472
The Reading Teacher, 62(6), pp. 472–481 © 2009 International Reading Association
DOI:10.1598/RT.62.6.2 ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online
The Importance of Visibility:
Students’ and Teachers’
Criteria for Selecting
African American Literature
Erika Swarts Gray
C
an you imagine going through elementary
school without ever finding a book that in-
cludes characters that look like you or remind
you of your family? As a child, I loved to read Beverly
Cleary’s Ramona series because I could relate to her
relationship with her family. I vividly remember feel-
ing a sense of relief that I was not alone: Thinking
my brother was a pest was OK. Unfortunately, after
several years of teaching, I realized I was denying the
majority of my students the same opportunity of relat-
ing to literature. As a fifth-grade teacher of primarily
African American students, I was not sharing litera-
ture that reflected them and their families. African
American literature was not celebrated or even avail-
able in my classroom.
Throughout this study, I will refer to African
American literature as literature that is written
by African American writers or includes African
American characters that are culturally specific.
Bishop (1992) has defined culturally specific litera-
ture as literature that includes main characters with
cultural details that are woven into the plot of the
story. Note that there are books that include African
American faces or names in the text; however these
aspects alone would not fit this definition. For ex-
ample, Bud, Not Buddy (Curtis, 1999) would fit this
definition because the main character, Bud, is African
American, and the entire book focuses on his jour-
ney to find his father. However, Holes (Sachar, 1998)
would not be considered African American literature
because the only African American character is not
essential to the plot.
Availability of African
American Literature
Fortunately, the literature Bishop (1992) advocat-
ed for is more available today. The Cooperative
Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-
Madison (www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/
pcstats.htm) documented the publishing rates of
African American children’s literature. In 1985, out
of the 2,500 books published, only 18 were eligible
for the Coretta Scott King award, which recognizes
outstanding African American children’s literature
(www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/emiert/corettascottk-
ingbookaward/corettascott.cfm). In 2006, out of the
estimated 5,000 new books published, 153 included
significant African American content or characters
(Schiesman & Lindgrem, 2007). Although still dispro-
portionate to the population of school children in the
United States, this does represent an almost ten-fold
increase.
As a result of the increased availability, more
African American children’s literature was being dis-
played in mainstream bookstores. This increased ex-
posure, as well as an advanced children’s literature
course I took as a graduate student, made me realize
that my classroom library did not provide my African
American students with enough opportunities to see
Teachers know what types of books
African American students want to
read; the problem is finding the time
or resources to make these books
available in their classrooms.
The Importance of Visibility: Students’ and Teachers’ Criteria for Selecting African American Literature
473
themselves in literature. At the end of the semester,
after my fellow graduate students and I finished pre-
senting on children’s book authors, I realized that all
of the authors were Caucasian. This astounded me,
because many of my fellow classmates also taught
in schools with large African American populations.
How could we allow such an oversight? At that mo-
ment I knew I had to increase the availability of
African American literature in my classroom.
After this realization, I began to purchase books
for my classroom library. I incorporated approximate-
ly 100 African American titles. My initial selection
criteria were books that had been recognized with
either the Coretta Scott King award, Newbery Medal,
or Caldecott Medal. Another valuable resource was
Black Books Galore’s Guide to Great African-American
Children’s Books (Rand & Parker, 1998, 2001). This
series lists hundreds of African American titles. The
editions of this guide were helpful, but these guides
were not sufficient. Future selection decisions need-
ed to include my students.
Research on Selection Criteria
In a previous edition of this journal, Hefflin and
Barksdale-Ladd (2001) offered selection criteria for
teachers. They proposed specific criteria that could
be used to identify authentic African American lit-
erature. Hefflin and Barksdale-Ladd emphasized that
in the primary grades, students rarely “see” African
American characters in books. They further asserted
that because these students were not exposed to cul-
turally relevant characters, it was difficult for them
to affirm their own identity through literature. For in-
stance, Hefflin and Barksdale-Ladd (2001) interviewed
African American adults who did not find characters
they could relate to until the age of 15. These adults
said that they found it difficult to connect to the litera-
ture that was shared in school. One adult said, “My
learning experiences did not speak to me because
people who looked like me weren’t in the literature”
(p. 811). Third-grade students were also interviewed
about their impressions of selected books. An African
American student, Marissa, commented that in litera-
ture, African Americans are portrayed as uneducated
and ill mannered. “When you see (Black) people like
that, (White) people think that we’re stupid” (Hefflin
& Barksdale-Ladd, 2001, p. 811).
