INCLUSIVITY in CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY and in DANIEL JOSE OLDER'S "SHADOWSHAPER"

         Young adult and children’s literature are somewhat recent concepts, created as products of 18th century England’s newfound recognition of different stages of children’s development towards young adulthood. Up until the mid-20th century, an overwhelming amount of youth literature barred adolescents from more in-depth discourse about contemporary social and political topics. Already emerging with narrative limitations, adolescent and young adult literature have reflected stories and themes that focus mainly on young white audiences for centuries after their inception –and in many ways, still do in their growth as more commonplace genres in literature. Doctor MicKenzie Fasteland Ph.D. gives a historical and academic overview in her essay “Reading the Ephebic Way: G. Stanley Hall’s Adolescence and Imperialist Reading Practices for White American Boys” on how young adult literature largely focused on educated white male readers throughout history –while limiting representation of nonwhite groups with covertly oppressive, classist, and racial attitudes reflected in early teen’s literature. In contrast to Fasteland’s analysis, I relate the physical layout and books on display at Cambridge Public Library to Daniel Jose Older’s racially-inclusive novel Shadowshaper as a means to show modern literary and institutional efforts to bridge the racial representation and accessibility gap, and lack of discussion around social issues still present in teen literature.

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Observations:

         The teen room of the Cambridge Public Library is located beyond the main study room, in the far-left wing on the library’s main floor.

On one of front doors leading to the teen room is a sign restricting the space

strictly to library-goers of ages 13 to 18. Behind the entrance are glass shelves,

which store best-seller books that fall under a specific topic. Books on the shelves

behind the left-hand side of the entrance commemorate Black History Month and

the lives of important black figures such as Malcolm X, while romance and LGBTQ

books fill the right-hand shelves for Valentine’s day. Above the doors are posters

with adages and illustrations to inspire acceptance, anti-discrimination, and

transcending racism. The entire teen room itself basically consists of two distinct

halves; with book-filled shelves against the walls and computers and desks at

various corners in the front half of the room, and an area with booth seating for

teenagers to sit and lounge in the back half of the room. All the books on the shelves located in the front area of the room are primarily fiction books divided into different subgenres such as science fiction, adventure, romance, and fantasy, as well as a section for realistic fiction books involving social justice. 

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Reflections:

         Nearly every aspect of the teen room, from the layout of the space to the very books that are on display, seems to be intended to encourage a sense of openness or social freedom for teens. The teen room is one of the few places where the library permits conspicuously loud and chatty behavior, and allows teens the choice to be either productive or be social, or even both. The separation between the study space up at the front area and the social space in the back with the booth seats suggests that teens require designated areas to either read and focus or freely socialize. The actual books themselves demonstrate a deeper sense of openness, specifically, cultural inclusion, towards the population of teenagers who frequent the library. Characters of all races and various cultural or ethnic backgrounds are on the covers of the fictional novels, which focus on social justice issues and culturally-specific topics that are intended to be relatable to readers of various racial and ethnic demographics. In her analysis “Reading the Ephebic Way…”, MicKenzie Fasteland explains the ties between the controversial late-psychologist Stanley Hall’s attitudes and Young Adult literature appealing mainly to young, white, middle class men throughout its early history, claiming that “at the turn of the century,… literacy was a longstanding priority in the United States (although not universally accessible, particularly for women and people of color)” (Fasteland 5). The intention to attract racially diverse groups of teenaged readers, shown in the library’s choice of books, is in direct opposition with the race- and class based exclusivity of early literary history that Fasteland addresses in her essay. Whereas notable figures in American society centuries ago would have frowned upon such a concept like the CPL’s teen room making reading so accessible to young people, the Cambridge Library values its attendees as involved readers in the world who are worthy of learning and reading in order to expand their minds on a wide range of world affairs and social issues. Fasteland notes that powerful members in society of the past “felt leisure reading encouraged unproductive practices, and…—might contain immoral material that could lead to moral and mental degradation“, while the fiction books in the teen room cover relevant concerns of today’s world which could be valuable for anyone seeking to not only dive into his or her own imagination, but also shape his or her own social and cultural awareness, and foster curiosity about the world to be a more conscious participant in it (Fasteland 5).

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Connections:

         Similar to how the physical space of the teen room communicates a certain perception of teenagers, the setting and the characters of      Daniel Jose Older’s Young Adult novel Shadowshaper illustrate how teens, especially those of color, have powerful agency in the world                                                                            around them. In Shadowshaper, Jose Older paints a dynamic picture of a neighborhood in Brooklyn,                                                                     New York with memorial murals which adorn the side of buildings on every block, lively settings like                                                                        dance clubs, a block party, and unfittingly-pristine

                                                                businesses, like hipster-filled cafés, amongst run-down

                                                                neighborhood buildings. Sierra Santiago, Jose

                                                                Older’s main character of Shadowshaper, is a

                                                                teenaged  Puerto-Rican artist living in Brooklyn who

                                                                tackles a myriad of intersecting social justice issues that

                                                                are still relevant today within as well as outside of the

                                                                fictional novel. The Tower, being a “five-story concrete monstrosity on a block otherwise full of                                                                                 brownstones”, is just one of the important landmarks in the novel’s landscape that highlight the issue of                                                                 gentrification and the power gap within low-income neighborhoods, which Sierra artistically confronts                                                                     by painting a visually loud mural on the building (Jose Older 2). Just as the Cambridge Public Library                                                                     accommodates teens’ apparent needs for having a place to socialize and have fun while present in a learning space, Jose Older has Sierra in Shadowshaper living a mostly typical teenager’s life as she travels around New York hanging out with her friends and interacting with symbolic areas in her neighborhood. Sierra’s actions and character were likely included in the novel to make it more enticing for teenagers to read and easily connect with the social issues the novel explores. 

 

         Additionally, Sierra’s character validates the importance of having characters in the world of fictional literature that represent teens of color. Sierra gradually recaptures her cultural identity while learning about the secret world of shadowshaping in her family. Then, in the climax of the novel, she uses her spiritual and shadowshaping ability to conquer white anthropologist Dr. Wick, who is an extension of the many symbols of cultural invasion presented in the novel. Through confronting Wick, Sierra restores power back to her family’s legacy after he “[t]ried to tear [her] own heritage away” (Jose Older 287). With the very creation of Sierra as a character, Daniel Jose Older pushes her role beyond the confines of the genre of young adult fiction, where teens of color typically remain misrepresented and underrepresented, and falls in line with the Cambridge Library presenting books with racially diverse characters to draw in different crowds of readers.  

 

Works Cited

Fasteland, MicKenzie. “Reading the Ephebic Way: G. Stanley Hall’s Adolescence and 
Imperialist Reading Practices for White American Boys.” Article.  University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 2017.

Older, Daniel Jose. Shadowshaper. Scholastic Inc., 2016.

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“The Teen Room.” Cambridge Public Library, Robert Benson Photography, www.cambridgema.gov/cpl/hoursandlocations/mainlibrary/photogallery.