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Once there was a girlnamed Shaquita.

She was forced to livewith her Auntieand cousin because...

...her mother and fatherwent to Hawaii and nevercame back.

Over the weeks, Shaquitabecame a maid. She washeddishes, cleaned clothes, and wore thesame clothes every day. (p. 1–4)

This excerpt from Shaquita, waswritten by Tameka (all names forthese students are pseudonyms), aseventh-grade African Americanstudent, during a children’s bookworkshop for middle school youthof color. Earlier on in this after-

school workshop, Tameka told methat she wanted to write a “ghetto”Cinderella story (“ghetto” had apositive connotation for her,indicating an urban, mostly AfricanAmerican cultural style). She toldme that she intended to share thestory with a local preschool that hersiblings and cousins attended. Inconsidering the interests of heryoung audience members, shewanted to create a text that wouldbe entertaining and that they couldrelate to, something she claimedwas lacking in the books she readin school as a young child.

Although we often think ofchildren’s books in terms of reading,the stories that Tameka and her peerswrote demonstrate that children’s

books can also offer a powerful cata-lyst for writing. Published children’sbooks offer models of various genresthat draw upon a range of literarydevices, organizations, and represen-tational resources that can beanalyzed and used as inspiration foryoung writers. Children’s books alsoallow young writers to craft theirtexts for a real audience beyond theirclassmates and teacher. Such authen-tic writing situations are animportant part of effective writinginstruction (Atwell, 1998). As Tamekawrote her story, she often read andanalyzed other Cinderella tales (e.g.Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella,San Souci, 1998; Chinye: A WestAfrican Folk Tale, Onyefulu, 1994).She also frequently talked about whather young audience members wouldlike in the story.

In addition to providing compellingprecedents and real audiences, writingchildren’s books offers young authorsopportunities for improvisation. By

Textual Borderlands: Students’ Recontextualizationsin Writing Children’s Books

Jennifer C. Stone

A children’s book writing

workshop creates

intersections between the

in- and out-of-school lives

of students.

Textual Borderlands

43

Textual Borderlands

middle school, students have awealth of experience readingchildren’s books at school and, insome cases, at home. The familiarityof this type of text offers studentsthe opportunity for creativity;indeed, some genre scholars haveargued that, while skilled writersoften test the boundaries of genres,at least some experience with agenre is needed for innovation totake place successfully (Cope &Kalantzis, 1993). Such improvisa-tional spaces offer the potential tobuild on students’ cultural and lin-guistic resources. In so doing, chil-dren’s book writing can be used tocreate connections betweenstudents’ in- and out-of-schoollives. As a growing body of worksuggests, literacy educators candraw powerfully on students’ out-of-school and unofficial literacypractices (Alvermann, Xu, &Carpenter, 2003; Bausch, 2003;Mahar, 2003; Riojas-Cortez, Flores,Smith, & Clark, 2003).

To understand how Tameka and herpeers drew upon popular andcultural representations in their sto-ries, I use the concept of “recontex-tualization.” In her story, Tamekamade a number of recontextualizingmoves, recasting the traditionalCinderella storyline in terms of hercontemporary cultural values.Recontextualization involvespulling in and changing elements ofone text into another (Bauman &Briggs, 1990; Linell, 1998). Forexample, Shaquita attended a promrather than a ball; she rode off in a“white limo with the works” ratherthan a pumpkin; and she fell inlove with a D.J. rather than aprince, who incidentally proposedto her over the phone. In crafting atraditional tale in modern terms,Tameka assembled a range of popu-lar media and culturalrepresentations. In a sense,recontextualization is an unremark-

able phenomenon as all texts drawfrom prior texts to some extent(Bakhtin, 1981). Although common,recontextualization, especiallyinvolving students’ cultural andpopular resources, is not often val-ued, recognized, or made explicit inacademic contexts. However, asShaquita illustrates, such textualmoves can place students’ socialmemberships into dialogue.

