tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post4793268796740316694..comments2024-01-13T21:31:23.388-05:00Comments on Reading While White: Reviewing While White: Tinyville Town: I’m a Police OfficerReading While Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07807138877345669931noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-79270479304689053412022-10-14T06:10:15.202-04:002022-10-14T06:10:15.202-04:00What a load of absolute rubbish. You're obvio...What a load of absolute rubbish. You're obviously over-sensitive about the whole black people looking like monkeys thing. Stop trying to make everything a race issue, it's just a harmless kids book. Karl Hagenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14181628968257810447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-52304415815079296622019-05-29T00:08:33.527-04:002019-05-29T00:08:33.527-04:00Elisa, I just got this book in a box of new books ...Elisa, I just got this book in a box of new books delivered to me today, and started to write something about it because it is so disturbing --- not surprising. I think you are very kind in your review above, as are the other reviews of this book: "The book's pace, covering a day in the life of a police officer, lends itself well to a bedtime read. A worthy introduction to the concept of police officers."<br />(Kirkus)<br /><br />"Bigg’s crisp narration and peppy cartooning make this an upbeat intro to a job that, as the officer explains, requires that she “be ready for anything.”<br />(Publishers Weekly)<br /><br /><br />No. Just no. On pages before we find the monkey labeled THIEF and PERPETRATOR, the Curious George lookalike Man in the Yellow Hat Prison Guard aka zookeeper is putting up posters of the missing monkey. This is just total BS profiling setting up a Guessing Game as to who the CULPRIT is, setting the stage to call the monkey a thief and a perpetrator. Not only that, but as the prison guard leads the monkey away the happy enslaved monkey smiles and waves at the police officer. This book has got to go far, far away from any shelf that a child might find. Terrible. Amy Cheneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11052462656135019175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-29928056684617479592018-01-19T22:01:18.734-05:002018-01-19T22:01:18.734-05:00I feel you are putting an adult lens on this. A y...I feel you are putting an adult lens on this. A young child (which is the target audience) won't have the worldly experience an adult has. My pre-school students loved the monkey in this story. I think sometimes reviewers project their prejudices on a story that the target audience doesn't have.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-77999278706496210282018-01-13T16:22:43.952-05:002018-01-13T16:22:43.952-05:00You're 100% correct in your observation on thi...You're 100% correct in your observation on this book. There are probably a lot of people who would tell you that you're reading too much in the fact that a monkey was the villain. The fact of the matter is that in a perfect world, the bad guy could be a monkey and it would be fine. But this isn't a perfect world. This is a world where a president's wife was called an ape in heels. This is a world when a child was chased by police and had guns drawn on him because he was mistaken for an adult. This is a world where black people are shot sitting in their cars, selling CDs, and crossing the street. This is a world where a man walked into a black church and opened fire. In this world that we live in today, don't make the monkey the bad guy... even if the cop has brown skin. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16699353903307391158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9160636034192691079.post-88857448598754898182018-01-11T13:30:07.401-05:002018-01-11T13:30:07.401-05:00What a coincidence--that book landed on the Link+ ...What a coincidence--that book landed on the Link+ shelf for me today. <br /><br />Looking at the book and what you've written in terms of <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rytbtFbHtH6UYRLzUQDf3h4gJ6noSPIAxhHJsfo-QTw/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow">OPL's toolkit</a>, one point sends up an immediate red flag for me:<br />"Does this book contain racially coded images and language connected with implied guilt? For example, is suspicion cast on a black or brown character because of their appearance, or is their behavior described or characterized as suspicious?"<br /><br />I don't think it's a stretch at all to argue that monkeys are racially coded, for all the reasons you mention. The toolkit doesn't mention "racially coded images" as being problematic on their own, just when they are connected with implied guilt, but maybe it should, because I agree that this would be problematic even without the implied guilt. But this book hits one other common target in the toolkit when the monkey is referred to as "our perpetrator" and a "thief." Here's the language from the toolkit:<br /><br />"How does the author of this book refer to people being pursued by police? Many children's books refer to people being pursued with language implying guilt, such as "criminals" or "bad guys." However, US laws protecting due process render such terms inaccurate, as people being chased by police have not been proven guilty in a court of law. People being pursued or arrested are suspects."<br /><br />I avoided buying this one for OPL until we could look at a copy in person, and I'm glad I did. This one doesn't display the "Relevance to the experience and contributions of diverse populations" we include in our criteria for selection--see our <a href="http://oaklandlibrary.org/sites/default/files/uploads/collectiondevelopment%20%283%29.pdf" rel="nofollow">collection development policy</a>.<br /><br />Thanks for this review, Elisa.Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07038597916930281778noreply@blogger.com