Free Within Ourselves.The Development of African American Children’s Literature (review)

African American children’s literature only began to take off properly in the late 1960s and has since played an important role within contemporary American children’s literature (if not in terms of numbers then in terms of influence).

In this comprehensive study, renowned expert Rudine Sims Bishop explores the emergence of a distinct literature in the 19th century ‘written by African Americans, focused on African American people and their life experiences, and primarily intended for children up to age fourteen’ and traces its development until the beginning of the 21st century. Following an overview of the publishing history of African American children’s literature, Bishop goes on to provide background information about the social, economic and political factors that led to a rich oral culture among the African slaves in America on the one hand and to their hunger for literacy and education on the other. Chronologically detailing the early African American publications primarily addressed to black children, she describes works such as the influential children’s magazine The Brownies’ Book of 1920/1921 and the books by Langston Hughes, Effie Lee Newsome, Arna Bontemps and others up to 1970.

In the second half of her study, she analyses the evolution of various genres within the field of African American children’s literature since the 1970s, among them poetry, the picturebook, contemporary realistic fiction and historical fiction, and introduces the writings of some crucial authors and illustrators. The wealth of information and the engaging writing style make this an indispensable treasury for academics as well as librarians, teachers and general readers.