makchic’s publisher, Laych Koh shares her thoughts on culture, changes and current events in her new monthly column, The Dilated Pupil.
Mummy, what am I – white or yellow?”
Were you allowed to go to university? Because Marie Curie wasn’t?”
Mummy, can men marry men and women marry women?”
Every really ‘hard’ question my little sons have asked me in their life – and there have been many – has been made easier to answer because of books. Specifically, a series of books I am indebted to called ‘Little People, Big Dreams‘. I have been collecting these wonderful books for about five years, and thanks to the width and breadth of the personalities the series covers, I feel like I have been able to introduce my children – now 6 and 8 years old – to the wider world around them, past and present, from the comforts of our home during story time.
You may have seen these instantly-recognisable books by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara – they are exquisitely illustrated, well made and beautifully written. From scientists like Albert Einstein and Curie, to artists like Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso, from activists like Martin Luther King and Emmeline Pankhurst, to sporting heroes like Pele and Muhammad Ali, the books have a simple goal – to introduce these amazing personalities from world history, and the complex themes and issues associated to them, in a way that children can understand.
Unpacking tough topics
When the issue of race comes up, my eldest Luca has been able to bring up the stories of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks as examples of how Black people have been discriminated against. The children were also able to talk about how segregation made them feel sad, and how they thought it wasn’t fair. My second-born Leo – who loves animals and dinosaurs – loves the story of Mary Anning, and likes to remind me about how she was (also) not allowed to go to university despite being a fossil expert! But the heaviest-hitting topics – and one parents and teachers can find challenging to approach delicately – such as gay rights and LGBTQ+ issues, are when I’ve been most grateful for the Little People, Big Dreams books.
I remember when we first got the Alan Turing copy three years ago, when Luca was five. Luca loves mathematics and numbers, and Turing, the ultimate mathematician and founder of computer science, seemed a great choice. I honestly wasn’t really ready to talk about gender issues, but Turing’s history – a genius who was chemically castrated by the government because he was gay – made it impossible to ignore. Was I nervous when we came across the topic? Yes, of course, but the book made it easy for me to talk about it as plainly and matter-of-factly as I could. Yes, some men love men, and some women love women, and some people believe that is wrong, and some others more fervently so. I asked my sons what they thought about it, and they innocently brought up some of our friends who are gay, as if to say, well they are gay, they are so nice, and we know and love them, so what’s the big deal?
It was heartwarming for them to make the associations themselves, and bring up something that is a recurring theme in all of the Little People, Big Dreams books – we may be different, but all of us were little children, and all of us have dreams, and all of us deserve love and human rights.
One-dimensional – or age-appropriate?
There is another reason why I have felt compelled to write this review slash love letter about these books. Curious about articles about Little People, Big Dreams, I recently read a critique on the series by the Social Justice Books team member Paige Pagan, who said the books present “a one-dimensional, pop-cultural conception of key figures, reinforcing stereotypes and disregarding their strides as part of a collective effort.” Incredibly, she then recommends that “libraries and bookstores should discontinue their active promotion of this series.”
Has she even actually read the book to young children, its intended audience?
To me, this call is incredibly preposterous and absurd. Sure, the series is not perfect, and got ridiculed earlier this year when a book on King Charles came out. (Perhaps rightly so, should any of us dream to be a King?). But any adult who has tried to talk to very young children about big topics would know that being age-appropriate means being necessarily simplified. It is not going to include the complexities and roundedness of a human being’s life – especially when serious topics and years of history come into play. Let us also get into the very political and adult discourse about the totality of social movements and all their contributing players at another time. An activist’s or artist’s life (and indeed our own!) has so many iterations, changes and growth, that covering it all would make a poor book for young children.
Meeting Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara
I once had to teach nine and ten-year-old children about the great poet Maya Angelou, and because we teachers have to be mindful of topics like sex and sexuality, we opted not tell the children that Angelou had been raped at the age of eight. When her rapist was released and murdered, Angelou refused to speak for years. This selective mutism as a result of the trauma is covered extensively in other literature on Angelou, but we had to approach it in other ways as educators. Indeed, in the Little People, Big Dreams book, Angelou is described as having been ‘attacked’ by her mother’s boyfriend. My children understood that. I expect they will learn more about this truth when they are older, but this does not detract from the learning about Angelou.
To my utter surprise and delight, I was able to meet and chat with the author of this series, Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara in February last year. There was a Little People, Big Dreams session during the always excellent Imagine Children’s Festival in Southbank Centre, London, and I greedily booked tickets for it immediately. I thought it was just a fun quiz and reading session that my sons, Luca and Leo, could get involved in, but imagine my joy to see that Sánchez Vegara was present herself to do the activities with the children.
Isa, as she is called, was warm and gentle with the children, and patiently signed books for everyone after the session too. I told her that the series was essentially my teaching ‘curriculum’ for my children, and I thanked her for writing these books. She kindly signed two books for my children, and her messages were just like her books – kind, uplifting and encouraging.
The lessons learned along the way
The truth is, I cannot be more grateful to this series as a parent. Thanks to a collection I have invested in, my children now have around 30 personalities to read about and link to whenever we talk about current events or news that interest them. I hope to collect more, and one day, donate them to a library.
In my work as a teacher and journalist, I cannot give this series enough credit for how I have been able to make conversational and educational links with relatively heavy topics such as human rights, injustice, racism, or sexism in a way that is age-appropriate, thoughtful and tender. I have even been able to cover an intense topic like death and grief, as it comes up in quite a number of books. The diversity covered by this series is also to be admired – different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, genders and even those who have passed and are still very much alive, Little People, Big Dreams covers them all. My only hope is that there will be more Asian and South East Asian representation in the series – perhaps one on Maria Ressa or Tu Youyou?
The cherry on top? Sometimes my children surprise me with facts and notes they have remembered from the books. When I am explaining why the Pride March is taking place in London, Luca brought up Alan Turing without hesitation. I was talking to Leo about how some people copy work and pass it off as their own one day, and he reminded me that this was what happened to Mary Anning.
“What do you mean?” I asked him. He told me that other men took her work and said it was theirs. I nodded solemnly and had to check later as I did not remember this particular part about copying. But there it was, straight out plagiarism: “(Mary Anning) was always happy to share her knowledge with scientists who visited her, asking for advice. Sadly, some weren’t real gentlemen. Many books were written using her discoveries, but no-one ever mentioned her name.”
So there you go, and one of the reasons why I am writing about these books. I enjoy these books and I learn from them myself too.