Similarly, others have used open, aesthetic re-
sponse as a means for uncovering selection criteria.
An aesthetic response has been defined as one that
emphasizes the reader’s personal involvement with
the text (Altieri, 1993; Saccardi, 1993). Therefore, re-
searchers have used students’ response to investigate
the rationales behind their text selection. Altieri (1993)
studied the relationship between fifth and seventh-
grade African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian
students’ responses to literature. She concluded that
the students’ responses were not significantly con-
nected to the students’ ethnicity. However, out of the
three groups, African American students were most
likely to connect to the characters. Because students’
aesthetic responses revealed personal connections
to the book, Altieri found that students’ journal en-
tries and comments about text allowed her to deter-
mine the reasons behind their selections. Instead of
using journal entries, Saccardi (1993) chose to col-
lect information on how students selected different
types of literature using a ballot. Students were asked
to evaluate books on a 4-point scale and explain
their rating. Saccardi found student responses could
be categorized into a few themes, including a book’s
interest level, a book’s ability to remind readers of an
event or person in their life, appreciation of figurative
or creative language, and connections to other books
students had read. Both Altieri (1993) and Saccardi
(1993) found that by studying students’ responses to
African American literature, rich information about
what students valued emerged.
Previous research has identified some selec-
tion criteria educators can use for selecting African
American literature to add to their classroom library
(Altieri, 1993; Bishop, 1992; Diller, 1999; Hefflin &
Barksdale-Ladd, 2001; Reutzel & Gali, 1998; Saccardi,
1993; Smith, 1995; Tyson, 1999). However, research
that explores the relationship between student crite-
ria and teacher criteria is sparse. Using a grounded
theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), this study
aimed to answer two questions: (1) What are the spe-
cific characteristics African American students use
to select African American literature? and (2) How
do students’ selection criteria for African American
literature relate to teachers’ selection criteria?
Data Collection Methods
Setting and Participants
Student participants attended an urban elementary
school in a southern state where I taught fifth grade.
474
The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 6 March 2009
own students had with the literature in my library;
therefore, my students needed to be involved in the
selection process. As their teacher, I responded and
discussed all of the literature they critiqued, but as
a researcher, I only collected, coded, and analyzed
their responses to African American literature.
Data Sources
Students were asked to respond to African American
children’s literature in several different ways. Students
wrote journal entries that were shared with other stu-
dents, evaluated African American literature using a
book ballot, and participated in book battles that gave
students an avenue for discussing selection criteria.
Discussion Journals. Student discussion journals
were used throughout the study to document student
responses to African American literature. These jour-
nal responses were prompted by an introduction to
a set of books, a whole-class read-aloud, or a gen-
eral question about children’s literature. An example
question would be, “If you were an author, what
would you do to make your book appealing to read-
ers?” After students wrote their response, they could
pass their journal to other classmates who could also
respond in writing. Students wrote in these journals
approximately every other week during the study
(see Table 1). These responses were used to triangu-
late the other data sources. Because the audience for
the journals was other students, not I, more authentic
responses were expected.
Book Ballots. Book ballots (Saccardi, 1993) are an-
other way to elicit students’ opinions about selecting
literature (see Figure 1). Students were asked to com-
plete a book ballot when they finished a book. The
book ballot included questions that asked students to
The school served approximately 540 kindergarten
through fifth-grade students. Approximately 72% of
the students received free or reduced-cost lunch.
The largest ethnic group represented in the school
was African American (61%) followed by Caucasian
(25%) and then Hispanic (14%).
Students. Two classes were selected because they
were students in my 55-minute writing blocks. This
was a sample of convenience because the writing
block allowed time to share and discuss African
American children’s literature. To engage students
in thoughtful response, I explained that one day a
week their role was of a young book critic for a local
newspaper. Literature, including a variety of charac-
ters from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds,
was critiqued. The 41 participants were approximate-
ly 70% African American, 20% Caucasian, and 10%
Hispanic. During the eight-month study, one class
period each week was dedicated to answering the
questions of this study.
Teachers. Of the 15 third- through fifth-grade teach-
ers asked to participate in the survey, 7 agreed to
participate. These 7 included teachers with 4 to 29
years of experience. Three of the 7 teachers were
Caucasian and 4 were African American. Five of the
teachers were female and 2 were male. These partici-
pants represented a good cross-section of the teach-
ers at this particular school.
