Cultural Authenticity in Marketing: Terry Farish
The conversation about cultural authenticity in children’s literature and #OwnVoices, painful as it may be, is essential for all writers. The book industry owes readers the honesty of voice and culture and the industry certainly owes creators of color a much, much larger share of the bookshelves. Cultural authenticity has always been deeply ingrained in Curious City’s marketing mission. If books are vehicles for engaging with a culture unlike your own (and books are prefect vehicles of such), the tools Curious City produces to facilitate that engagement should be vetted by that...
Read MoreHarry Potter Welcomes Unaccompanied Minors
Reading Harry Potter increases tolerance? A new study conducted in Italy and England and published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology showed that young people that read J.K. Rowling’s series and discussed sections of the book that deal with prejudice showed improved attitudes towards immigrants, GBLTQ citizens, and other minority groups. More here. Imagine that. Those who identified with Harry standing up for mudbloods and house elves and thwarting the malevolence of the Malfoys are better citizens. Speaking of citizens and the need to be better, there are certain American citizens...
Read MoreThe Good Braider Launched
When author Terry Farish was working at the Portland Public Library, she befriended a young man from the Sudan who told her “there is no word” when asked about his favorite family meal. “My mother will cook it for you,” he said. Terry Farish joined his family for a meal and from that day, began a journey of listening. Her new friends in Portland’s Sudanese community told of their tumultuous path from South Sudan to Portland, Maine. The cultural exploration that started as “there is no word” became a braiding of stories, experiences, and words...
Read MoreStudents Send New Year’s Greeting to Cambodian American Neighbors
This weekend, Cambodians Americans in Maine and Cambodians around the world, celebrate the New Year. In celebration of that holiday, third and forth graders from Canal School in Westbrook, Maine joined Peaks Island, Maine author/illustrator Anne Sibley O’Brien to listen to a reading from O’Brien’s book about Cambodians Americans, A Path of Stars. Together they created greeting cards with “Happy New Year” written in Khmer, the language of Cambodia, and hand-drawn lotus blossoms for the Buddhist temple in Buxton, Maine. Canal School librarian, Susan Brown invited Anne Sibley...
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