Children’s Books: A Library Full of Progressive Piety

The publishing industry never tires of promoting the lives of progressive examples. They are valued for their activism, nobility or pioneering identity and often depicted with raised fists or in protest marches. Toddlers get to know them in hardback books and find them later in illustrated chapter books and graphic novels. The shelves of bookstores, libraries and schools positively groan with their virtue.

The problem is not that such books exist. I should add that darling left-handers aren’t the only people to appear in children’s biographies, either. But there is no escaping the suffocating cohort. A new graphic novel spin-off from the popular “Who Was?” from the Penguin Random House franchise exemplifies the typical mix. Of the six biographies, there is one for Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Cesar Chavez, and Amelia Earhart; and one each for Joan of Arc and Neil Armstrong. Armstrong’s book, “Who Was the First Man on the Moon?” Neil Armstrong,” is particularly strong, with retro imagery by Drew Shannon and text by Nathan Page that emphasizes the audacity of the Apollo 11 astronauts.

My little Dolly Parton guestbook

By Deborah Hopkinson

guest books

19 pages

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The latest batch of “Little Golden Book Biographies” falls into similar categories: in the left basket we find Justice Sotomayor, Mr. Obama, Joe Biden and Dr. Fauci; in a second basket are Queen Elizabeth, Betty White and Dolly Parton. “My Little Dolly Parton Golden Book,” written by Deborah Hopkinson and happily illustrated by Monique Dong, is a charmer that exudes optimism about its popular subject. There is no basket on the right. The right does not appear at all.

The model remains in the largest collections of biographies. Young readers will find intriguing outliers among the dozens of biographies in Brad Meltzer’s “Ordinary People Change the World” collection (illustrated by Chris Eliopoulos). Walt Disney, IM Pei and puppeteer Jim Henson make appearances, of course, along with Muhammad Ali, Judge Sotomayor, Oprah and others.

Kamala Harris

By Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara

Frances Lincoln

30 pages

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The same goes for the dozens of books that Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara has written under the aegis of “Little People, Big Dreams”. The most recent titles in this series celebrate the lives of, among others, Gloria Steinem, the young poet Amanda Gorman and the incumbent Vice President. “Kamala Harris”, illustrated by Lauren Semmer, captures the prevailing wind. “Kamala’s mother raised her and her sister Maya to be gifted young black women,” the author writes. We see Ms Harris as an adult in a courtroom, her protective arm around a young black man and her accusing finger pointing at a scowling white man: “It was her job to make sure everyone , especially the most vulnerable, was protected by Justice.” In a later scene, President Biden and Vice President Harris are shown riding a tandem bicycle, wearing face masks and being chased by cheerful multiracial children dressed in colorful clothing. rainbow. Like Dave Barry used to say, I’m not making this up.

Again, the problem is not that such books exist. The problem is that conservatives and even centrists are excluded from the human story as told to children. Juvenile biographies present a distorted portrait of human achievement and a meager and unhealthy menu of ideas. It is infuriating that children are encouraged to think of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor as trailblazers to be women and serve on the Supreme Court while being kept in the silent ignorance that the real trailblazer was Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican woman nominated by a Republican President.

Nature abhors a vacuum, but the market is slow to fill it. It is therefore encouraging to see thoughtful and counter-cultural series emerging. The ‘Heroes of Freedom’ imprint makes an unabashed plea for right-wing families whose worldview has been sidelined. Upcoming titles tell the life stories of Alexander Hamilton and John Wayne, while the initial three titles are about Ronald Reagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and an admired liberal economist who began life in poverty.

Thomas Sowell: a self-made man

By Sean B. Dickson

Heroes of Liberty

46 pages

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“Thomas Sowell: A Self-Made Man,” written by Sean B. Dickson and illustrated by Carl Pearce, follows Mr. Sowell from the segregated South to New York and beyond. We see his difficult family life, his decision to stop school at 17 and start his own business; we see how curiosity and a strong work ethic propelled him into a life of scholarship and letters. A central episode recounts his meeting, while he was a professor at Cornell, with a struggling African student. He realizes that he will be doing her no favors by inflating her grade and tutoring her instead. “Thomas also practiced what he preached,” it read. “When he was offered a prestigious job just because he was black, he turned it down. . . . In his eyes, nothing good could come from getting something you didn’t really earn.

Why have publishers done such a poor job of acquainting young readers with principled right-wing men and women? This is probably because they would prefer that diverse people, i.e. people with diverse opinions, never attract the attention of children. It’s nice to see some perspective, finally.