Smashing Birds in the Wilderness: British Racial and Cultural Integration from Insider and Outsider Perspectives

A review on a group of young adult novels thematising British multiculturalism as it plays out in relations between young characters of different ethnic origins is presented. The analysis of these texts suggests that in many cases racial and cultural difference is named through descriptions of characters, but not pursued through thematics or language, and thus issues of community relations and individual identities are represented through shallow and celebratory treatments, which contradict the complexities of British multiculturalism

British Activist Authors Addressing Children of Colour

Exploring a history of activists writing for and about children of colour from abolition to Black Lives Matter, this open access book examines issues such as the space given to people of colour by white activists; the voice, agency and intersectionality in activist writing for young people; how writers used activism to expand definitions of Britishness for child readers; and how activism and writing about it has changed in the 21st century. From abolitionists and anti-colonialists such as Amelia Opie, Una Marson and Rabindranath Tagore; communist and feminist activists concerned with broader children’s rights including Chris Searle and Rosemary Stones; to Black Panthers and contemporary advocates for people of colour from Farrukh Dhondy to Len Garrison, Catherine Johnson and Corinne Fowler, Karen Sands-O'Connor traces how these activists translated their values for children of colour. Beginning with historical events that sparked activism and the first cultural products for children and continuing to contemporary activism in the wake of the Windrush Scandal, this book analyses the choices, struggles and successes of writers of activist literature as they tried to change Britain and British literature to make it a welcoming place for all child readers. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollection.com. Open access was funded by Knowledge Unlatched