![]() “Their story does not begin with whips and chains,” says the book. ![]() And I want to be clear that yes, there is slavery in The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, but like this year’s surprisingly good Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies, this book begins long before that slavery took place. It’s only been recently that the concept of #blackjoy, and handing kids books that star Black characters but aren’t all slavery or Civil Rights titles, has entered the mainstream vocabulary. ![]() ![]() Meanwhile the books kids were given to read with Black characters tended to rely on trauma and misery. But for too long, the Black American history taught in schools has hooked its beginnings on the existence of slavery. The same could be said about slavery in America. Should we put it in books? How often? How young should readers be to hear about it? How young is too young? There are strong opinions but no clear-cut answers. ![]() You hear this debate a lot as it pertains to the Holocaust. Kokila (an imprint of Penguin Random House)įor as long as authors of books for children have determined that they should be open and honest with their young readers, they have struggled with how much trauma is appropriate. ![]()
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