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Wednesday, April 16, 2014

A Look at Setting in 2013 CCBC Data on Fiction by/about American Indians - US Publishers

On March 17, 2014 I published my analysis of 14 books on the Cooperative Center or Children's Books (CCBC). The set I analyzed are those published by publishers located in the United States. My findings?

  • With one exception (Eric Gansworth's If I Ever Get Out of Here), the books major publishing houses put out are flawed in one way or another. 
  • With one exception (a book I could not get), the books small publishers put out are ones that I can--and do--recommend. 


Today I am pointing to the time period for the books. In short, are they set in the past? Or are they set in the present?

My findings? Of the 13 books I looked at (remember there are 14 total but I could not get one, which means 13 for this look at time period):

When I looked at the set published by large publishers, I found:

  • Books set in the present: 1
  • Books set in the past: 5

When I looked at the set published by small publishers, I found:

  • Books set in the present: 4
  • Books set in the past: 2
  • Books set in the future 1

Another win, in other words for small publishers, for giving us books that portray American Indians as people of the present day.

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1 comment:

  1. UnknownMonday, April 21, 2014 at 6:05:00 PM CDT

    Thank you for doing research and writing your analysis on publishing companies and Native books. Last summer I wrote a Native children's book for my Bachelors program. The area that I was lacking in my research was in publishing. I noted so many non-native writers and illustrators creating "Native children's books" being published by token publishing companies who's focus was on these particular types of books. My goal in the work I did last summer was to produce a Native written and illustrated Native children’s book, with a present time period. The hardest part was tracking down a Native publishing company. I didn’t find much and debated doing self-publishing. I’m stuck in this publishing waiting tank, as my book is nearing its completion of design….

    ReplyDelete


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