54 BCALA NEWS Volume 41, Issue 3
Summer 2014
the language clear and appropriate for children from birth to age five? Does the complexity and development of the book match the child’s developmental stage? Does the book read aloud well? Is the text accurate? Do the words and illustrations complement each other?
P.C.: Was this vetting of titles a long process?
A.B.: It took me approximately two and a half years to select the titles and complete the manuscript. In the process, more than 1,300 children’s books were evaluated.
P.C.: How is the book listing presented and what information is included with each title in your work?
A.B.: The selected titles are presented in seven distinct chapters: primary skills books (alphabet, colors, counting, shapes, and spatial and opposites), wordless picture books, rhyming books, nursery rhymes, fingerplays and action rhymes, board books, and toy and movable books. Each title is also annotated, includes a full bibliographic record, and denotes where reviews of individual titles can be found.
P.C.: Now, do these books largely inform vocabulary and language skills, or do they enforce other areas like decision-making and morality, math, science, life skills or the arts for preschoolers?
A.B.: While these books indirectly connect with preschoolers on all of these levels, my book primarily focuses on expressive and receptive language, expanded vocabularies, narrative skills, print awareness, the ability to understand written language, awareness of story structure, alphabetic knowledge, and phonological sensitivity. Additionally, the entertaining and enjoyable books selected are designed to meet the intellectual, developmental, cultural, language, cognitive, creative, communication, and social needs of preschoolers.
P.C.: And do the books that you include cater to a multi-ethnic audience of children?
A.B.: Inclusive and multicultural children’s literature have been a passion of mine for most of my professional career, so one of my primary goals was to make this book as diverse as possible. While conducting my research, however, I was disheartened to discover the limited number of multicultural books available. Although my chapters focused on eleven specific areas of children’s literature exclusively for children from birth to age five, I expected to find many more multicultural titles than I did. So yes, some are included, but I wish I could say the multicultural balance is greater than it is. I did ensure, however, that the titles included in my book avoided gender, racial, and other stereotypes.
P.C.: Let’s get away from the book a little bit and talk about the author. One thing that interested me was that you are a male librarian compiling this bibliography of early childhood titles. How did you become interested particularly in writing about early childhood literacy?
A.B.: You are correct, there are not many male librarians, especially African American male librarians, researching and writing about early childhood literacy. But children’s literature has been a passion of mine since undergraduate school and during my professional career, I have worked as an elementary school librarian and children’s librarian at a public library. Additionally, I have been an advocate for books, literacy, and lifelong learning for more than thirty years. Fuse these with my passion for children’s literature, and they all come together perfectly.
P.C.: Do you perceive either a lack of male or of Black librarians practicing or writing about early childhood literacy and literature for preschoolers?
A.B.: The number of Black male librarians researching and writing in this area saddens me,
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