Dear Kate: An Open Letter to Kate DiCamillo (and Authors of Children's Books)

Update from Debbie on Monday, Oct 17, 2022: Kate DiCamillo responded to me, sharing my letter on her Facebook page. I deeply appreciate her response. Ones like it make me hopeful! Scroll to the bottom of my letter to read her response. 

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October 15, 2022

Kate DiCamillo

https://www.facebook.com/KateDiCamillo

Dear Kate,

You and I have never met. I'm tribally enrolled at Nambé Owingeh, a sovereign Native Nation in the southwest. In the early 1990s, I moved from Nambé's reservation to Illinois where I began working on a PhD in the College of Education at UIUC. My husband and our little girl went, too. Since then I've written book chapters and articles about depictions of Native peoples in children's books. In 2018, the American Library Association announced that I had been selected to deliver the 2019 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture. I'm pretty sure you know about the Arbuthnot. 

In 2005, I launched American Indians in Children's Literature, and I use it to do in-depth analyses of children's books. Sometimes--like now--I use it to speak directly to a specific author. 

I read Because of Winn Dixie at some point and had positive feelings about it. More recently I realized that it featured Gone With the Wind. And so, on June 17, 2016, I added it to my page, Books that Reference Racist Classics. And then in 2021 I learned that you had removed Gone With the Wind from your book. That was a good decision. I assume you had engaged in conversations with people who asked you to reconsider using it. 

Earlier this week (October 12, 2022) on your Facebook page, you wrote about being with friends and talking about books you and they loved when you were kids. 

You listed books people mentioned, including Island of the Blue Dolphins. As your conversation continued, you talked about how you had learned about those books. Many talked about how it read aloud to them in class. They remembered the teacher who read the book, too, and you wished those teachers could have heard you talking about those memories. 

You noted that reading aloud is a gift. On that, I concur. I have many warm memories of reading aloud to our daughter on our travels from New Mexico to Illinois. 

You closed your Facebook post with

[T]hank you, Mrs. Boyette, for reading Island of the Blue Dolphins to our second grade class.

For you, and the thousands of people who embraced and shared your post, Mrs. Boyette's reading aloud to you is a positive memory but for Native kids--especially ones who are Aleut, memories are not positive. Here is a thread by Dr. Eve Tuck, recounting her experience (I have her permission to share it). She did the thread in response to my critique of the book.

I appreciate the thorough analysis that @debreese has done here. As an Aleut person, I can say that the inaccuracies depiction of Aleut people in this book meant that non-Indigenous people said a lot of painful and ignorant things to me, especially as a kid.

I was a kid growing up in a white rural town in Pennsylvania, and usually ours was the only Native family in the community. I attended a school that had multiple copies of this book in classrooms, the library. I remember there even being a door display of this book.

So I grew up in a white community that only knew of Aleuts (Unangan) from this book.

I was taunted for it. I was asked by children and teachers to explain why Aleuts were “so mean.” And no matter what I said about my family, especially my grandmother, it wasn’t believed.

The book was believed over my real-life knowledge of Aleut people.

Fictionalizing an Indigenous community to make them the violent device of your plot line is a totally settler thing to do. O’Dell had no business writing a word “about” our people.

The book says nothing about us. Like Gerald Vizenor’s analysis of the figure of the ‘indian,’ it says more about the violent preoccupations of the settler, and says nothing about Unangan.

The last thing that I will say is that when I think about colonial violence that Aleut people were *actually* experiencing in their/our homelands in the time period that the book was set, it makes me doubly angry about the falsehoods depicted in this book.

But that would never be a best seller.

I'm writing this letter to you today, Kate DiCamillo, to ask you to extend the action you took regarding Gone With the Wind. Teachers are still using Island of the Blue Dolphins. Native children are negatively impacted, and everyone is being mis-educated by the contents of that book. 

Would you please revise your post, asking teachers not to read Island of the Blue Dolphins aloud, and tell them why they should not? Being able to tell them why they should make a different choice will mean that you need to read my critique. Revising your public remarks about the book is important. You would take a leadership role in doing so. You could speak about this at conferences. You and other writers with large followings could be a force for change! 

I'll close with a note to my readers: if you know DiCamillo, please give her a link to this letter. Consider writing to her, yourself. If you would like to comment to me, please do. I welcome thoughts from those who revisit their warm embrace of books. Please refrain from submitting comments that tell me I'm wrong. 