In crafting her story, Tameka usedpopular and African American rep-resentational forms to situateherself and her young audience inthe “borderland” space betweenschool-based, popular, and AfricanAmerican cultures. Unlike manycurrent school-based literacy prac-tices, where little interplay existsbetween students’ lives in andbeyond school, borderlands existwhere hybrid ways of being,knowing, and using language arevalued (Anzaldúa, 1999; Gutierrez,

Baquedano-Lopez, & Turner, 1997).The curriculum for the workshopexplicitly sought to createborderlands where students’ literacypractices from beyond school wererecruited as resources rather thandismissed as deficits. For example,in the workshop, students wereintroduced to a variety of modelchildren’s books where dialect, lan-guages other than English, and cul-tural representations playedimportant roles. Students took upthese resources as they wrote theirown books. By recontextualizingsuch representations, Tameka and

her peers engaged in buildingborderlands between their in- andout-of-school lives.

To understand the textual movesmade by Tameka and her peers, Iclosely examined the representationalresources—including settings, charac-ters, language, and popular culture—that these young authors drew uponin writing children’s books. I alsoinvestigated how these choicessituated authors and their youngaudiences at the intersections ofsocial worlds. Such an analysis isimportant to me as both a teacherand researcher because it recognizesthe diversity of resources available toyoung writers.

THE CHILDREN’S BOOKWORKSHOP

The children’s book workshop tookplace in the Metropolis PEOPLE Pro-gram, an after-school academicenrichment program for middleschool youth of color. The programis part of an attempt by the Univer-sity of Metropolis to attract and pre-pare students from underrepresentedgroups to attend the university. 100students are admitted annually, withpriority for students who would befirst generation college attendees orwho qualify for free or reduced pricelunches. In middle school, studentsparticipate in summer and after-school workshops focusing on liter-acy, technology, science, and math.In high school, they continue withsummer workshops and electroniccorrespondence courses. If studentsare admitted to the university afterparticipating in the program, theyreceive full tuition scholarships fortheir undergraduate education.

The children’s book workshop wasamong 12 workshops offered inspring 2001. It was among the mostpopular workshops, drawing 12 reg-ular participants. All of the studentswere girls; nine African American,

Children’s book writingcan be used to createconnections between

students’ in- and out-of-school lives.

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two Latina, and one AsianAmerican. The class met weekly for90 minutes at the university. As ateacher and researcher in the work-shop, I was interested in howstudents would take up and impro-vise upon children’s book genres.

The curriculum for the workshop,which I developed with a co-teacherand in consultation with children’sliterature scholars, engaged studentsin reading, analyzing, writing, andillustrating children’s books. In theworkshop, students regularly readand critiqued children’s books,including books by and about peo-ple of color when possible. We readthrough a variety of examples oftypes of children’s books including:

• fiction (Did You Hear the Wind SingYour Name?, Orie, 1995; Tar Beach,Ringgold, 1991)

• folktales (Nine-in-One, Grr! Grr!,Xiong & Spagnoli, 1989; Seven BlindMice, Young, 1992)

• poetry (Hush! A Thai Lullaby, Ho,1996; Harlem: A Poem, Myers, 1997)

• biographies (Tomás and the LibraryLady, Mora, 1997; Mysterious Thelo-nious, Raschka, 1997)

• alphabet books (Gathering the Sun,Ada, 1997; A is for Africa, Onyefulu,1997)

• nonfiction (Dia’s Story Cloth, Cha,1996; Shades of Black, Pinkney, 2000)

• bilingual books (Hairs/Pelitos,Cisneros, 1994; Tortillas andlullabies/Tortillas y cancioncitas,Reiser, 1998).

For each of these books, weaddressed questions such as: Whatmakes each book interesting orengaging for children? Who is rep-resented and how? What are theauthors’ purposes and how do weknow? What are examples andeffects of various literary devices?How are images and printjuxtaposed in these books invarious ways for various purposes?

The students were particularlyinterested in Nappy Hair (Herron,1999), and a group of students,including Tameka, performed this

book for the class on a number ofoccasions. One student read themain storyline as several other girlsshouted and sang the responses.Tameka stated after one of theseperformances, “I love this book—it’sjust like church!” Indeed, thisdiscourse pattern of “spontaneousverbal and nonverbal interactionbetween speaker and listener inwhich all of the speaker’sstatements are punctuated byexpressions from the listener”(Smitherman, 1977, p. 104) hasbeen well documented in AfricanAmerican Vernacular English. WhenI suggested that Tameka use some-thing like call and response in herown book, she smiled excitedly.Immediately, she talked to some ofher classmates about possibilitiesand started to revise her partiallycompleted draft. We also discussedthe controversy surrounding thebook and addressed how and whythe author used cultural resourceslike call and response.