Role of the Researcher
My role was of a teacher researcher. Although bal-
ancing these roles was difficult, creating the task of
involving my students as literary critics for a news-
paper seemed to blend these roles together. Further,
I wanted to increase the personal connections my
Table 1
Data Collection Methods
Student data Number collected Teacher data Number collected
Response journals 15 Survey 7
Book ballots 160 Classroom visits 7
Book battles 6
475
The Importance of Visibility: Students’ and Teachers’ Criteria for Selecting African American Literature
giving reasons for the selection. Following these rea-
sons, other students in the group were given time to
express their agreement or disagreement with the
selection. The book battle sessions were audiotaped
and then transcribed for later analysis.
Teacher Survey. A survey was administered to the
seven participating teachers toward the end of the
study. The survey included questions that asked
teachers to list the types of text they had available in
their classroom and rank the specific selection crite-
ria suggested by Hefflin and Barksdale-Ladd (2001).
Following the survey collection, I visited each of the
seven classrooms as a means of validating the infor-
mation from the collected surveys. During this visit, I
documented the books each classroom had displayed
and the books teachers had in their classroom librar-
ies. I then compared the books they listed on their
survey with the books inventoried during my visit.
rank books on a scale of 1 to 4. After students ranked
the book, they were asked to explain their rank-
ing. This information provided a way for identifying
the features students considered as they evaluated
books. Throughout the study, I collected approxi-
mately 160 ballots.
Book Battles. After students were introduced to
and read African American literature, groups of
students participated in six book battles. The book
battle groups were made up of five students and each
group was given six books to evaluate. Books may
have been new to the students or previously read, but
all of the books were randomly selected from those
available in the classroom and school library.
After a 10-minute review period, group mem-
bers were asked to select the book they considered
most intriguing. Then students were asked to orally
defend their personal choice to their group, each
Figure 1
Student Book Ballot
Book Ballot
Title of Book: ____________________________________________
First Name: ______________________________________________
1: The book was not very good 2: I liked the book a little
3: The book was good 4: The book was one of the best books I’ve read
Circle your rating for this book: 1 2 3 4
Please write a few details on why you gave the book this rating.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
476
The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 6 March 2009
Selection Criteria
Student Selection Criteria
In Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! (Tate, 1997),
the main character Mary Eloise feels that her current
and past teachers’ book selections were not balanced
throughout the year. “February is when almost every-
body in school and at church and on TV pulled out
stuff about Black History. Black, Black, Black, Black
everywhere! And then we don’t hear hardly anything
about it until next February” (p. 48). Hefflin and
Barksdale-Ladd (2001) raised a related point:
All too often books used in primary classrooms con-
tain too few African American characters, or they
include characters who are African American in ap-
pearance only. Many of these stories say little about
African American culture, or they present only the his-
tory of African Americans as slaves without including
any “nonslavery” or modern representations. (p. 810)
Students in this study agreed with Mary Eloise.
They wanted books that were connected to their lives
today. They wanted to read books related to their life,
their family, and their interests. As revealed in Table
2, the three most reported student selection criteria
were (1) the connection readers felt or thought they
would feel to the main character(s), (2) the genre of
Analytical Methods
These data sources were analyzed in the follow-
ing manner. First, any responses related to African
American literature were coded. Then as groups of
related codes or categories emerged, each was given
a label (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) and tallied. For ex-
ample, when analyzing the selection criteria students
used, all of the responses that gave the same reason
for selecting a book (e.g., book summary, book cov-
er, and characters) were listed. Next, a frequency
count was done for each time a selection criterion
was given. After a second review of these categories,
categories with similar responses were merged. For
instance, liking the main character and a response
including, “the character reminds me of my brother”
were placed in one category. After collapsing the cat-
egories, 12 categories were supported by the written
and recorded data sources (see Table 2).
To check for reliability, a member check was
completed (Patton, 1990). Also, after a draft of the re-
sults was written, student participants were asked to
join a focus group. Their participation in the research
was summarized, and an explanation of why it was
important for them to read over their contributions to
the study was discussed. The participants expressed
agreement and did not have any concerns about how
their responses were presented.
