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Boys
and Men in Kazumi Yumoto's The Friends Loved
Too Much, Loved Too Little: The Evolving Relationship of Fathers and
Sons in Bengali Literature for Children Väterdämmerung:
Fact, Fiction, and Fathers in Nöstlinger's The Cucumber King You've
Come a Long Way, Daddy: Affirmations of Fatherhood in Recent African
American Picture Books Other
Voices Regular
Features Country
Survey: Mongolia: From Folk Tale to Children's Literature Author
Spotlight: Ayla Çinaro?glu: Portraying the World of a Child International
Children's Books of Note Dear
Bookbird Reader, Fathers and Sons continues the policy I have followed. With each issue, I have attempted to encourage research, focus the spotlight on countries whose children's literature is not well known-such as Brunei Darussalam, Namibia, Bangladesh, Colombia, Mongolia, Czech Republic, and Nepal-and select topics that would bridge national, cultural, and linguistic barriers. The work has been both rewarding and enjoyable, and now it is time to give someone else an opportunity to edit this excellent journal. I am passing on the baton to a team of four editors: Lilia Ratcheva-Stratieva, who is an editor, author, and translator living in Sofia (Bulgaria) and Vienna (Austria); and to Evelyn B. Freeman, Barbara Lehman, and Patricia Scharer, who are professors of children's literature and literacy at the Ohio State University (USA). This team approach is an excellent development for the continued success of Bookbird, because the work will be shared by the four editors, and the journal will benefit from their combined expertise. Over the past six years, I have been helped by a number of individuals, but I especially want to thank Bookbird's column editors and associate editors, members of the Bookbird, Inc. Board and IBBY Executive Committee, Leena Maissen and Elizabeth Page at the IBBY Secretariat, and Morgan State University. Above all, I am grateful to our copyeditor, Susan Clawson, and graphic designer, Lesli Lai-both of whom are continuing with the journal-for their hard work, high professional standards, and commitment to Bookbird. Finally, I thank you, the reader, for your continued support and many letters of appreciation. I will continue to be involved with Bookbird as a member of its international advisory board-and as a devoted reader. Yours sincerely, Meena G. Khorana Guest
Editor's Introduction It would be convenient for me as an American to trace the crisis of paternal authority in books for children to this passage in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), but as we all know, the theme is as old as the hills. The ancient creation myths almost always consist of titanic struggles between fathers and their sons in which the sons, usually with maternal connivance, in the end emerge triumphant. Uranus, for example, the primeval father of Greek cosmogony, prevented his children from being born so they could not compete with him. But one of them, Cronus, escaped, and upon coming of age promptly castrated his father-an act that, significantly, brought forth the Golden Age on earth. Echoing this ancient theme, folk and fairy tales are rife with contests between fathers and sons that end with murder or banishment. Although we must not overlook lighter-hearted treatments of the father-son conflict, such as Andrew Lang's delightful parody Prince Prigio (1889) and its sequel, Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia, over the millennia this has mainly been a deadly serious topic. Regardless of how deeply the theme of father-son rivalry is rooted in our collective psyche and whether or not it is more basic than the equally compelling themes of paternal love and filial loyalty, there can be no doubt that the father-son relationship is in a state of deep crisis in today's books for children. On the one hand, there seems to be consensus that the old "manly" virtues are bankrupt, and indeed, these are regularly debunked. But on the other, where are the new and positive models upon which healthy and fostering relationships between boys and their fathers can grow? These models are necessary if sons are to have a star to follow as they themselves grow into maturity and into the positions their fathers now hold, doing so without succumbing to these same fathers' mistakes. The essays collected in this issue of Bookbird document the internationality of this crisis. Surprisingly consistent statements emerge from literary cultures as diverse as Australia, Japan, India, Greece, Austria, and the United States. However, if everywhere the old models are in shambles, here and there we do find new, hopeful signs that masculinity, fatherhood, and even sonhood are being recast. I have enjoyed collaborating with Bookbird's outgoing editor, Meena Khorana, on this issue very much. Both of us together now invite you, Bookbird's readers, to examine the evidence yourselves. Jeffrey Garrett |
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