In addition to reading andcritiquing published children’sbooks, students were expected towrite and illustrate their own booksindividually or in pairs. During thefirst six sessions of the workshop,students planned their stories andcreated storyboards that containeda rough draft of the story line and“30-second illustrations.” Studentsshared these storyboards with theclass for feedback and met individ-

ually with me for revision and edit-ing advice. During the last severalweeks, students wrote and illustratedfinal versions of their texts, which

were then color-copied and bound.Each student received a copy of thebook for herself and a copy to sharewith a local classroom.

In the workshop, I played severalroles including co-teacher,researcher, and curriculum coordina-tor for the larger program. I workedwith many of the students in previ-ous and subsequent workshops. Ialso spent time with them in othersettings, including program eventsand “homeroom,” where I had theopportunity to interact less formallywith students. These multiple roleswithin the program enabled me todevelop a rich sense of how the stu-dents’ reading and writing practicesfit into the contexts of the children’sbook workshop, the Metropolis PEO-PLE Program, as well as theirbroader social and cultural liveswithin the Metropolis community.

Over the course of the workshop, Icollected students’ final books, all“process” texts such as the story-boards, field notes based on weeklymeetings with individuals or pairs ofstudents about the choices they weremaking in their books, field notesfrom weekly classroom observations,and curricular materials. In analyz-ing these data, I examined thetextual resources that students drewupon in their writing (e.g. grammar,images, layout), as well as the waysin which these choices juxtaposedthese texts with other texts/contexts.In particular, I focused on how stu-

In addition to reading and critiquing publishedchildren’s books, students were expected to write and

illustrate their own books individually or in pairs.

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Textual Borderlands

dents used their out-of-schoolexperiences to negotiate theconventions of children’s books.Finally, I verified and elaboratedthese analyses with otherethnographic evidence.

RECONTEXTUALIZATIONIN CHILDREN’S BOOKS

As a number of scholars point out(Heath, 1988; Wolf & Heath, 1992),children’s interactions with books,both in and beyond school, are com-plex processes. Children’s literatureserves multiple purposes that includeinstructing students about languageand life, providing entertainment andcomfort, instilling moral values, andreflecting a range of lives and values.Students took up these broader pur-poses of children’s literature in thebooks they produced. Within theseven children’s books produced inthe workshop, several containedexplicit moral messages; all of thestories dealt with common problemsthat young people face and offeredsolutions for such problems; and allof the students claimed that theywanted their books to be entertainingand relevant for their youngaudience. Published examples of var-ious types of children’s books wereshared and discussed throughout theworkshop, and I modeled writing myown nonfiction book. Despite thisattention to the range of genresavailable, all of the students chose towrite fictional stories. As the studentsexplained, these were the kinds ofbooks that they liked as children, sothey would be “more fun for kids”;they also pointed out that they hadmore ideas for writing this kind ofbook. In crafting their stories, thestudents incorporated typical featuresof what Hasan (1996) calls the “nurs-ery tale” genre, includingplacements, initiating events, sequentevents, final events, finales, andmorals. Likewise, the students prima-rily followed common storylines

including love lost, outcast becomingpopular, and rags-to-riches.

In creating their books, studentsrecontextualized popular culture,language practices, and images,which brought sometimes disparatediscourses into conversation. Acrossthe seven children’s books producedin the workshop, I located fourdistinct types of recontextualization:setting, characters, language, andpopular culture. At least one of thesetypes of recontextualization occurredin each of the children’s books,whereas four of the books containedall four types of recontextualization.

Recontextualization of Setting

Five of the students’ storiesrecontextualized setting. Although afew of the students positioned theirstories in settings typical ofpublished children’s stories (e.g.,school), most of the students locatedtheir stories in contemporary placesand situations, reflecting theircultural and popular affiliations. Anexample of this occurred inKimberly and Maxine’s bookentitled Dassandra Story, which wasabout a poor, unfashionable girlwho became popular after theschool nurse gave her a makeover.Early in the story, Dassandra’sbrother tries to help her understandwhy she is so unpopular, and pointsout that she wore the same clothesthe day before. On the next page,there is an image of Dassandra hav-ing three thoughts, “No money,” “Nowater,” and “dirty clothes,” eachillustrated and captioned in acartoon bubble. Below the image arethe words, “‘Well, I don’t have any-thing else to wear.’ Dassandra said,‘Mom missed the water bill thismonth’” (Dassandra Story, p. 4).Through this statement and illustra-tion (see Figure 1), Kimberly andMaxine located the story in a finan-cially struggling household, which,according to self-reports, Kimberly

had experienced earlier in herlifetime and Maxine had becomefamiliar with through a number offriends in similar circumstances.

