Children, Too, Sing America

Dr. Laura Dubek and Dr. Ellen Donovan have had their special issue of the journal College Literature nominated for Best Public Intellectual Special Issue, awarded by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.

“Children, too, Sing America”: A Special Issue of College Literature advances the democratic mission of higher education by calling for an end to apartheid in and of children’s literature. In their introduction, guest editors Donovan and Dubek situate their argument against apartheid within current debates about Dr. Seuss, so-called cancel culture, the politics of publishing, and the (historical) role of children’s literature in perpetuating White supremacy. In so doing, they build on work by public intellectuals of earlier eras, most notably Langston Hughes, from whom the Special Issue gets its cover art, title, and primary purpose—to call attention to the ways Black children “sing” America. In addition to its focus on inclusion, the Special Issue deviates from traditional formats in its presentation. Following essays on writers, artists and public intellectuals such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Faith Ringgold, bell hooks, and Jason Reynolds, Donovan and Dubek offer twenty-eight profiles of twentieth-century Black writers and illustrators whose literary and/or visual representations of Black childhoods deserve more scholarly attention. Written to appeal to a general audience, the “Dream Keepers” section also makes clear the Special Issue’s significance not only to literary scholars in the fields of African American literature, children’s/YA literature and US popular/material culture, but also to parents, librarians, publishers, and advocates for greater diversity in children’s books and anti-racist education.