A review by antlersantlers
Shadow by Marcia Brown
1.0
The very definition of a book you can skip in 2020. I mean, you can skip it any time (and should!) but it's 2020 and we have real, honest-to-goodness excellent amazing wonderful own voices stories you can read instead of this nonsense.
This past Monday I had a day off so I did what any children's librarian data nerd would do: I created a bracket of Caldecott medalists. Next Monday when the newest Caldecott is announced I can finish it! My ranking formula: (average GR rating * number of GR ratings * number of copies owned by my library) - (base racism penalty * number of copies owned) + medal year. The scores ranged from over 35,000,000 ([b:Where the Wild Things Are|19543|Where the Wild Things Are|Maurice Sendak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1384434560l/19543._SX50_.jpg|3020535]) to -20,000 ([b:Mei Li|2186644|Mei Li|Thomas Handforth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1215747471l/2186644._SX50_.jpg|2192346]). This book is the second to last seed (scored approx. -9,000), because the average rating is quite middling, the number of total ratings is low, and it got a heavy racism penalty.
While I think Marcia Brown exhibited some skill in creating the illustrations, it certainly perpetuates racist notions of African people as monolithic, indistinguishable, and uncivilized. It's a picture book made about non-specific African people by a white lady, based on a poem by a European tourist. Again, the very definition of a book you can skip in 2020.
This past Monday I had a day off so I did what any children's librarian data nerd would do: I created a bracket of Caldecott medalists. Next Monday when the newest Caldecott is announced I can finish it! My ranking formula: (average GR rating * number of GR ratings * number of copies owned by my library) - (base racism penalty * number of copies owned) + medal year. The scores ranged from over 35,000,000 ([b:Where the Wild Things Are|19543|Where the Wild Things Are|Maurice Sendak|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1384434560l/19543._SX50_.jpg|3020535]) to -20,000 ([b:Mei Li|2186644|Mei Li|Thomas Handforth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1215747471l/2186644._SX50_.jpg|2192346]). This book is the second to last seed (scored approx. -9,000), because the average rating is quite middling, the number of total ratings is low, and it got a heavy racism penalty.
While I think Marcia Brown exhibited some skill in creating the illustrations, it certainly perpetuates racist notions of African people as monolithic, indistinguishable, and uncivilized. It's a picture book made about non-specific African people by a white lady, based on a poem by a European tourist. Again, the very definition of a book you can skip in 2020.