Curious about Historical Realism

 

Rinaldi, Ann. My Heart Is on the Ground : the Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl. 1999. 216 pages. LP: $19.99, ISBN: 9780590149228. Ages 9-12

The Dear America historical fiction book series, quite popular in children's libraries in the earlier part of the 21st century, has since been criticized as being rather mixed in quality and even ethical considerations.  Yet even among those who point out their flaws, these books have been praised as engaging introductions into important time periods and events in America's histories, told through the eyes of children, and popular with their audiences:  'I read these books as a young girl and they ignited my imagination and helped to inspire my lifelong interest in histories," one critic says. However, when Rinaldi's My Heart Is on the Ground : the Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl is raised, it is as a cautionary tale of how not to write an authentic, historically accurate children's book.

These criticisms are important because most public and school libraries, seeing the popularity of a series like Dear America, will strive to collect all the volumes or retain them through the years. However, in the case of Rinaldi's book, the concern is that children who read it will come away with a skewed, and possibly even harmful, view of the Residential School movement in the Americas. Rinaldi writes a fictionalized account of the diary of Nannie Little Rose who joins the (now infamous) Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania in 1879. Rinaldi depiction is not entirely rosy: she acknowledges in her Historical Notes that "education could not be accomplished without taking away their identity," and of the students, that "...upon arriving, their 'Indianness' was taken from them." (Rinaldi, 1999, 175-177) 

Even if she approaches the story with skepticism, is Rinaldi the correct storyteller to convey the painful histories of the Indigenous children who endured the residential schools? Critics point out the historical inaccuracies, careless appropriations, and rampant stereotypes contained in this story (Smith, 1999; Mayer 2023). This book highlights one of the most important elements to consider when judging historical fiction for children: who gets to tell a story? Since these events are part of the colonial decimation of indigenous people and their cultures in America, and since authentic voices of those who lived through the realities of the residential schools are often suppressed or ignored, it would be better if Native American voices are the ones who tell these stories.

Image source: Digital Library of Illinois

Alexander, Kwame. The Door of No Return. 2022. 432 pages. LP: $17.99, ISBN: 9780316442060. Ages 10+

Alexander Kwame presents a story of the African American people, one which does not begin in Jamestown, Virginia or in the plantations of America's south, but long before in Africa in communities like Upper and Lower Kwanta, Ghana (Alexander, 2022, pp. 20, 378). Alexander's novel in verse, framed by Kofi's grandfather the story teller, follows 11-year-old Kofi and his village life. Kofi loves to swim, dislikes his teacher who forces him to speak English, and admires his athletic brother. The author's verses are spare, but they paint a picture of Kofi's world in all its colors: the tangy aromas of plantain stew rich with red palm oil, the chill of the river where Kofi races his rival cousin, and the peace of listening to his grandfather's stories. The setting is, therefore, richly detailed.

Kofi is not destined to grow up and flourish in this part of West Africa, however, as Alexander's plot reveals. He is captured and taken by slave traders to the coast and the castle where humans pass through the door of no return on their way to ships bound for slave-owning countries. Kofi soothes a younger boy with stories like his grandfather told him, witnesses the death of his brother, and attempts escape, but inexorably fate takes him to the slave ship.

This is a hard, sad story and all the more so due to Alexander's care to make it historically accurate. He documents fastidiously with maps, notes, acknowledgments, a Twi glossary, and a section on Andrinka symbols. His connection to the history of his ancestors is revealed by the care he takes in authenticating Kofi's story. Looking to the past--to learn, to better understand ourselves, and to strive to correct its mistakes--is an important theme in The Door of No Return, and is echoed in the Adrinka symbol, Sankofa that Alexander shares:

Image source: Digital Library of Illinois

Image Source: Digital Library of Illinois

LeZotte, Ann Clare. Show Me a Sign. 2020. 288 pages. LP: $25.99, ISBN: 9781338255812. Ages 8-12

Set in 1805 in Martha's Vineyard in a town made up of deaf and hearing residents and members of the Wampanoag tribe, LeZotte's historical novel follows the story of 11-year-old Mary and her response to a scientist who tries to understand the origins of the deaf community's 'infirmity'. LeZotte, who herself is deaf, does not try to simplify the reality of how the deaf communicate. She explains in her detailed end notes that American Sign Language is but one way people have communicated over time including regionally specific languages (such as Martha's Vineyard Sign Language used in the book), culturally-specific languages (Black American sign language) and family-specific signs. Her text conveys how the deaf not only express themselves differently, using a mixture of signs, expressions, and gestures, but how they may see the world differently. For example, when Mary tells her mom of the story of the lion on the beach, her focus on the visual of a frothing wave becoming a lion's mane is dismissed as fanciful by her mother who is hearing, and may not see in the heightened, imaginative way Mary does. (pg. 27)

LeZotte keeps the plot, characters, and style of her story true to the early 1800s. She confronts the racism that exists in Martha's Vineyard toward the indigenous Wampanoag residents, but does not frame it in our 21st century way. Rather, the story presents the injustice of racism toward the Wampanoag but also reflects empathy both for the settlers and the original inhabitants, and brings up the co-mingling of the two groups through intermarriage. The characters also portray the time-appropriate attitudes and practices toward women and young girls, with Mary's brother able to attend a proper school while she must attend the traveling, sporadically-offered traveling school. The attitude of Noble, the scientist, is cold and dismissive toward the deaf, treating them as specimens in a petri dish.

While other books for middle grade children have engagingly and sympathetically portrayed deaf characters including the graphic novel El Deafo by CeCe Bell and Song For a Whale by Lynne Kelly, most books tend to be set in current, or more recent times and portray personal memoirs. Show Me A Sign, along with Apple is my Sign by Mary Riskind, fills a gap in the historical realism genre and reminds children that, as Laurent Clerc, the first deaf teacher in America said, "The deaf...are everywhere...They existed before you spoke of them and before you saw them." (LeZotte, Epigraph, 10)