Shades of People

Melanie Orr

Edu 665

Shades of People-Blog

The book I chose this week related to diversity is called, “Shades of People” by Shelley Rotner and Sheila Kelly.  The photos are by Shelly Rotner. 

Summary:

The book is about noticing how people come in many different shades, not colors.  The book also explores possible places where children can see different shades of people.  In summary the book emphasizes that it is not about skin color, but what is inside a person that counts. 

Content:

The genre of the book has elements of both nonfiction and contemporary realistic fiction.  However, I believe this book is contemporary realistic fiction.  It is informative, but isn’t specifically explaining what diversity is, but rather telling a story and showing real life events and pictures of people and the possible places you could find different shades of people.  The illustrations are pictures of real children doing real things like playing on a playground, playing a hand game, and painting pictures.

Literary Elements:

Setting-The setting is in various places children frequent.  Such as a park, a school, a bus, a beach etc.

Characterization-The characters within the story are round, real life children of different ethnic backgrounds and a variety of shades.  The illustrations are pictures of children and not drawings.  The children don’t speak in the story, but the author’s point of view of each child is displayed.  

                                                                       

Plot-The plot of the story is begins with describing the different shades of skin, and then summarizing by stating there is light and dark and everything in-between. 

Theme-The theme of the story is descriptive and informative.  The book was designed to exemplify diversity through the pictures and the story itself describes the many different shades of people.  The theme was designed to show diversity and unity.

Style-  The author uses color words that children may or may not be familiar with to identify the different shades of people.  The pictures display various backgrounds such as playgrounds and sand boxes where children are playing and by doing this she creates a connection where children can relate and identify with what the book is saying.  The dialogue is like a child is telling the story.  The story is designed to be unifying and encourage acceptance.  The tone of the story is enlightening.  The point-of-view of the book is first person. The author uses “I” through out the book as if one person is telling the story.

Reflection/Evaluation-I like the overall goal the book is conveying, however some of the word choices in the book can be offensive if you are not careful.  Children are sponges and while we want them to be accepting of diversity, we walk a thin line when we categorize children according to color.  You don’t want them to walk around saying people are pink, very dark, pale, copper and so forth.  The goal is to recognize diversity not categorize.  Example from the book, “Some people have skin that is very dark”.  The word “very” is used for emphasis and when used with dark can mean that it is extraordinary and in turn may be offensive.  On the other hand the author does try to emphasis that skin is just a covering and its what is inside a person that counts. Example from book, “Our skin is just our covering, like wrapping paper, and you can’t tell what someone is like from the color of their skin.”  Overall, I like the book and the meaning it conveys.  The pictures are great and show many different shades of children.