Lauren Bailes
Eastern University

What does literacy have to do with race?  The co-editors of the book envisioned making the connection visible and intentional with the belief that race matters in understanding the power of literacy in social advancement, maintenance of privilege, and disruption of discrimination in a race-based society.  Joined by Gloria Ladson-Billing in the Foreword, Sonia Nieto in the Afterword, and Courtney Cazden in Chapter 1, "first-rate" scholars of literacy challenge the complacency of literacy instruction and research in which racial issues are swept under the rug or only superficially discussed.  With four objectives of "developing local knowledge of teaching and learning practices," "theorizing our own racial positions and privilege," "considering the ethics and consequences of our research," and "detailing the value of the research process for change,"  this edited book presents a compilation of theoretical works complemented with classroom-based studies in which the racial factor is carefully analyzed in terms of  teacher instruction, student learning, teacher-student dynamics, and peer interactions.  Student and teacher stories and researcher self-reflections contribute to the vitality and significance of writings presented not only by university scholars, but also by teacher-researchers.  The depth of discussion presented in this book assumes a more advanced readership, but a few selected chapters would be more than appropriate for undergraduate-level teacher training courses.  

The most impressive feature of the book is its extensive bibliography of ethnic literature for a wide range of readers, particularly for school-aged children.  The author divides the literature into ethnic categories of African American, Native American, Latino, Asian, Jewish, and Middle Eastern.  For each ethnic category, she provides and discusses examples of folklore, historical nonfiction and fiction, poetry, biography, and contemporary literature after giving an informative introduction to the unique socio-cultural-historical context of the ethnic group.  The presentation order of the literature is largely based on the author's recommended "sequence for studying multicultural literature" (p. 5), built upon five phases of studying different types of literature for different goals.  Phase One recommends examining "traditional literature" such as "folktales, myths, and legends" to gain general and broad views of culture as played out in this literary style, whereas in Phase Two the focus of the traditional literature is narrowed to one area so that students learn about cultural particulars of this region.   "Historical nonfiction" is covered in Phase Three to analyze the values, beliefs, and themes identified in traditional literature."  The historical understanding gained in this phase will give a frame of reference for the next phase in which "historical fiction" is evaluated in terms of literary authenticity and historical accuracy.  The work on proceeding phases will give rise to the analysis of contemporary literature in Phase Five.  Although the sequence may be disputable for its practicality and logic, the author's thoughtfully suggested activities throughout the text, along with the extensive bibliography of multiethnic literature, can be very useful in the implementation of multicultural education for language arts in K-12 classrooms.  I recommend that all K-12 and teacher education curriculum libraries add this book to their holding.