American
People
TC \l1 "American People
Controversy surrounds
Margot Zemach’s 1982 book, Jake and Honeybunch Go to Heaven, a traditional
tale with a “green Pastures” depiction of heaven and African American characters.The
New York Times Book Review found literary merit in the story.Public
school library selection committees in Chicago, San Francisco, and Milwaukee,
however, rejected the book as lacking literary merit and/or as containing
racial stereotyping.The March 1983
issue of American Libraries
focused on this controversy, presenting both positive and negative points
of view.
After reading the book,
students of children’s literature may decide which of the following viewpoints
reflect their own beliefs and opinions:
1.
“The book is offensive and degrading, wholly inappropriate for children
whether they be black or white” (p.130)
2.“
I regret that a discussion between a library and a publisher on the merits
of a book has become a library selection issue debated in the public press”
(p.131)
3.
“The prejudice in this book is against portraying blacks in children’s
books in any but the most positive way; it is appropriate, too, to portray
blacks in a realistic way using valid sources” (p.131).
4.
“Do some librarians seriously assert they will not purchase such material
for children at least because that time in history is viewed repellent?
If so, isn’t that like saying we have no past? (P.131)
5.
“The shallow treatment of the story, the illustrations, the demeaning style
of the writing brought a terrible sense of deja vu” (p.131)
6.
“Any library or any children’s department of a library has the right to
select or reject materials based on that library’s selection policy.The
operative question here is one raised in a news program on the Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS): What do you think of the notion that the publisher is charging
censorship in order to sell books over librarians’ protests?” (P.132).
Denise Wilms identified
secondary controversies surrounding this book: “While the book’s art and
story are sound, it’s depiction of a certain segment of black culture will
stir controversy....In addition, its lighthearted view of heaven may be
an affront to some groups who see heaven in a more somber light” (p.619).
Beryle, Banfield and Geraldine
L. Wilson identified and criticized symbolic misrepresentations and distortions
in Jake and Honeybunch Go to Heaven.Banfield
and Wilson state:
Significantly the book
misrepresents the unique, culturally distinctive view of spiritual life
held by people of African descent...Zemach has not used one culturally
authentic clue about heaven as understood by generations of black people.
(pp.197-198)
Banfield
and Wilson conclude their article with a comparison of the cultural symbols
as represented in Jake and Honeybunch Go to Heaven with the African
American perspective of those same symbols.