Table 2
Categories of Student Selection Criteria
Selection criteria Frequency Percent of response
Connection to the character 72 40
Genre (realistic fiction) 26 14
Book cover 19 11
Summary on the back of the book 11 6
Humorous events or characters 11 6
Theme/message 10 5
Concerns about Accelerated Reader 9 5
Title of the book 5 3
Figurative/creative language 5 3
African American history 5 3
Length of the book 4 2
Detailed description 3 2
477
The Importance of Visibility: Students’ and Teachers’ Criteria for Selecting African American Literature
upper elementary students did not enjoy fairy tales
or fantasies. The most popular books were centered
on everyday life experiences. Some of these books
could also be classified as historical fiction because
the realistic story was woven into a major historical
event. However, the fact that the book was also re-
alistic was essential to the selection of these books.
These books were read or selected by at least a quar-
ter of the participants.
As noted in Table 3, realistic fiction was popular
with students, even though there were more biogra-
phies available than any other genre. Realistic events
and characters were the main elements of realism
students looked for in selecting these books.
My final indicator that realism was a selection cri-
terion was during a dream sequence in The Watsons
Go to Birmingham—1963. This was the only part of
the book that was not realistic. In the story, Kenny
believes there is a spirit living in a lake. He believes
he almost drowned because a spirit grabbed hold of
him. I almost lost some of the students’ enthusiasm
for the book when the plot included this fantasy ele-
ment. Students were confused, as evidenced by their
facial expressions. Several students began to read
aloud to themselves (a sign of reaching frustration),
and one student put the book down and didn’t pick
it back up until it was time to discuss the reading.
These students preferred the realism the Watson fam-
ily had to offer.
Book Cover. Having a realistic cover was the third
key selection criterion used by students. The novel
Running Back to Ludie (Johnson, 2001) had a cover
that included lifelike pictures of characters. The
cover featured a mother and a daughter. During a
book battle, Tamara defended her book choice by
referring to the photograph on the cover: “It [the
cover] reminds me of me and my mama when she
is talking to me about stuff I’m going to have when
I grow up.”
Later in the study, the same group was battling
the book Between Madison and Palmetto (Woodson,
2002). The girls in the group were intrigued by the
cover. One student called out, “Wow, it looks so real!
Ms. Gray, is that a real picture? This is the book I’d
choose.” Soon all of the girls in the group were cir-
cled around the book staring at the picture. This was
an example of the cover having a positive influence
on selection.
the book, and (3) the appeal of the book’s cover.
Each of these is described below in more detail.
Connecting to the Characters. Connecting to
the character was the most important criterion
used by students to select books. Based on jour-
nal entries and book ballots, two books seemed to
exemplify this criterion. These books were Gettin’
Through Thursday (Cooper, 1998) and The Watsons
Go to Birmingham—1963 (Curtis, 1996). In Gettin’
Through Thursday, many students related to the
main character’s feelings of unhappiness. In the
story, the mother was paid on Friday. Thursday
was the longest day of the week for the young male
character because that was the day most things
around the house ran out.
In a section of a discussion journal, Roderick
(all student names are pseudonyms) wrote about
a connection he shared with the main character in
Gettin’ Through Thursday. The excerpt below is from
Roderick’s discussion journal. A fellow classmate
wrote that she liked another book better than Gettin’
Through Thursday (Cooper, 1998). Roderick did not
agree. He found validation for his emotions through
his connection to the main character.
Roderick: I like Gettin’ Through Thursday better be-
cause they go through almost the same thing we go
through. That’s why I chose this story instead of the
other one. It’s a good book to me because they had
to pretend they were having a party because the Mom
didn’t have any money.
Roderick: You should have liked Gettin’ Through
Thursday better because I’ve been through some of
those things. Me and my family do and I know yours
do, tell me the truth, don’t they?
Students also read and listened to The Watsons
Go to Birmingham—1963 (Curtis, 1996). When asked
which character they most resembled, all of the
African American participants were able to list a char-
acter. However, only 1 of 8 Caucasian students and 1
of 4 Hispanic students connected with a character.
Likewise, African American students compared their
families to the Watsons more often than Caucasian or
Hispanic students.
Genre: Realistic Fiction. The second major crite-
rion was the genre. Students preferred realistic fic-
tion, which unlike other types of fiction, includes
plots that could happen only in the real world. These
findings correlate with Tyson’s (1999) findings that
478
The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 6 March 2009
the Sky God’s Stories (Skivington, 1991), an African
folk tale. She used this book as part of a unit on
family. Other answers included curriculum-related
themes, but most often, a note was written to the
side by the teacher that indicated the book was part
of her Black History Month unit. Because of the his-
torical emphasis of February, the teachers seemed
to choose more biographies to prepare students to
do biographical projects or presentations on famous
African Americans. Even an African American teach-
er had a box of books in a covered container labeled
February. Inside were several examples of quality
African American literature that were shared only
during the month and then packed away.
