It’s hard to find good books for first-graders that address slavery and racism in ways that are informative but not terrifying. Obviously, the history is terrifying, but I am not persuaded that it’s useful to convey the depths of that trauma to a 6-year-old who is only just starting to learn about these topics. Nor do I want to present him with graphic descriptions of violence. For now, it seems to me, it’s enough to state that people were harmed without explaining in vivid detail. But I also do want to talk to him about this stuff, and reading books together is a great way to start those conversations.
My task is slightly easier, because my kiddo has already learned some things in school — in Kindergarten, he learned about Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and segregation, and this year he learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. So I am building on and supporting that knowledge, rather than introducing it. And I’m really grateful to his teachers for paving the way for me!
I found both of these are our fantastic library, which had an entire display of Juneteenth books to choose from, and we read them both today, and they’re really good. We both especially loved Juneteenth: Our Day of Freedom — kiddo read it four times throughout the day, and showed it to several friends. It’s accessibly written, and includes some really great information — it mentions the United States Colored Troops, for example, and goes into some detail about how angry people were when they realized they could have been freed two years earlier. Fully half of the book is about what formerly enslaved people did next, and it beautifully portrays a sense of hope and possibility — there’s a lovely section few pages about choosing new names — without going so far as to suggest that everything was sunshine and rainbows from there on out. The references to trauma and suffering are done with a light touch (“they would not easily forget the cruelty of slavery”) but every word in the book feels true. The last few pages are about the history of declaring the day a holiday, and various Juneteenth celebrations around the country (a rodeo! Block parties! baseball!), and the final lines are powerful: “America was founded on the promise of freedom in the Declaration of Independence, signed in 1776. With the end of slavery in 1865, the country got one step closer to keeping that promise. Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom for all!”
Juneteenth for Mazie is slightly different, in that it seeks to connect more directly to a child’s experiences, which makes for a slightly stilted segue — Mazie is frustrated at never being allowed to do what she wants, and is told that her Great-great-great-grandpa Mose “heard ‘no’ even more.” This kind of direct comparison seems iffy to me (like, I have already had to explain that your feelings about me saying that you have to pick up your toys are not really a useful parallel for the experiences of enslaved people), but I do appreciate the way the book aims to speak to kids on a level that makes sense to them. A few pages cover the experiences of slavery and the announcement in Galveston, and then the second half of the book tracks the longer history of the continued struggle for equality, drawing mostly on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. There’s a risk that it could be understood as suggesting total resolution — a page showing people praying, captioned “They forgave…” is followed by a page that says “They excelled and achieved. They became heroes…” and depicts what adults will recognize as Obama being sworn into office, which gives me a twinge of “post-racial America” PTSD. The 2010s were a time! Then the last few pages shift to the importance of both celebrating and remembering the past. What really makes the book marvelous, though, are the illustrations, which are just gorgeous — really beautiful paintings. Just paging through and looking at these exquisite images of Black life over the last 200 years is worthwhile in itself, and, I think, a really necessary part of a child’s education. The artist, Floyd Cooper, illustrated over 100 children’s books, and his work is wonderful. I was sad to learn, when I looked him up, that he passed away a few years ago — this obituary gives you a sense of how remarkable his career was.
Anyways, just wanted to share these two books, because they really are quite good, and it’s an area where I certainly appreciate suggestions for other excellent work to seek out.
Kasia Reads 