Barack Obama's forthcoming ascent to the presidency will hopefully help improve access to African-American children's and young adult literature, a scholar said Tuesday.
Dr. Wendy Rountree, an assistant professor of English at North Carolina Central University, said Obama's well-known affinity for reading and education can help encourage Black youth to read as much as possible, especially stories portraying Blacks in a positive light. She noted TV news stories about Black boys describing themselves as "little Obamas" by working hard at school and planning to attend college.
Rountree grew up an avid reader with books by famous authors such as Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary. But she would have appreciated an opportunity to also read Mildred Pitts Walker, Rosa Guy and authors whom she did not learn of until adulthood. The dissemination problem, Rountree said, may lie in social gaps. For instance, she grew up in a part of North Carolina that didn't desegregate until the mid-1970s, despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court ruling.
"The possibilities become limitless in the world of a book," she said. "As scholars, we need to build the intellectual, social and psychological foundation for children through not only textbooks but also non-fiction and fiction.
Her remarks came during a session of the Modern Language Association's annual convention, which drew 8,544 scholars. The MLA's 800 sessions this week included several examining reading skills and language nuances of Black youth.