After making an inventory of each of the teach-
ers’ classrooms to identify the availability of African
American children’s literature, only 10% of these
books would fit this study’s definition of African
American literature. In addition, analysis of the
teacher surveys showed that African American teach-
ers were no more likely to have African American
children’s literature in their libraries or as part of
their read-aloud collection than Caucasian teach-
ers. Therefore, the ethnicity of the teacher was not a
factor.
Relating Student and Teacher
Selection Criteria
Realism was the common thread that tied the stu-
dents’ selection criteria together. Students wanted
characters they could connect to, realistic plots, and
realistic illustrations on covers. As noted in Table 4,
from the five criteria listed, teachers chose memo-
rable characters as the most important selection
criterion. Following memorable characters, the char-
acter’s ethnicity and realistic settings also influenced
teachers’ book selections. However, when asked to
list the books teachers read to their students during
the school year, only 9% of the books had African
American authors or main characters. Only one of
those listed was realistic fiction. So, although the
teachers and students valued the role of the character
in the selection process, the books these teachers of-
fered in their classrooms did not match the students’
desire for realistic plots or their desire for covers that
featured realistic photographs.
Further, when teachers listed the books avail-
able in their classroom, biographies, folk tales, and
nonfiction were listed most often. When asked about
the African American literature they shared, one
teacher wrote that she read How Anansi Obtained
Table 3
Most Selected Titles by Genre
Realistic fiction Biography Historical fiction
The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963
(Curtis, 1996)
NBA Superstar Shaquille O’Neal
(Buckley, 2001b)
Goin’ Someplace Special
(McKissack, 2001)
Bud, Not Buddy
(Curtis, 1999)
NBA All-Time Super Scorers
(Buckley, 2001a)
Freedom Crossing
(Clark, 1991)
Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon, Maybe
(Greene, 1974)
Duke Ellington
(Pinkney, 1998)
Gloria’s Way
(Cameron, 2001)
Hangin’ With Lil’ Bow Wow
(Johns, 2002)
Running Back to Ludie
(Johnson, 2001)
Hangin’ With Lil’ Romeo
(Walsh, 2002)
A Piece of Heaven
(Wyeth, 2001)
Koya DeLaney and the Good Girl Blues
(Greenfield, 1992)
Oh, Brother!
(Wilson, 1988)
479
The Importance of Visibility: Students’ and Teachers’ Criteria for Selecting African American Literature
African American children’s literature year around,
not just in February.
Many researchers (Flood & Lapp, 1994; Hoerr,
2007; Kooy, 2006) have written about the power of
teacher book clubs; perhaps having one dedicated
to new children’s literature may be worthwhile.
Furthermore, one might assume that teachers of oth-
er ethnicities would have fewer African American ti-
tles in their classrooms; however, based on this study,
the dearth of African American literature was not the
result of a mostly Caucasian teacher workforce. I was
astonished that the four African American teachers
had few books in their classrooms that would fit this
study’s definition of African American literature. As a
Caucasian teacher, this finding lessened some of the
guilt I felt for not providing my students with quality
African American literature.
Visibility of African American Authors
From student discussions and writings before, dur-
ing, and after reading Bud, Not Buddy (Curtis, 1999)
and The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 (Curtis,
1995), it was clear that students enjoyed fiction that
included characters with whom they could connect.
Students can connect indirectly to Rosa Parks, Harriet
Tubman, and George Washington Carver, but not in
the same way they can connect to Byron, Kenny,
or Bud. However, most fiction featuring African
Americans was written after 1990. Before then, most
books were either nonfiction or biographies. Who
So, What Can We Do?
The purpose of this study was to uncover the cri-
teria used by fifth-grade students to select African
American children’s literature and to determine if
students’ and teachers’ selection criteria were similar
at this urban elementary school. Fifth-grade students
do notice the ethnicity of the characters in books,
and it does play a role in their selection, particularly
for realistic fiction. Although it took time for students
to articulate their selection criteria, once they did it
became clear that students looked for books that in-
cluded realistic characters and events. Students also
wanted the book’s cover to include realistic pictures
or drawings. Finally, teachers’ reported selection cri-
teria were similar to the students’ selection criteria.