The story then moves to Dassandra’sschool where, after being teased byother students, Dassandra confides inthe school nurse who states, “To tellyou the truth they should accept youthe way you are. But if you reallywant to do something about it I’llgive you a full makeover at my shop,Goode Cosmetology” (DassandraStory, p. 9). The story is resolved atNurse Goode’s beauty shop whereshe gives Dassandra a makeover andnew clothes. As Majors (2002) pointsout, salons play a central role in thelives of many African Americans, asit did in the lives of Kimberly andMaxine. Thus, the two girls were ableto draw on this setting as a resourcethat played a pivotal role in the out-come of their story. Indeed, after vis-iting Nurse Goode’s salon, Dassandra“became popular and she lived hap-pily and popular forever” (DassandraStory, p. 11). By incorporating thesettings of a poor household and asalon into their story—both of whichare rare in children’s literature—Kim-berly and Maxine recontextualizedthese settings into school contexts

Figure 1. Page from DassandraStory

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and created a borderland space forthemselves and their young readers.

Recontextualization of Characters

A second type of recontextualiza-tion in children’s books occurredthrough the names, appearances,and roles of characters. This includedinstances where characters were

assigned culturally specific names,were represented as members of aparticular racial/ethnic group, orplayed contemporary roles. Iinclude this as a type of recontex-tualization because the inclusion ofpeople of color continues to be rarein published children’s books.Although awareness of multiculturalchildren’s literature is growing,

Horning, Kruse, and Schliesman(2002) maintain that over the pastdecade, the number of books aboutpeople of color remained under tenpercent of books published, ofwhich under five percent were writ-ten by people of color. Aspoignantly illustrated by Tameka’sdescription of the lack of books shecould identify with in her own

Textual Borderlands

Briggs, Raymond. Jim and the Beanstalk. (Paperstar, 1997).Jim helps an old giant by measuring him for false teeth,glasses, and a wig.

Cole, Babette. Prince Cinders. (Putnam, 1997).The hero in this jaunty Cinderella tale overcomes his dailydrudgeries to attend the “Rock ‘n’ Royal Bash.”

Dahl, Roald. Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. Illus. Q. Blake.(Puffin, 1995).The familiar tales of Cinderella, Snow White, Goldilocksand the Three Bears, Red Riding Hood, The Three Pigs, andJack and the Beanstalk are invigorated with new lifethrough satiric humor.

Egielski, Richard. The Gingerbread Boy. (Harper, 1997).The Gingerbread Boy runs through famous New York land-marks and ends up in a lake in Central Park.

Emberley, Michael. Ruby. (Little Brown, 1990).Red Riding Hood becomes Ruby, a street-wise mouse, inthis innovative variant that features urban slang andsurprise twists. The sequel, Ruby and the Sniffs (LittleBrown, 2004), is a Goldilocks take-off.

Emberley, Rebecca. Three Cool Kids. (Little Brown, 1995).The three billy goats move to an urban setting, changingevents and characters.

Ernst, Lisa Campbell. Goldilocks Returns. (Aladdin, 2003).Fifty years after her break-in, Goldi returns to assuage herguilt and make improvements to the bears’ house.

Johnston, Tony. The Cowboy and the Black-Eyed Pea. Illus.W. Ludwig. (Putnam, 1996).A quirky version of The Princess and the Pea, with a strongfemale protagonist courted by cowboys who must detect ablack-eyed pea placed under their saddle.

Kimmel, Eric. The Runaway Tortilla. Illus. R. Cecil. (WinslowPress, 2000).A Texas Gingerbread Boy version in which a tortilladeclares she is too beautiful to eat and leads Tia Lupe andher friends on a long chase.

