Article Review

Smith-D'Arezzo, Wendy M. "Diversity in Children's Literature: Not Just a Black and White Issue." Children's Literature in Education 34 (2003): 75-94.

This article is devoted to teaching people how to review children’s books that focus on disabilities. When I searched for articles regarding Special Education and Children’s Literature, I did not find many scholarly pieces that evaluated both of these subjects. This article, however, was a great fit for my project. Wendy Smith-D’Arezzo is both a parent of two children with learning disabilities and ADHD as well as a former special educator. She went through the process of reviewing and evaluating diverse young adult literature. Smith-D’Arezzo explains that, “just because a story includes a character, or a number of characters, who are African-American does not mean that the book is quality literature or that the book represents a well-rounded, rather than stereotypical, character,” (76). She explains that there are four areas to focus on when choosing books about children with disabilities. These areas are, “The structural elements should be well developed if not outstanding. The book should be appealing to children, and the characters in the books should be well developed to show children with disabilities in a realistic light. The book should make a positive emotional chord in the teacher. [and] The book should present special education issues accurately,” (76-77). She includes a lengthy review of two books with LD children as their main characters. Smith-D’Arezzo believes that part of the important process for evaluating children’s literature is to get the opinion of some children, which she always does when evaluating young adult and children’s literature. The article ends with a list of fifteen books that met her criteria for quality young adult literature about disabilities. This article was a great tool for helping me to evaluate literature for my project and would be a great resource for teachers to use.