Last spring Harcourt published Encounter, a children's picture book written by Jane Yolen about the encounter of the Taino people with Columbus. The story's told from the point of view of a small Taino boy frightened by three dream birds who come to him in sleep. When he wakes, he finds three "great canoes" anchored off the shores of his island and tries to warn his chief. He's ignored and the the strangers are welcomed, much to everyone's eventual sorrow.
I immediately shared Encounter in fifth grade classrooms. The kids loved translating the boy's descriptions into their own concepts. The strong visual and word images, passionate writing and convincing voice immersed them in the boy's story. For the first time, they saw this historical event from a non-European viewpoint. Their perceptions changed, their teachers were impressed and I gloried in my cleverness.
Four months after I discovered Encounter, I spoke to Beverly Slapin, executive director of Oyate. Oyate is a non-profit, educational organization composed of Native Elders, artists, activists, educators, and writers who have come together to bring the real histories of the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere to the attention of all Americans.
Oyate had seen Encounter, too and after five minutes of hearing their perspectives, my belief system was completely shattered. Jane Yolen may believe she is visioning through the eyes of a Taino boy, but the feelings she attributes to him run counter to Taino society. To explain why the boy is ignored, she repeats five or six times, "I was but a child". This makes the story gain power, but it's based on a European, not Indian model of society. Indian society is built on mutual respect . It's a European concept that children should be seen and not heard.
Yolen's word choices are another slap in the face. She talks of how the Indians "gave" their souls, or "took" European words, as if the victims were to blame. Encounter may have been well-intended, but I wonder why it wasn't reviewed before publication by someone at least familiar with the culture. Now that it's lost its dazzling drama, I see it as an overly-sentimental, off-kilter story and one more betrayal to Native people. Its half-truths make it more insidious than books that have obvious misrepresentations.
Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children is the title of a book that Beverly Slapin co-authored with Doris Seale. This is a resource for parents and teachers who, like me, have enough awareness to realize they don't know what's truely authentic. The collection of reviews and essays includes a checklist to help non-Natives evaluate books before they share them as true. The book is available from OYATE. You can write them at 2702 Mathews, Berkeley, CA 94702. Or phone: 510-848-6700.
Can it be possible that it's been five hundred years since Columbus' historic sail? Can it be possible that it's been so many decades since I sat in a classroom learning the dry details? Can it be possible that the market is flooded with so many new books that one can hardly know where to begin to read about the man?
One of the first rhymes I remember from playground rope-skipping was "In fourteen hundred ninety-two/Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Jean Marzollo has expanded the verse into a thirty-two page picture book named In 1492. Illustrated with playful water-colors by Steve Bjorkman that are very much in the spirit of my schoolyard remembrances. Marzollo's expanded version is destined become a recess classic, or at very least a classroom must. Woven into the rhythmic meters are facts about the whens, hows, whys, and whos connected with Columbus' journey. Ages 4-7. (Scholastic, 1991)
Peter Sis' Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus, though a very simple telling of Columbus' life, brings across emotional tones of his life (his dreaming and persistence in turning his dreams to reality) and the voyage (the fears that the men carried). But the most stunning part of this book is found in its illustration, both in formatting and color choices. Each page turn brings a discovery--from ancient map designs, to a Columbus "baby album" mounted on one of the many walls that background the illustrations, to monochromes highlighted with color to represent dreams. Sis, an American transplanted from the Iron Curtain , notes a connection to Columbus as a man "who didn't let the walls hold him back". Ages 4-8. (Knopf, 1991)
David Adler has done a great service by bring historic figures with the reach of younger reading audiences. Happily he has extended his collection to include A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus. Adler tells the story in stepping stones of adventure and drama of the explorer's life as befits the age group he writes for. He has however left enough threads that I think an older reader might see (or be coached to see) how these events made Columbus who he was. Ages 4-8. (Holiday House, 1991)
Ken Hills' The Voyages of Columbus shows the relentless deep-digging of well-resourced non-fiction. The main body of the text is as specific as history will allow and contain details that give a strong reality base to all four of Columbus' voyages. Each page is further brought to life with pictures, maps and drawings to show Hispanic conceptions (or misconceptions) of the world They also illustrate elements of the times, such as how the calvary transported horses on the second voyage. I am a fan of historical trivia and this book is loaded. After reading countless books about Columbus for this article, I thought I knew it all, but from Ken Hills I learned that Columbus aged early arthritis and was inspired by Marco Polo who was only 17 when he set out for China in 1271. The author does an excellent job of portraying the excited and fearful feeling the explorers must have had and describing the Caribs and Arawaks so affected by the voyages. Ages 7-11. (Random House, 1991)