This past Friday, the ceremony for the sixth annual Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children's Literature was preceded by the We Need Diverse Books/Library of Congress symposium "Listening, Learning, Creating Communities," moderated by Coretta Scott King/Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award-winning librarian and educator Deborah D. Taylor. She opened by asking Kacen Callender (King and the Dragonflies, Scholastic) how listening differs from hearing. The difference, they said, is that hearing happens "with your heart." When asked how we could keep old toxic attitudes out of new communities, Callender replied, "I think it's impossible... it's important to acknowledge that [those toxic attitudes] are already there.... It's a part of our foundation." But "we have to figure out how to be aware... and believe in a future where we can dismantle it completely."
|
|
| Clockwise: Deborah D. Taylor, Robin Ha, Traci Chee, Kacen Callender, Daniel Nayeri | |
Along with Callender, the panel included the other 2021 Honor recipients: Traci Chee (We Are Not Free, HMH Books for Young Readers), Robin Ha (Almost American Girl, Balzer + Bray), and Daniel Nayeri (Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story), Levine Querido). Nayeri agreed with Callender that belief helps create the kinds of communities of which we want to be a part. He went on to note that "storytelling is literally the language we use to define ourselves." Taylor pointed out to Chee, a fourth-generation Japanese American, that "it's part of being in America that we erase things people don't want to think about," specifically focusing on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Redress and reparations "from the U.S. government were instrumental... in allowing us to even begin healing," Chee responded, noting that advocates have made it so that the internment of Japanese Americans is something that has not been erased. She added, "We have to talk about this. We cannot let these things happen to others. Seeing some of these things happening again now... refuels that fire." Ha, who said that she lived half her life in South Korea before moving to the U.S., added to Chee's point: "Living through a pandemic in America has really opened my eyes--there's a lot more work to do in this country."
A short intermission included a question from Taylor for National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Jason Reynolds: "What would a beloved literary community look like?" Reynolds replied that young people would have access to a wide variety of options and that they would be able to explore and discover on their own. Adults, in his opinion, would be there simply to act as guides.
Author Meg Medina, a member of the WNDB advisory board, introduced the Walter Awards ceremony and the emcee, author Laurie Halse Anderson. A mentee of Myers, Anderson said he taught her that "our first responsibility is to our readers. Every day. All the time." A brief video biography of Walter Dean Myers and the award that bears his name followed Anderson's introduction.
|
|||
|
|||
The winner of the Walter Award for Younger Readers was When Stars Are Scattered (Dial Books) by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, color by Iman Geddy. "I always wanted to be a voice for the voiceless," Mohamed said, thanking the committee for the honor. The winner of the Walter Award in the Teen Category was Punching the Air (Balzer + Bray) by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam, illustrated by Omar T. Pasha. Zoboi and Salaam met as students at Hunter College, and Zoboi said the reason she wanted to write this book with Salaam was not because of the role he has played in our society, but because of the role he has played in anti-racist work. "Our ancestors' work continues to live on through our work," Zoboi said, and she expressed how happy she is to receive an honor named after an ancestor. "One of the things that became so powerful in this process is that we became our ancestors," Salaam responded. "I'm so honored to be on this journey.... This is full circle of us being able to realize that this was not for nothing." The book, he said, is a "love offering."
The Walter Awards, which celebrate the legacy of prolific children's author Walter Dean Myers, "recognize diverse authors whose works feature diverse main characters and address diversity in a meaningful way." The prerecorded event was livestreamed and is available on the Library of Congress's website, Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as the WNDB YouTube page. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness