"Multiculturalism" as a book genre

January 27, 28, 29th (School Library)

During this week I continued to fix the barcodes on the textbooks.  However the highlight of the week has been trying to assist students from a history teacher's class find books with a multicultural fiction slant for a reading assignment.  The initial challenge was in trying to assess what the students were looking for exactly.  The teacher sent in one student on Tuesday to ask if the library would be available to find multicultural books - from there I had to do some sleuthing.  For what class?  For what type of assignment?  Could the multicultural stories take place inside the United States or did they have to be geographically located elsewhere?  What was the reading level of the students - 7th or 8th grade?  Was there a page requirement (some teachers specify that the books have to be 200 or more pages)?  Did the book have to be a classic (e.g. "The Good Earth") or specifically by a multicultural author? 

What defines multicultural fiction?  Well I like Judith Mercado's answer, see http://judithmercadoauthor.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-does-multicultural-fiction-mean.html.  "Multicultural" I would agree is an American construct.  I've only found one DEMCO  subject classification sticker with a "multicultural" label.  It seems a bit racially defined, leaving out gray areas of general minority group (cultural, religious, social) experiences throughout the world. 



As more students from the class trickled in I began to see the bigger picture.  The teacher was organizing literature circles for students to explain their reading of fictional stories that took place in other countries - the fiction could be classic or modern.  They were asked to find the "purple dot" marked books in library.  It's important to note that the previous librarian identified "multicultural" fiction books in the collection with a purple dot label.   However the "multicultural" designation does not distinguish between stories that take place in the United States versus outside the country's borders.   Books identified as "multicultural" include those about Native American life in the U.S., the Japanese American experience, and so on.   The faculty and students are obviously still used to identifying certain types of fiction books by the dots - and I've learned that "multicultural" is a genre that is particularly important to the curriculum for this school.  In this case the DEMCO genre label sticker might work, so I've decided to invest a little personal money in getting more stickers.

This particular incident/multicultural book assignment a great opportunity to teach students how to locate books in the library.  I could tell that most students were initially reluctant to ask me for help.  So rather than repeat myself umpteen times with every new student that came in, I requested that the teacher send all the majority of students in at once so I could give them a brief lesson in how to find a book that was appropriate to the assignment.  I find that most teens/young adults still want you to locate material for them; however it's important to empower students with the knowledge to find the information for themselves first.   The quick assembly of a recommended or example multicultural book selection list seemed to help direct the kids in their quest for the perfect book.  The find of the day (my opinion) was "The Whale Rider" set in New Zealand!