as the caretaker of the home, as the nurturer of thefamily, and as the character seen most often in the home environmentand least ofter in business and the professions. Thus, anassumption that the Caldecott-award-winning books are not stereotyping thefemale image can be challeIged. (JM) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERICinclude many informal unpublished * materials not available fromother sources. ERIC makes everyeffort * * to obtain the best copyavailable. Nevertheless, items ofmarginal * * reproducibility are oftenencountered and this affects thequality * * of the microfiche andhardcopy reproductions ERIC makesavailable * * via the ERIC DocumentReproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the qualityof the original document.Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the'est that can be made from theoriginal. *********************************************************************** O. U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATIONS. WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION TP,S DOCUMENT I-4AS BEEN REPRO- STAR AND SPICE AND DUCED ExACTL Y AS PE CE,vED AROM ALMOST ALWAYS NICE: THE PERSON OR CROAN:ZAT,ON ORIG1N AT1NG IT POINTS 0, vIEK OR OPINiONS A Content Analysis ofthe Caldecotts STATED DO NOT NEZESSAR,LY REPRE SENT or-c,c,AL NATtONA, INSTITU.TE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POL tCv by PaLrieia RoherL--; Assistant Professor ofEducation, Dewey Chmber,-; Dr. Patricia Robert,s, California State University Sacramento, California and University of The Pacific Dr. Dewey Chambers,Professor of Education, Stockton, California* nation when the Each April Hollywoodsprinkles stardust around the its ranks and presents the annual Academy Awardstap excellence within This ritual is followed by "Oscars" to its elite andmost talented. music and the "Emmy" th- "rlrixv", recognizingthe very best in recorded America and indeed, the world for outstandingachievement in television. national magnitude, are heed t,hese awards. They, like most awards of coveted. sought by authors, In the literary world,coveted awards are eagerly A major award will guarantee illustrators and publishinghouses as well. Anytime a book is singled boosted sales, prestige andincreased royalties. literary jurists; authors, -)ut as "outstanding"by a reliable body of illustrators and au _ishinghouses have reason to rejoice. Books for chi:Ldren The children's book fieldis crowd with honors. is richer because o: uhem. receive recognition for manyreasons and the field those that are presented Th,, most prestigious,perhaps, of these awards are Children's librarians gathertogether by Amell_can Library Association. books for children (.ach yearand decide whichof the many thousands of new this twoyear investigation, *Dr. Chambers served asDr. Roberts' advisor for and doctoral dissertation. 2 The awards, in the form will be singed out as"the best of the year. 1) literary quality and2) for of a medal, are givenfor two reasons: is the Newbery excellence of illustrations. The first mentioned award this committee feelsis the finest Award. It is presented to what The winner of this writing, by an Americanauthor, of the past year. The second award, award is almost guaranteedto be an instant classic. It is presented to the presented by this group, isthe Caldecott Award. in a children's artist who produced thefinest illustrations of the year classified as picture storybooks, meant book. Most often these books are two to approximatelyeight. to be enjoyed byyoungsters from about age Newbery winner, basks in theliterary The Caldecottwinner,as its fellow the field. spotlight andusuallyenjoys great Fzuccess in excellence. The Caldecott Without questionthese awards do recognize reproduction, and are winners exemplify the finestin bookmaking, color and meant for, probably the host examples ofreal art available to, These award winning children. They arehy and large, delightful: children's librarians and hooks are widely read,strongly recommended by primary grades of the often find their wayinto nursery schools and the They are beautiful. They, by the nubile schools. Everyone loves them. that they most oftendeserve. nature of the award,enjoy a greatness best in the These honored books forchildren,which exemplify the very touted aesthetics nf illustratioc, may,however, offer more than the offer? What value presented to childreA. What soc5al message do they books contain? structures do they represent? What, beside art, do these (2-8) these books Psycholcgists have indicatedfor years that the ages Ono of the importantlearnings during are gearedtoward, are important ones. behavior. Recent movements by this time is toidentify with sex role -3- responsible groups have questioned thestereotyping of sex role behavior-- particulary the fPmalP sex role behavior--inthe media. Any thinking person would have to include children's books as apart of that media. Certainly the most distinguished of these booksneed scholarly evaluation to see what, in fact, these books might offer youngfemales concerning their role in the greater society. A recent study, The Female Imacre in theCaldecott Award Winning Books, by Dr. Patricia Roberts as her doctoraldissertation at the University of The Pacific has asked that Question and hasre,Leived some surprising answers. In order to analyze the sex role behaviorsof the female image in these books, the'content analy:is for the study wasimplemented in four (4) steps. First, the establishment of the contentvalidity for the definitions used in the hypotheses relating to the female sexrole behaviors was conduct2d by a jury of sociologists from the Universityof The Pacific, Stockton, California, Delta College, Stockton, California andCalifornia State University, Fmsno, California.*Second, a content analysis instrument,Content Analysis Form For The Female Image (CAFFI) wasdeveloped for judging sex role behaviors of of .93 for the female characters. Next, an inter-rater reliability factor determine the instrument was established. Last, the instrument was applied to a text and illustrationanalysis of the female image L. everyCaldecott winner from 1938-1974. The anaJysis of the text andillustrations of these books revealed that the human, animal and inanimatefemale characters were shown as subordinate to the other sex, as the one whofails, as the caretaker of the home, asthe nurturer of the family and as thecharacter seen most often in the home environment, and seldom seen leastnumber of times in business and theprofessions. Delta Community *Ct. Lewis, Univers"- of ThePacific; E.H. Brimberry, San Joaquin College; Milton B S. John Dackowich and William York,California State University, Fresnclifornia. 1-1 -4- The Female ImaRe as subordinateto the other sex. The female ii_ge was judged to be subordinateto the male image in the illustrations as well as in the text of these bookswhen one examines them for this conte4t. There were numerous female characterswho were placed in a lower or infezdpr position, and who fell under theauthority of others or who lacked autnoty character, Katy, in Th themselves. For example, when the leading female inferior EpT Tree (Scribner's1950) is considered, one sees Katy in an position when compared with herbrother, Carl. Katy and Carl are on ar Easter Egg hunt at Grandmom's farm. Carl finds eggs. Katy can't find Finally, Katy ventures up to the attic, finds aEy. Katy ['eels stupid. several old decorated eggs andbrings them to the kitchen to show the choose one of the eggs Katy foundto others. Grandmom says everyone may special find--yet keep for their own. The eggs are Katy's treasure--her the text tells us that C zachooses first. Another example is Mei Li. firecrackers to him to She 11ks behind herolder brother and gives he: be real actors." Her uncle shoot. He jeers at her "...Only boys can laughs at her saying "You arebrave...for a girl." (Mei Li, Doubleday, (Dutton, 1972) the rice dumpling maker 1932). In Funny Little Woman, hides behind a statue tryinr to escapefrom a horned, fanged male creataq.e mal who grabs her with aclawed hand. She then clings to a rock but the creature pulls her into arowboat and rows her across ariver to a strano in others of these books. house. These examples are repeated The Female ImaRe As The One WhoFails. There were various female goal ot. characters who showed adeficiency or lack in attaining a desired analyzed. Fp2" who showed an omissionin performance when these books were laughing example, tne unfortunateric dumpling maker fails to keep from (Funny Little which causes the wicked onito discover her hiding place. Woman, Dutton, 1972). In A Story-A Story, frustrated Moatia, The Fairy- Whom-MenNever-See fails to escape from the trap