Tending to the Past

Looking at “freedom narratives,” this week’s review considers Black-authored children’s books and films about enslavement that also portray Black creativity and autonomy.

Posted on June 17, 2024 in Reviews of the Month

Tending to the Past: Selfhood and Culture in Children’s Narratives about Slavery and Freedom

Chandler, Karen Michele. University Press of Mississippi, 2024
252p bibl index, 9781496845931 $99.00, 9781496845948 $30.00, 9781496845955

In this innovative content analysis of historical novels and films for Black children, Chandler (Univ. of Louisville) asks and answers a specific question: How have Black writers since 1980 constructed a history of personal and social survival under conditions of slavery and in the post-emancipation period? Setting aside a tradition of reaching children through novels about heroic fugitives and autobiographies of enslaved persons, she seeks texts that present lives lived fully despite enslavement and the systemic racism and economic precarities that followed, texts she calls “freedom narratives.” She focuses on writers whose novels illuminate Black social and individual creative adaptations, agency, community support, and resistance. She gives special attention to the way freedom narratives convey Black agency and autonomy as well as Black cultural continuity, despite enslavement; the value of memory and folk tradition; the importance of literacy, language, and children’s play; and livelihood and financial agency. Her discussions of specific writers, novels, and films are perceptive and revealing. Her attention to the works of Julius Lester, Mildred Taylor, and Joyce Hansen is especially full. Every children’s librarian should acquire a copy of this book for their collections, as should all academic libraries.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through graduate students.
Reviewer: R. Berleant-Schiller, emerita, University of Connecticut
Interdisciplinary Subject: African and African American Studies, Racial Justice
Subject: Humanities – Language & Literature – English & American
Choice Issue: Aug 2024

Tending to the Past

Looking at “freedom narratives,” this week’s review considers Black-authored children’s books and films about enslavement that also portray Black creativity and autonomy.