Unfortunately, these selection criteria did not match
the books made available in their classrooms.
Why Is There Incongruity in Teachers’
Use of Realistic Literature?
As the teacher surveys indicated, the criteria teachers
deemed important (namely memorable characters
and realistic settings) were not supported by the se-
lections they made available to their students. For in-
stance, only one of the African American selections
listed on the teacher survey was realistic fiction.
What accounts for the gap between teachers’ re-
ported criteria and what they make available in their
classrooms? The problem is not solely availability.
The literature is available, as indicated in several edi-
tions of Black Books Galore! Great African-American
Children’s Books (Rand & Parker, 1998, 2001). Each
edition contains more than 400 African American
children’s books. However, teachers, as I can person-
ally attest, have difficulty setting aside time to read
recent children’s literature. Staff meetings, paper-
work, curriculum planning demands, and morning
and afternoon duties, as well as family obligations,
limit the time teachers have to keep up with the
growing number of titles that become available each
year. Teachers need time to read African American
children’s literature because recent publications are
more likely to include realistic fiction and characters
with whom students can relate. Having biographies
or nonfiction is important but not sufficient. Being
aware of more recent African American children’s
literature is necessary to facilitate the availability of
Table 4
Teachers’ Selection Criteria Rankings
Note. Teachers were asked to rank the criteria from 1 to 5. The most
important criterion was given a 5 and least important criterion was
ranked a 1. These criteria were based on Hefflin, B.R. & Barksdale-Ladd,
M.A. (2001) African American children’s literature that helps students
find themselves: Selection guidelines for grades K–3. The Reading
Teacher, 54(8), 810–816.
Selection criteria Average rank
Memorable characters 4.3
Character’s ethnicity 3.5
Realistic settings 2.5
Truthful themes 2.5
Language that reflects the
mood of the book
2.2
480
The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 6 March 2009
through third grade. Therefore, these same crite-
ria may also be applicable to young adult African
American literature. Further study on any selection
differences based on age would be valuable.
Because the teachers in this study also valued
characters and realistic settings, it seems awareness
and the time and money to purchase books are nec-
essary. As educators, we must ask our students about
their selection criteria, give them our catalogs or book
club orders to obtain their opinions before we order,
and allow them to select books for the classroom
libraries. Most importantly, we need to find time to
read new children’s literature. Our African American
students know what they want; it is up to us as educa-
tors to provide it throughout the entire school year,
not just in February.
References
Altieri, J.L. (1993). African-American stories and literary respons-
es: Does a child’s ethnicity affect the focus of a response?
Reading Horizons, 33(3), 236–244.
Bishop, S. (1992). Multicultural literature for children: Making
informed choices. In V. Harris (Ed.), Teaching multicultural lit-
erature in grades K–8 (pp. 38–53). Norwood, MA: Christopher-
Gordon.
Diller, D. (1999). Opening the dialogue: Using culture as a tool
in teaching young African American children. The Reading
Teacher, 52(8), 820–828.
Flood, J., & Lapp, D. (1994). Teacher book clubs: Establishing lit-
erature discussion groups for teachers. The Reading Teacher,
47(7), 574–577.
Hefflin, B.R., & Barksdale-Ladd, M.A. (2001). African American
children’s literature that helps students find themselves:
Selection guidelines for grades K–3. The Reading Teacher,
54(8), 810–819.
Hoerr, T.R. (2007). How I spend my summer vacation. Educational
Leadership, 64(8), 85–86.
Kooy, M. (2006). The telling stories of novice teachers: Constructing
teacher knowledge in book clubs. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 22(6), 661–674. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2006.03.010
Patton, M. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods
(2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Rand, D., & Parker, T.T. (1998). Black books galore: Guide to more
great African American children’s literature. New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
Rand, D., & Parker, T.T. (2001). Black books galore: Guide to more
great African American children’s literature. New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
Reutzel, D., & Gali, K. (1998). The art of children’s book selec-
tion: A labyrinth unexplored. Reading Psychology, 19(1), 3–50.
doi:10.1080/0270271980190101
Saccardi, M. (1993). Children speak: Our students’ reactions to
books can tell us what to teach. The Reading Teacher, 47(4),
318–324.
Schiesman, M., & Lindgrem, M.V. (2007). Publishing in 2006.
