Beyond the Secret Garden: Children’s Literature and Representations of Black and Racially minoritised People by Darren Chetty and Karen Sands O’Connor,

2025   

 

This is a curated collection of articles, essays and blog posts almost all produced by Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor. A Foreword is provided by Patrtice Lawrence. A bibliography at the end of the book takes up twelve pages. A detailed introduction tells us a little about how the book is meant to work and what its ethos is. This is followed by a useful discussion of the terms used: racially minoritised, Black, BAME, BME, People of Colour and Ethnicity.

The central premise of this book is that children who belong to the groups described above deserve to be able to read about people who look like them. Chetty and Sands-O’Conner go beyond this group, however. They also look at literature that includes the classical portrayal of such groups, dehumanisation through anthropomorphism, characters form the former colonies and Black, Jewish, Asian, African and LBTQ+ children.

The majority of the articles are form Books for Keeps and Sands-O’Connor’s blog The Race to Read though there are a few from other publications and by other writers. It is certainly refreshing to see a blog being taken seriously and deemed a useful resource.         

The cover says it all: white middle class classical characters enjoy a garden very similar to the one at Misselthwaite Manor, created by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the Secret Garden, 1911)  whilst the characters defined at the beginning of the book – and a few others -  labour outside, try to get into the garden and protest that ‘Representation Matters’.

This book is very readable even for the lay person as each article is short and written in plain English. 

Find your copy here  

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing 

A Celebration of Beatrix Potter, Arts and Letters

 

2002 

In this volume are the responses in art and words by thirty artists to the life and work of Beatris Potter.

Excerpts of: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan, The Tale of Jeremy Fisher, the Tale of Jemina Puddleduck and The Tale of Mr Tod are reproduced with Beatrix Potter’s original illustrations.

The artists’ responses include a few words about their reaction to the story and what they know about Potter.

Artists are: Jon Agee, Jen Corace, Pat Cummings, Tomie dePaola, Tony DiTerlizzi, Matthew Forsythe, Stephanie Graegin, Chuck Groenink, Chris Haughton, Brian Karas, Jarrett Krosoczka, Betsy Lewin, E. B. Lewis, Renata Liwska, Wendell Minor, Kelly Murphy, Brian Pinkney, Peggy Rathmann, Chris Raschka, Peter Reynolds, Dan Santat, Judy Schachner, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, David Soman, David Ezra Stein, Melissa Sweet, Rosemary Wells, Brendan Wenzel, David Wiesner, Pamela Zagarenski, and Paul Zelinsky

Many of the artists recognise as I do that much of Potter’s work isn’t just about cute little animals; there is a darker side to nature.

This is a picture book, 110 pages long. Potter’s work is presented ragged right as it was originally but the texts form the artists are blocked. It uses a serif font with difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s but this is large and double-spaced.

This is certainly a special edition but it is also packed with information.  It would also be useful for project work on Potter. 

 

Find your copy here 

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.   

The Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford

2010

In this book Francis Spufford reflects on his journey through childhood, a journey that is coloured by the books he reads.  The title suggests that those books shape the adult he has become.

Spufford begins by reassuring us he is still a great reader of fiction. Much of his discussion of how books built him is useful to us in that it recaps on what is available. Towards the end of the text he offers a reasoned explanation of how books for adults differ from those for children. He also attempts to analyse what he is looking for in fiction – and what he has found lacking in some fiction written for adults. He explains how the classics lead use gently from literature for children into literature for adults.  Science Fiction is his saviour.  It seems to do for the adults what children’s fiction does for the child.

Spafford’s sister was very ill and despite a reprieve in the form of a kidney transplant died at the age of 22. Books may have offered a form of escape. Or this may not be relevant at all.  Yet he tells us much about his sister’s illness in the book.

The book is written in a very elegant and engaging prose.  The paperback is 224 pages. There are some long paragraphs in the text – some going over one or even two pages.       

 

Find your copy here  

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.