Wasafiri 60: New Generations - Writing for Children and Young Adults
Wasafiri's inception in the 1980s took place 'during an era of lively, often vociferous debates around issues of representation in children's books that helped to shift old complacencies'. However, as the national curriculum changed and many authors became 'othered' as they ticked diversity boxes, the landscape changed.
This issue explores key contemporary concerns relating to literature for children and young adults, perhaps best summed up in the feature 'When We Were Young', where thirteen writers discuss the books that made them.
Contents
Editorial
New Generations: Writing for Children and Young Adults
Beverley Naidoo and Shereen Pandit
Articles
Contemporary African American Children's Literature: Continuity and Change
Rudine Sims Bishop
Text in Context: The Culture and Politics of Stereotyping in Children's Books
Radhika Menon and Sandhya Rao
Palestinians in Fiction for Young People
Elsa Marston
Creating Books for Children in Francophone Africa and Beyond: A Personal Experience
Véronique Tadjo
When We Were Young: Thirteen Makers of Books for Children Recall their Own Experiences of Entering Stories
Meshak Asare, Deborah Ellis, Mary Hoffman, Catherine Johnson, Elizabeth Laird, Errol Lloyd, Ana Maria Machado, Sumiko Moriuchi, Ifeoma Onyefulu, Bali Rai, Verna Wilkins, Ken Wilson-Max, and Benjamin Zephaniah
Poems
Black River
Jackie Kay
Eid Mubarak!
Debjani Chatterjee
Swallows for my Son at Seven
Jack Mapanje
Live Today Dream Tomorrow
Gabisile Lucy Dladla
Poems
John Agard and Grace Nichols
Interviews
'My Child State': Jamila Gavin in Conversation
Beverley Naidoo
'A Lifetime in Books': Dianne Case in Conversation
Shereen Pandit
Fiction
The Child Goddess
Susmita Bhattacharya
Pierre
Ibtisam Barakat
The Tree
C J Onyia
Reviews
Multicultural Publishing in Britain: How Did it Happen?
Rosemary Stones
New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature: Utopian Transformations – Clare Bradford, Kerry Mallan, John Stephens and Robyn McCallum, ed
Kimberley Reynolds
Representing Africa: Old and New Ways of Seeing – Vivian Yenika-Agbaw
Soon Come Home to this Island: West Indians in British Children's Literature – Karen Sands-O'Connor
Phyllis Ramage
The Outside Child In and Out of the Book – Christine Wilkie-Stibbs
Madelyn Travis
Lost Riders – Elizabeth Laird
Dreamland – Lily Hyde
Guantanamo Boy – Anna Perera
Alan Gibbons
Bog Child and Solace of the Road – Siobhan Dowd
Valerie Coghlan
A Nest of Vipers – Catherine Johnson
The Last of the Warrior Kings – Sarah Mussi
Geraldine Brennan
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie
The Fold – An Na
After Tupac and D Foster – Jacqueline Woodson
Down to the Bone – Mayra Lazara Dole
Kathleen T Horning
The Cross Drums – Meshak Asare
From Somalia With Love – Na'ima B Robert
Angel Boy – Bernard Ashley
Gervelie's Journey – Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young
Dianne Hofmeyr
The Arrival – Shaun Tan
Ziba Came on a Boat – Liz Lofthouse
Margot Hillel
Twelve Dancing Princesses – the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Rachel Isadora
The Princess and the Pea – the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Rachel Isadora
The Fisherman and his Wife – the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Rachel Isadora
Pretty Salma – Niki Daly
Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel – Patricia Storace
Ann Lazim
Poems United: A Commonwealth Anthology – Diana Hendry and Hamish Whyte, ed
Honeybee: Poems and Short Prose – Naomi Shihab Nye
Deela Khan