Minters, Frances. Cinder-Elly. Illus. G. B. Karas. (Viking, 1994).This rap version of Cinderella is set in New York City wherethe overworked sister gets to go to a basketball game andmeets the star player.

Rosales, Melodye. Leola and the Honeybears: An African-American Retelling of Goldilocks and The Three Bears.(Scholastic, 1999).The new twists include the Honeybears running an inn andpreparing savory dishes like sweet daisy-dough cakes.

Scieszka, Jon. The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! Illus.L. Smith. (Viking, 1989).This tale of the three pigs told by “A. Wolf” has become aclassic with creative use of language and a newperspective on the old tale.

Smith, Stu. Goldilocks and the Three Martians. Illus.M. Garland. (Dutton, 2004).Goldilocks blasts off to Mars where she has a closeencounter with a Martian family.

Sturges, Philemon. The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza).Illus. A. Walrod. (Dutton, 1999).The little red hen and her friends buy self-help books, makea large pizza, and listen to boom boxes.

—Marilyn Carpenter

Modern Versions of Traditional Folk and Fairy Tales

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Textual Borderlands

childhood, the students’ inclusionof culturally specific names andrepresentations were significantacts of recontextualization.

Three of the stories contained charac-ters with African American names,including Ashlay in Ashlay ‘n’ Zork,Dassandra and Marcus in DassandraStory, and Shaquita in Shaquita.Also, one of the stories, The BlueFish, included a character with theHmong name Mie. The use of cultur-ally specific names did not necessar-ily coincide with the representationsof characters; for example, Dassandrawas only illustrated as obviouslyAfrican American in a few images,and Mie was a fish!

In addition to names, students usedillustrations to include particularcultural or ethnic groups. Two of thestories contained a majority of rep-resentations of African Americancharacters (Ashlay ‘n’ Zork and BeCareful What You Wish For) andthree contained some representationsof main characters that wereobviously African American or bira-cial as confirmed by the authors(Dassandra Story, Samantha, andShaquita). Only one of the stories,The Blue Fish, was illustrated withexplicitly European American char-acters that were drawn in Animéstyle with stereotypical EuropeanAmerican features. Interestingly, thestoryline of The Blue Fish containsthe only group of main charactersthat are portrayed negatively asgreedy and selfish.

Recontextualization was alsoaccomplished through characters’roles. An example of this occurredin Shaquita through the inclusionof a D.J. and his sidekick. Sam theD.J. is Shaquita’s modern-dayprince, and his sidekick Mike stepsin to keep the music going whileShaquita and Sam have their firstdance. These roles draw from thevalues of popular culture, in which

D.J.s make for desirable partnersand sidekicks are needed to keepthe music playing.

Recontextualization of Language

In all of the stories, language—including the use of words/sayings,pronunciation, grammar, and modesof discourse—served as a centralway to accomplish recontextualiza-tion. Words such as “cool,” “bud,”

and “gonna,” as well as popularsayings like “bust out [of jail],”“checkin’ her out,” and “be there,”peppered the stories. Studentsprimarily used these words and say-ings to develop characters, boththrough characters’ direct speechand in descriptions of characters. Asone student told me when I askedwhy she used the contraction“gonna” instead of “going to,” “Itmakes the characters seem real, likethey’re really talking. It wouldsound stupid if she said, ‘I’m goingto be late.’” These sentiments wereechoed in other students’explanations, as well.

Three of the stories containedcharacters who used pronunciations,grammatical moves, and modes ofdiscourse of African AmericanVernacular English. For the mostpart, these were confined to thedirect speech of characters. Forexample, Saundra and Tressa incor-porated grammatical aspects of thisdialect in Be Careful What You WishFor, a Halloween horror story forolder children about a girl whowishes her abusive father would die—a wish that results in dreadful conse-quences. The main character, Marie,cries, “There nothin I can do my

mama’s dead” after her mother iskilled. As documented by Smitherman(1977), the omitted be is used to referto conditions that are fixed in timeand events that are unrepeatable, asin this example. Also, the spelling of“nothin” reflects the pronunciation of–in rather than –ing (Rickford, 1999).Elsewhere in the story, a ghost offersMarie assistance, stating, “You seethis here? It is a wishing pumpkin,”

and then explains the consequencesof misusing the pumpkin’s powers.The use of “this here” is a commongrammatical move in many Englishdialects, including African AmericanVernacular English, and is used topoint to a nearby object in contrast tosomething more distant (Petrova,1998; Rickford, 1999).

