Monday, November 12, 2018

NOT RECOMMENDED: DR. CARBLES IS LOSING HIS MARBLES by Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot

Published by HarperCollins in 2008, Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot's Dr. Carbles is Losing His Marbles! gets a Not Recommended label right away.



The first chapter, "Squanto and Pocahontas" starts out with this illustration:



The narrator for Dr. Carbles is Losing His Marbles is a kid named A.J. He hates school. That's him in the foreground of the illustration. He tells us that it is time to go home (end of the school day) but the school secretary announces that they all have to go to the all purpose room (p. 2-4):
So we were sitting there, bored out of our minds, when suddenly two American Indians came running down the aisle! They were wearing feathers and head-dresses. They jumped onto the stage, whooping and hollering. 
But they couldn’t fool us. We knew exactly who they were. 
“It’s Mrs. Roopy!” yelled my friend Michael, who never ties his shoes. Mrs. Roopy is our librarian.
“And Mr. Klutz!” yelled my friend Ryan, who will eat anything, even stuff that isn’t food. Mr. Klutz is our principal, and he has no hair. 
“Klutz?” said Mr. Klutz. “Never heard of him. I am Squanto, a Patuxet Indian who helped the Pilgrims survive their first years in America.” 
“And I am Pocahontas,” said Mrs. Roopy. “I helped the English colonists when they arrived in Virginia in 1607.” 
Mrs. Roopy always dresses up like somebody else. She never admits she’s the librarian. 
Mrs. Roopy is loopy. 
“Thanksgiving is coming up,” said Mr. Klutz. “To celebrate, we want to introduce you to a friend of ours.”
Their friend turns out to be a turkey... dressed like a pilgrim woman:


The principal says that if every class makes "a beautiful Thanksgiving display," he will marry the turkey. Everybody cheers, the turkey gets scared, and takes off. Kids freak out. Just then, the school board president, Dr. Carbles, walks in, learns what is going on and fires the principal. There's very little to do with thanksgiving as the story continues.

As noted above, Dr. Carbles is Losing His Marbles was published in 2007 by HarperCollins. The first e-book was published in 2008 and in 2015, Scholastic started publishing it, too.

There's so much wrong with the opening pages of this book. Both, Gutman (with his words) and Paillot (with his illustrations) are giving kids stereotypical, biased, and factually problematic information. They created that content and their editors approved it. Because it part of a series, it doesn't get reviewed closely by the review journals--and because it is a series, librarians purchase the books. Why, Gutman? Why, Paillot? And why, HarperColllins and Scholastic, are you publishing this?



6 comments:

Ava Jarvis said...

*stares at book content while soundlessly whispering, "WTF....?"*

Ok, uh, so (1) and highest priority of "WTF Is Wrong With HarperCollins" is very much the Native stereotyping. Oh gods this is bad. It's hard to believe how bad, yet there it is. I just... yeah, you covered it, but there's just... so much bad

And (2) and somewhat lower priority but still fucking high priority of "WTF Is Wrong With HarperCollins" is also the ableism. Oh gods that is also bad. Oh gods. Speaking as someone with mental health issues (bipolar, severe anxiety, complex PTSD), many thoughts are running through my head, like

- Oh gods just because someone is "loopy" does not mean they automatically engage in egregious acts of racism
- Oh gods this is not a good portrayal of people with mental health issues, even severe episodes that crack reality like a rotten egg
- Oh gods people with mental health issues have a ton more restraint than this, even though mainstream media likes to teach everyone that every person with PTSD is a ticking time bomb, etc
- Oh gods what the fuck high school would even let people who act like this run a school, regardless of whether they are "loopy" or not

Like the interaction of (1) and (2) are just an additional layer of horrific

And suddenly I realize why I had coworkers who called for my firing that my managers had to fight back against. My mental health issues were open knowledge at my company, as well as the facts that I did good work, got in every project on time and met every deadline for years, and handled high stress situations with aplomb and led them to a graceful solutions at 1am in the morning when my "able-minded" colleagues were running around like frightened chickens.