CCBC Choices, 2007, 12–18.
is responsible for providing realistic fiction to stu-
dents and teachers? Students in this study wrote in
their journals that the reason there is not enough
African American literature is because there are
few African American writers. This sentiment was
emphasized in “Writers Like Me” (Southgate, 2007),
an essay that appeared in The New York Times Book
Review in which Martha Southgate highlighted some
of the roadblocks she faced as an African American
author. It is important for authors like Southgate to
become more visible to our students. The following
journal entry by Antawan, an African American stu-
dent, is evidence that teachers need to make African
American literature, especially literature written by
African American authors, more prominent in their
classroom libraries.
Black people want to get into basketball or football not
no writing books. If they want to write books they can
but they don’t. I’m thinking about being a basketball
or football player too. I guess it’s just in our blood or
something. White people probably want to be a writer.
I guess that’s in their blood too. That’s why there are
not many black people today writing.
In summary, after a year of actively searching for
books with pivotal African American characters, I
conclude that realistic African American literature is
available but must be actively sought. Students like
Antawan need exposure to these books and must
become familiar with African American authors. At
10 years old, Antawan had already formed an image,
based on books and television, that writing is not in
his blood.
Further, as indicated by students’ preference for
covers that include realistic pictures, students’ class-
rooms must also include books that are able to visu-
ally compete with their other media interests, such as
video games and television. Today, our students are
accustomed to graphics that visually stimulate their
interest. Therefore, the books in our classrooms must
engage students in a similar manner.
Thankfully, there has been an increase in the
number of books available, even from popular fig-
ures such as Will and Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiki and
Ronde Barber. These authors’ books meet the selec-
tion criteria asked for by the students in this study
because their books include characters that students
can connect to, realistic plot elements, and visually
engaging covers. Similar criteria were suggested by
Hefflin and Barksdale-Ladd (2001) for kindergarten
481
The Importance of Visibility: Students’ and Teachers’ Criteria for Selecting African American Literature
McKissack, P. (2001). Goin’ someplace special. New York:
Atheneum.
Pinkney, A.D. (1998). Duke Ellington. New York: Hyperion Books
for Children.
Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Skivington, J. (1991). How Anansi obtained the sky god’s stories.
New York: Children’s Press.
Tate, E. (1997). Thank you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! New York:
F. Watts.
Walsh, K. (2002). Hangin’ with Lil’ Romeo. New York: Scholastic.
Wilson, J.M. (1988). Oh, brother. New York: Scholastic.
Woodson, J. (2002). Between Madison and Palmetto. New York:
Putnam.
Wyeth, S. (2001). A piece of heaven. New York: Knopf.
Gray teaches at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro, USA; e-mail esgray2@uncg.edu.
Smith, E.A. (1995). Anchored in our literature: Students respond-
ing to African American literature. Language Arts, 72(8),
571–574.
Southgate, M. (2007). Writers like me. The New York Times Book
Review, 156, 23–24.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, C. (1990). Basics of qualitative research:
Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park,
CA: Sage.
Tyson, C.A. (1999). “Shut my mouth wide open”: Realistic fiction
and social action. Theory Into Practice, 38(3), 155–159.
Literature Cited
Buckley, J. (2001a). NBA all-time super scorers. New York:
Scholastic.
Buckley, J. (2001b). NBA superstar Shaquille O’ Neal. New York:
Scholastic.
Cameron, A. (2001). Gloria’s way. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux.
Clark, M. (1991). Freedom crossing. New York: Scholastic.
Cooper, M. (1998). Gettin’ through Thursday. New York: Lee &
Low.
Curtis, C.P. (1995). The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963. New
York: Delacorte.
Curtis, C.P. (1999). Bud, not Buddy. New York: Delacorte.
Greene, B. (1974). Philip Hall likes me. I reckon maybe. New York:
Dial.
Greenfield, E. (1992). Koya DeLaney and the good girl blues. New
York: Scholastic.
Johns, M. (2002). Hangin’ with Lil’ Bow Wow. New York:
Scholastic.
Johnson, A. (2001). Running back to Ludie. New York: Orchard.
For related lesson plans, visit ReadWriteThink.org
and click Lessons to find
4 Making Personal and Cultural Connections
Using A Girl Named Disaster
4 Press Conference for Bud, Not Buddy
4 Guided Comprehension: Self-Questioning
Using Question–Answer Relationships