In addition to grammar, several stu-dents incorporated African Americanmodes of discourse in their stories,including “signification” and “tonalsemantics.” In Dassandra Story, Das-sandra’s unpopularity due to unfash-ionable dress is introduced viasignification. As Smitherman (1977)points out, signification “refers to theverbal art of insult in which a speakerhumorously puts down, talks about,needles—that is, signifies on—the lis-tener” (p. 118). This discursive form issometimes used just for fun, but isalso a socially acceptable way of cri-tiquing someone. Early in the story,Dassandra’s brother states, “Dassan-dra, you put things together thatmost people wouldn’t. Elton Johndresses better than you do” (p. 3).When she becomes upset with him,he leaves, saying, “Whatever, younon-matching—” (p. 5). At school,Dassandra’s peers make the same

In addition to grammar, several students incorporatedAfrican American modes of discourse in their stories,

including “signification” and “tonal semantics.”

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critique when one shouts, “You worethat ‘Good-Will’ looking shirt yester-day” (p. 6). These three instances ofsignifying serve to set up the centralproblem of the story that is laterresolved by a full makeover.

Another African American mode ofdiscourse, tonal semantics—includingrhyme, alliteration, and repetition—highlighted key points in the stories.While these are common poeticmoves found in children’s books, inAfrican American Vernacular Englishthe repetition of sounds and structuresis used for emphasis and effect. AsSmitherman (1977) points out, theyare integral to understanding themeaning of spoken utterances. Thepresence of tonal semantics has beendocumented in written texts, as well(Redd & Massey, 1997; Smitherman,1994). The students who drew uponthis resource used rhyme, alliteration,and repetition to highlight importantpoints and characters in their stories.For example, the moral of the storyBe Careful What You Wish For, “So ifyou wish for something terrible aboutsomeone it may come true but theworst thing for you . . .” contained arhyme between “true” and “you” thatemphasized the lesson and signaledthe end of the story.

In Shaquita, Tameka used a height-ened presence of alliteration, rhyme,and repetition around Shaquita’sinteraction with the angel. As shetold me, “Even though the story’sabout Shaquita, it’s the angel whomakes stuff happen.” The centralityof the angel was carried through inthe style of the text. Tameka wrote:

“So you’re a . . .” “No time to talk,” said the angel, cutting her off, “We need to get you in some clothes and fast.”

“First, you need a dress. How about a white silk Armani with cross-front high heels.” Shaquita heard chimes and suddenly her rags were replaced with Armani

and instead of bare feet she had high heels.

“How about a fancy hair-do, a bouffant would be nice for a dance.” Swish, swish and it was there.

“Wow, this is...,” “Chit-chat when you get back, you need a car,” cutting her off once more. “Ooo, can I get a white limo with the works and a personal driver?” “Ofcourse,” said the angel, “Why not?” With a swish,swish, she was in her limo and around the corner. (p. 13–16)

Shaquita’s face-to-face interactionwith the angel begins with aninterruption from the angel, which isrepeated again on the last page oftheir interaction. Both pages start withShaquita talking, the angel interrupt-ing, and the repetition of the phrase“cutting her off.” In each of the inter-ruptions, the sounds [k] and [t] arerepeated—“‘No time to talk,’ said theangel, cutting her off,” and “‘Chit-chatwhen you get back, you need a car,’cutting her off once more.”

Another pattern in this part of thestory included the pattern of need-ing/receiving, which structured thebulk of their interaction. On page14, Shaquita needed a dress andreceived an Armani; on page 15,she needed a hairdo and received abouffant; on page 16, she needed acar and received a limo. Thispattern was echoed at the end ofpage 14, as well, when, “her ragswere replaced with Armani andinstead of bare feet she had highheels.” Also, on the final two pages,the alliteration of “swish swish”preceded the change.