Sincerely,

Debbie Reese

Founder, American Indians in Children's Literature

Twitter: @debreese

 

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At 9:48 AM on October 17, DiCamillo responded to my letter. She wrote the following on her FB page:

When I talk to kids about writing, I tell them that one of the most important tools a writer can cultivate is their ability to listen to other people—to be curious about what other people think, and why.

Last week on this page, I wrote about the powerful experience of having a teacher read a book aloud to a class.  

I thanked my second-grade teacher for reading us Island of the Blue Dolphins.  

After that post, Dr. Debbie Reese, founder of American Indians in Children’s Literature, wrote to tell me about how and why Island of the Blue Dolphins has caused pain.  

I read her letter and her article on Island of the Blue Dolphins and what I thought was: EVERYONE needs to read this, so I’m posting her letter here.

https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com...  

Thank you, Dr. Reese. 

I wish Mrs. Boyette had had the chance to read this letter, to know these things. 

And I am grateful to her for reading aloud to second-grade me.

GONE WITH THE WIND is no longer in DiCamillo's BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE

On this early morning, I'm reading a post on social media that Kate DiCamillo replaced references to Gone with the Wind in Because of Winn-Dixie. 

Looking around a bit, I found an Opinion by Celia Storey on November 30, 2020 in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette newspaper. Titled Read to Me: Scarlett O'Hara evicted for the 20th anniversary edition of 'Winn-Dixie' It quotes DiCamillo's afterword, where she says "I found it painful to see Opal and Gloria Dump sitting together, side by side, reading from a book that I cannot in good conscience recommend to my readers." 

The book came out in 2000, was named as a Newberry Honor Book, and was made into a movie in 2005. Cicely Tyson played the part of Gloria. I don't know if the movie includes Gone with the Wind, and while I'm glad DiCamillo asked for these changes I am pretty sure that Black families were horrified when their children brought that book home. 

On June 17, 2016, I created a list of Books that Reference Racist Classics. There is a section on Gone with the Wind. It has DiCamillo's book on it. I'll add a note about the change, and add her book to another list I maintain, of book that have been revised. 

Opal is white. Gloria Dump is Black. Earlier in the book she is described as having "dark brown" skin. Kids call her a witch but Opal comes to know and care for her. Gloria's eyes are bad. The two spend a lot of time together. In the back yard, Gloria has a tree from which she's hung empty whiskey and beer bottles. She calls them ghosts of things she's done in the past. She used to drink. In chapter 15, Opal is at the library. She wonders if the wind makes the bottles knock against each other, and she wonders if they remind Gloria of things she's done wrong. She thinks she wants to comfort her, by reading a book to her. She asks Franny, the librarian to recommend one:

"Miss Franny, I've got a grown-up friend whose eyes are going on her, and I would like to read her a book out loud. Do you have any suggestions?" 

"Suggestions? Miss Franny said. "Yes ma'am, I have suggestions. Of course, I have suggestions. How about Gone with the Wind? 

"What's that about?" I asked her. 

"Why," said Miss Franny, "it's a wonderful story about the Civil War." 

"The Civil War?" I said. 

"Do not tell me you have never heard of the Civil War?" Miss Fanny Block looked like she was going to faint. She waved her hands in front of her face. 

"I know about the Civil War," I told her. "That was the war between the South and the North over slavery." 

"Slavery, yes," said Miss Franny. "It was also about states' rights and money. It was a terrible war. My great-grandfather fought in that war. He was just a boy." 

"Your great-grandfather?" 

"Yes ma'am, Littmus W. Block. Now there's a story."

Chapter 16 and 17 are about Littmus going to, being in, and returning from the war. The social media post about the new edition includes a photograph of the page where Miss Franny is recommending David Copperfield instead of Gone with the Wind:

"Who's he?" I asked her. 

"David Copperfield is the title of of the book, Opal." 

"Oh, well. what's it about?" 

"It's about a boy growing up. It's been a tradition in my family to read the book aloud. My great-grandfather, Littmus, read the book aloud to my grandfather every year. And when my father was an old man, I read it aloud to him." 

"It sure must be a good book," I said. 