Stuff like this... it's like. It's like. It's like it rewrites reality for children so that when they become adults, all they see when they see Native folks is THIS, and all they see when they see mentally ill folks is THIS, and very little we say or do will convince them, in their hearts, otherwise.

I just...

gah

Anonymous said...

In response to Ana Jarvis: Have you read any of these books? The stories are told from the POV of a 2nd grader. He thinks the adults around him act in rather strange ways. I read the Mrs. Roopy is Loopy book to my classes every year because they get a kick out of how the librarian runs her classes. Not sure where you are getting all of this stuff about mental health issues. Maybe read one or two before you get on your soapbox. Being familiar with the series, none of what you say makes sense.

Ava Jarvis said...

Hi Anonymous,

I've seen people who are familiar with Star Wars or familiar with Harry Potter (sometimes very much so), yet missed the social justice angles of the both series. So I don't think being familiar with a series necessarily means that you didn't miss any issues, especially ones that are considered acceptable by society, and so "I am familiar with this series" alone isn't a strong case for validation.

The problem I have is that in society, it's considered acceptable to point at people with non-standard behavior and say things like, "That person is crazy." Once society labels someone as crazy, society devalues them as a person. Sometimes the word crazy isn't used directly, but it's evoked by "politer" terms, like loopy, or more oblique phrases like "lost their marbles."

People overlook this sort of thing pretty often, in their favorite and much re-read series, because they aren't familiar with certain types of ableism, and because much ableism is considered socially acceptable.

Does anyone ever explain to the narrator that it's not a great idea to think of people as being crazy? Or is this just a quaint quirk of the series? Because if this idea isn't debunked, if the series is built upon "that crazy librarian", it makes it more acceptable to students to apply such thinking to real life people.

All things being said: you are not a bad person for not seeing this issue. You just didn't learn how to see it, and it's not like society teaches you to see it (even if you are yourself affected by it). To me, the issue shows up as clearly as the Native stereotyping going on.

Debbie Reese said...

Anon at 4:05 PM on Nov 12:

I haven't seen the entire series, and I did not catch what Ava Jarvis pointed out.

Ableism is one area that I am learning about. I'm more aware of using words like "crazy" or "insane" or "nuts."

I looked up the book you mentioned (anon), which is "Mrs. Roopy is Loopy." It is #3 in the "Weird School" series. Here's what it says on the back cover:

"Something weird is going on! Mrs. Roopy, the new librarian, comes to school wearing a pot on her head! One day she thinks she's George Washington, and the next day she's Little Bo Peep! The worst thing is, she doesn't even know how crazy she is!"

Here's some other titles:

Miss Daisy Is Crazy!
Mr. Klutz Is Nuts!
Ms. Hannah Is Bananas!
Mr. Hynde Is Out of his Mind!
Mr. Docker Is Off His Rocker!
Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal!
Mrs. Cooney Is Loony!
Miss Lazar is Bizarre!

As I skim through the titles (there's a lot more than what I listed), I think the entire series is built on "weird." At one time I might have said it was clever rhyming and "all in good fun" but I don't do that anymore. I am grateful to Ava Jarvis and others who point out ableism.





Unknown said...

My 2nd grade daughter brought this book home from the school library this week and it was horrible. I'm not a "ban this book" type so I provided as much context as human the possible. It uses the I word. It has grown adult role models dressed as natives "whooping and hollering". And that is just the beginning of my problems with this book! The main character is a bully who hates all girls and refers to everyone he hates as "dumbhead" and "crybaby" etc. One of the girls he hates the most is a girl with curly brown hair who loves ponies and reading the encyclopedia. My daughter related to this character and it made her sad to see her bullied for being enjoying animals and learning. This book is the worst.
-Ashley C, Parent

challibu said...

The language in this book and all of Dan Gutman's books is ableist and unacceptable by today's standards. My children have noticed some sexism as well; however, they do enjoy the books by Dan Gutman and I often point out language that is not acceptable and why. Its unfortunate and new versions should come with a warning...ableist language is not acceptable and devalues people with disabilities.