Their interaction comes to a dramaticcrescendo on the final page,beginning with the rhyme, “chit-chatwhen you get back.” Also, the [w]sound is repeated multiple times:“Wow, this is...,” “Chit-chat when youget back, you need a car,” cutting her

off once more. “Ooo, can I get a whitelimo with the works and a personaldriver?” “Of course,” said the angel,“Why not?” With a swish, swish, shewas in her limo and around thecorner.” Finally, their interaction endswith “in her limo and around the cor-ner,” which has a parallel structure andrhythm. By marking the interactionsbetween Shaquita and the angel withsuch dramatically stylized language,Tameka subtly highlighted the impor-tance of the angel in the story.

Recontextualization of Popular Culture

In addition to setting, characters, andlanguage, students made popular cul-ture references through fashion andmusic. Many of the characters’ taste inclothing and hair reflected that of thestudents in the group. The majority ofthe stories contained characters whowore their hair in popular contempo-rary hairstyles. Also, a number of thecharacters wore clothing styles thatwere popular at the time among manyAmerican youth. For example, in Das-sandra Story, the popular studentswore styles such as flare-legged pants,midriff shirts, platform shoes, andmini-skirts (see Figure 2). Indeed, intwo of the stories, Shaquita and Das-sandra Story, access to specific brands

Figure 2. Page from DassandraStory

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Textual Borderlands

of clothing as part of a more compre-hensive makeover lead to the resolu-tion of the story. For example,Shaquita wore a “white silk Armani”to the prom, which made her desirableto the D.J. Also, Dassandra becamepopular only when she got amakeover including an AmericanEagle wardrobe. Clothing andhairstyles, whether specificallyaddressed in the story line or includedin illustrations, provided importantrepresentational resources for studentsin creating their books.

Musical references were anotherway in which students incorporatedpopular culture in their books. Forexample, in one of the books, aposter of NSYNC, a popular boyband, is hanging on the wall in oneof the illustrations. In Shaquita,music plays a more central role tothe storyline when, “The d.j.happened to play Shaquita’sfavorite song, ‘A Song for Mama,’”which is by another popular group,Boyz II Men. Like the use ofcontemporary clothing andhairstyles, popular musicalreferences located the students,their books, and their young readersin a context that valued these refer-ences as meaningful.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING

Through the use of settings, charac-ters, language, and popular culture,the students engaged in borderlandbuilding on two fronts—both in theworkshop and in their audiences’early childhood classrooms. Tamekadrew on each of these types ofrecontextualization in Shaquita tosituate herself and her young read-ers in a borderland between school,popular, and African American cul-tures. Tameka accomplished this bysetting her story in a contemporarycontext including a prom, by repre-senting and naming her charactersas African American, by using tonal

semantics to highlight theimportance of the angel, and byincorporating popular fashion andmusic. Through these moves, sherecontextualized representationsfrom popular and African Americancultures into the institutional, aca-demic, and arguably White spacesof the university and the earlychildhood classroom.

My experience teaching andresearching this workshop enabledme to consider how teachers mightincorporate reading, analyzing, andwriting children’s books into their

classrooms. Although the context ofthis study is very different from theconditions faced by most teachers—in terms of class size, student enroll-ment based on interest, and studentdemographics—it provides a specificexample of what such instructionmight look like and what it mightlead to in students’ writing.

Using children’s literature as a cata-lyst for students’ writing suggestsseveral practices for teachers to con-sider in their literacy classrooms.First, published children’s books canbe used as a way to unpack the craftof writing. Because of the familiarityof children’s book genres, this type ofreading and writing offers a uniquecontext for exploring how writersdraw on a variety of resources toengage their young audiences. Byanalyzing how authors of children’sbooks use literary devices such asmetaphor and rhyme, dialectresources such as call and response,as well as representations of diverse

people and places, students were ableto apply these devices to their ownwriting. As Tameka’s “ghetto” versionof Cinderella demonstrates, youngpeople can mobilize common storylines and re-accent them with theirown experiences and culturalresources. Having access to publishedbooks that engage in such work, aswell as developing an awareness ofhow and why such moves are impor-tant, were central factors leading tothese students’ successful attempts atthis type of writing.

Second, children’s book writing canbe used to teach students how tomeaningfully and intentionallybring their out-of-school lives intoconversation with in-school literacypractices. The students in this work-shop recontextualized a number ofrepresentational resources in theirwriting that extended far beyond thetypical scope of academic settings.Whereas these resources are oftenignored or devalued in school (Find-ers, 1997; Gomez, Stone, & Hobbel,2004), they do not need to be.Students’ representational resourcesfrom beyond school can be viewedas “funds of knowledge” (Moll,1994) to be cultivated and refined.Indeed, as the work of Tameka andher peers illustrates, such resourcescan provide avenues of access toschool-based literacies.