"Why, that book mattered so much to Littmus that he even took a copy of it with him when he went off to fight in the Civil War. He was just a boy, you know. 

"Littmus was your great grand-father?" 

"Yes ma'am, Littmus W. Block. Now there's a story."

In chapter 18, Opal visits Gloria and starts reading aloud from Gone with the Wind. She read it "loud enough to keep her ghosts away." In chapter 20, Opal visits again and asks Gloria if she wants to hear some more Gone with the Wind. Gloria replies "Yes indeed" and that she has "been looking forward to it all day. Let's see what Miss Scarlett is up to now." 

So, Opal starts reading but her mind is elsewhere. She's thinking about Otis (another character), who told her that he had been put in jail when police had asked him to stop playing his guitar on the street (some people gave him money for doing it). When he wouldn't stop, the police tried to handcuff him, and he hit one of them. Now, he never plays his music on the street again. Opal stops reading and tells Gloria that they should have a party, like the big barbecue in Gone with the Wind, for Otis. The two plan the party. It will be at Gloria's and everyone is invited. Opal asks Otis to bring his guitar, to play at the party. 

In the anniversary edition, DiCamillo has a note that says a bit more than the Arkansas paper (above) included:

When I wrote this story more than twenty years ago, I gave Opal and Gloria Dump a classic novel of the South to share: Gone with the Wind. But when I reread Because of Winn-Dixie in preparation for this anniversary edition, I found it painful to see Opal and Gloria Dump sitting together, side by side, reading from a book that I cannot in good conscience recommend to my readers. I am grateful for this chance to give Opal and Gloria Dump a different book to share--a book that, while it is not perfect, does not diminish either one's humanity."

Ann Patchett wrote the introduction for the anniversary edition. She said:

This is a book about taking a chance on something that winds up saving your life, and it's also a book about growth and change. That's one of the things that makes this anniversary edition so special. The story you are now holding has changed since its original publication. When the book was first written twenty years ago, Opal went to the library looking for something to read aloud to her friend Gloria Dump, and Miss Franny Block gave her a copy of Gone with the Wind. Years later, Kate DiCamillo started to think more critically about Gone with the Wind  -- about its biases and prejudice -- and she regretted that she had not given Opal and Gloria Dump a different book to share. She thought, "It's time for things to change."

Towards the end, Patchett writes

"Because of Winn-Dixie has been read by millions and millions of people. They've cried and laughed and felt understood because of it. Some of them have felt rescued, while others have been reminded to reach out a hand to someone who could use it."

It is interesting to read and think about DiCamillo and Patchett's words about Gone with the Wind. Neither one says it is racist. That last paragraph from Patchett about millions who have read Because of Winn-Dixie exudes warmth but it also excludes children who were yanked right out of the story when they got to chapter 9 and learn about Gloria. That is where we learn about her, that her last name is Dump, and that the neighborhood kids call her a witch. People will argue that by the end of the book, readers love Gloria. They probably do, but the weight of coming to that point is on the shoulders of Black children. 

And what to do with Gone with the Wind? That (or the line about states rights) never got any pushback in the story. We simply have a white child reading it to an elderly Black woman who doesn't push back on it, either. 

Neither Patchett or DiCamillo refer to any of the pushback to Gone with the Wind. On June 14, 2020 The New York Times ran a story about Gone with the Wind being removed from HBO Max. It includes this photograph from 1940:

Many African-Americans, like these protesters outside a 

theater in 1940,  objected to the flawed history and racist 

stereotypes in “Gone With the Wind,” including its depiction 

of “happy” slaves. Afro American Newspapers/Gado, via Getty Images

CrediAfro American Newspapers/Gado, via Getty 

I include the photo and the article in the New York Times because it demonstrates the fact that--for decades, African Americans have been saying no to the book. Surely DiCamillo's changes are due, in part, to learning about their objections. 

Over on that social media post that I read early this morning, some teachers are glad of the change. But, some are objecting to the change. Taking it out, they said, is DiCamillo "caving" to cancel culture. Some object in ways that suggest it is their only chance to teach about the Civil War. Surely they're speaking out of anger rather than as educators. I spent some time looking for lesson plans where teachers raise concerns about Gone with the Wind in the book, but I'm not finding any. If you find some, do let me know! 

Whether or not David Copperfield is a good replacement is for a different time. I welcome your thoughts on the change itself!