>Jokers to the left of me, jokers to the right

by Roger Sutton
Nov 19, 2010 | Filed in Articles & Opinion
>Leila pointed me to this case in Seattle of Brave New World being yanked from the curriculum for being insensitive re Native Americans. The Prez has already gotten in trouble (per usual) with Fox News for the inclusion in his new picture book of Sitting Bull (http://nation.foxnews.com/media/2010/11/15/obama-praises-indian-chief-who-killed-us-general); I'm wondering if that same spread is going to get him in trouble from progressives as well, as illustrator Loren Long chose to depict Sitting Bull as a sort of landscape, with buffalo for eyes, hills and cracked earth for nose and mouth, and some pine trees placed so they form eyebrows (and, dare I say, boogers). It's the old one-with-nature stereotype, which wouldn't be so bad had all of the other subjects of the book not been depicted realistically. If you're there, Debbie Reese, what do you think?
Roger Sutton
Roger Sutton

Editor Emeritus Roger Sutton was editor in chief of The Horn Book, Inc., from 1996-2021. He was previously editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books and a children's and young adult librarian. He received his MA in library science from the University of Chicago in 1982 and a BA from Pitzer College in 1978.

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Anonymous

>Sitting Bull didn't actually fight in the Battle of Little Bighorn. If that battle had a military leader, it was Crazy Horse.

Posted : Nov 22, 2010 03:33

Debbie Reese

>Roger... my initial thoughts are up now:

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2010/11/loren-longs-illustration-of-sitting.html

Posted : Nov 20, 2010 04:35

Debbie Reese

>Hi Roger,

My husband and I spent today in NYC at the Urban Academy. Outstanding place! Our daughter is headed your way for the Yale Harvard game tomorrow.

We were on the road when the story broke about Obama's book. I haven't seen it yet so can't say...

Re BRAVE NEW WORLD, it is on my too-long list of books to read. Years back, I learned (via an Amazon search) that one of the tribes in it is mine! But I haven't read it (yet).

Posted : Nov 20, 2010 01:02

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