Whereas resources such as dialect andpopular culture can be powerful, stu-dents need instruction on how andwhere such moves are effective. Forinstance, while acceptable within thecontext of a children’s book, a refer-ence to NSYNC likely would not beappropriate in a science lab report. Iam not arguing for an all-out celebra-tion of students’ out-of-school lives;rather, I am calling for a careful exam-ination of what such resources mightoffer to literacy teaching and learning.Previous work has illuminated thecomplexity of dialects such as AfricanAmerican Vernacular English and

These students’ criticalreadings of the worldwere often in tensionwith the pragmatic

realities of their lives.

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how the discourse practices from thisdialect are valuable in someacademic situations (Lee, 1993;Smitherman, 1994) Likewise, agrowing body of work hasexamined the role of popularculture in students’ literacydevelopment (Alvermann et al.,2003; Dyson, 1997). Much of thework in these areas has examinedhow young people spontaneouslyincorporate these resources intotheir writing despite teachers’ inten-tions. However, ultimately, we needto move young writers towardbecoming deliberate and reflectiveusers of such representational tools.This children’s book workshopoffers one example of how theseresources might be intentionallycultivated in literacy classrooms.

Finally, writing children’s books canbe used to foster critical literacies, tochallenge the way the world is rep-resented in both reading andwriting. Tameka’s claim that her lifewas not reflected in the books sheread as a young child demonstratesthat the opportunity to pull togetherschool, cultural, and popularresources into a text was asignificant critical act, calling intoquestion the absence of people likeher in the children’s book publishingindustry. As illustrated by the storieswritten by Tameka and her peers,such opportunities can become pow-erful forums for youth to place theirin- and out-of-school lives into adynamic and critical dialogue.

Nonetheless, these students’ criticalreadings of the world were often intension with the pragmatic realitiesof their lives. All of the students inthe workshop made some criticalobservations during our discussionsof published children’s books andengaged in critical action by includ-ing representations of culturallydiverse settings, characters, and lan-

guage. However, many of the booksstill evoked a number of problematicstereotypes. Both Shaquita and Das-sandra Story dramatically illustratethis in that the female main charac-ters did not solve their ownproblems; rather, their problems weresolved by an angel and a nurse whogave them access to name brandproducts. This was a common topicof conversation as the studentsdrafted their books, so the youngwomen in this workshop were awarethat these problematic aspects existedbut still chose to include them intheir texts. The authors of DassandraStory even addressed a critical view-point in their text, through NurseGoode’s comment that, “To tell youthe truth they should accept you theway you are.” In both of these texts,the pragmatics of popularity won outover critical consciousness. As teach-ers, we need to help students workthrough these tensions; one place todo this is in writing. For example, if Iwere to teach this workshop again, Iwould have students write multipleversions of their books, including acritical tale. What would happen ifShaquita decided that the prom was-n’t “all that” or if Dassandra and herbrother decided that mismatchedclothes should become the new fash-ion? Such counter-stories need to bedealt with alongside the solutionsthat Tameka, Kimberly, and Maxineused.

The lessons that can be learnedfrom this workshop and thesestudents extend well beyondwriting children’s books. Unpackingthe craft of writing, drawing on stu-dents’ out-of-school lives, andengaging students in criticalreading and writing are importantgoals for literacy educators acrossgenres. Indeed, literacy educatorsmust make these issues central totheir teaching, especially as our stu-

dents reflect increasingly diversebackgrounds. Through careful studyof our teaching practices andstudents’ writing, we can begin toshape a more equitable and ethicalapproach to teaching literacy.

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alphabet in Spanish and English. Trans. R.Zubizarreta. Illus. S. Silva. New York:Lothrop, Lee, & Shepard.

Cha, D. (1996). Dia’s story cloth. Illus. C. Cha& N. T. Cha. New York: Lee & Low.

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Textual Borderlands

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Author Biography

Jennifer C. Stone is assistant professorof Language, Literacy, & Culture at theUniversity of Washington.