Bridges to Understanding: Envisioning the World through Children′s Books (review)

Bridges to Understanding: Envisioning the World through Children’s Books is the fourth volume of the bibliography of children’s books sponsored by the United States Board on Books for Young People (US BBY). Each bibliography is an individual work, but they all aim to introduce international literature for young people to young Americans. The former volumes are Children’s Books from Other Countries (1998), The World through Children’s Books (2002) and Crossing Boundaries with Children’s Books (2006). With this latest volume, they form an ensemble representing children’s books from 1950 to 2004. Bridges to Understanding surveys nearly 700 books published between 2000 and 2004 in more than 70 countries. Like its predecessors, it is a valuable tool for librarians, teachers, and anyone seeking information about multicultural literature.

The book is edited by Linda M. Pavonetti, who is the former president of US BBY (2010–2012). The annotated bibliography consists of three parts: International Children’s Literature, Bibliography, and Resources. In addition, at the end of the book, there is a comprehensive index of the children’s books mentioned in the bibliography. All of these components form a diversified picture of multicultural children’s literature.

The first section offers various different perspectives on multi-cultural children’s literature. Andrea Cheng, who is an author, poet, teacher, and illustrator, describes in her article how difficult it is to translate literature into another language. For instance, some puns and other forms of word plays will not come through in translation. In addition, she considers how an author’s nationality, language, and cultural background are evident in what or how s/he writes. Barbara Lehman ponders the authors’ responsibility for the authenticity of what they write, particularly when they are not insiders to the cultures they are depicting. According to Lehman, readers must also educate themselves to be thoughtfully critical in their responses, especially when those books cover topics that are outside their own experience and knowledge. It is also the teachers’ and librarians’ responsibility to teach young people to read critically and become informed rather than accept texts unquestioningly. In the worst case, reading multicultural themed books can confirm readers’ prejudices and stereotypes.

The bibliographic part of the book is organized geographically by world region and country. Before the actual bibliography, the book has a very detailed description of how the selected children’s books are classified, how multicultural literature is defined and the basis on which the children’s books have been included within the bibliography. This section includes information about the author’s cultural background. The plot descriptions of children’s books are enjoyable to read and give the reader a picture of the cultural diversity while simultaneously demonstrating the similarity between humans.

Using this kind of bibliography is challenging, in the sense that the books are only classified according to the countries they represent. For example, books appropriate for different age groups are not segregated from each other, presumably because, as Pavonetti notes, age recommendations can be difficult to give. Picture books, for instance, can be suitable for different ages.

Although Bridges to Understanding is intended as a reference source, it provides interesting and entertaining reading in its own right. In addition, the book gives an excellent picture of multi-cultural literature’s various forms of diversity, concerns, and opportunities. One can only hope that US BBY will continue this valuable series of bibliographies.