Bilingual Books for Children: An Interview with Nicolas Kanellos, Director of Pinata Press

According to a recent Census Bureau report, nearly one-fifth of America's schoolchildren now speak a language other than English at home, and about seventy percent of these are fluent in Spanish. Already in 1974, the substantial numbers of schoolchildren whose primary language was not English led Congress to pass the Bilingual Education Act. Heatedly contested at the polls, bilingual education has without contest been highly effective in stimulating the publication of bilingual fiction and non-fiction. At one level, these books aim to speed the assimilation into English of first and second generation immigrant speakers of other languages, as well as help English speakers acquire a second language. But bilingual texts can have very complex agendas beyond language acquisition that include the preservation of cultural practices, folklore, and history; enhancing minority children's self esteem and social interaction; and building a culture of tolerance and resistance to ethnic stereotypes. The physical layout of picture books, as Jarasa Kanok notes elsewhere in this issue, can contribute to this complexity, by silently encoding hierarchic relationships between cultures and languages, or playfully weaving visual differences that mimic verbal code-switching. Major foundations such as the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts have supported the development of bilingual publication, with grants to small presses such as Curbstone and Arte Publico. Mainstream publishers have joined the market--Henry Holt, Harry Abrams, Harper Collins, Puffin, Harcourt Brace, William Morrow, Macmillan, Avon, and Disney. A surprising number of bilingual picture books draw on familiar stories that have no particular ethnic interest: "Los dos malvados ratones," "Caperucita roja" or "Los osos Berenstain" are a few examples. If capitalists have a stake in this market, so do politicians, witness the entry of Subcomandante Marcos into this terrain. More seriously, academic presses at western universities, such as Colorado University, the University of Washington, the University of Alaska, or the University of Nebraska, maintain lists in Native American languages and culture, including some bilingual texts. Since orality is such an important component of these projects, we must welcome enterprises like Audio-Forum, which offers a broad array of bilingual tapes in Native American languages. Oyate and the Council for Indian Education also provide links to small presses that publish bilingual picture books, such as Kiva and Clear Light (Hopi), Willowisp (Cree), or Press Pacifica (Hawaian). The children's library of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center offers a resource to scholars as well. Some of the presses that have emerged to satisfy this market print children's texts in many languages (e.g. Mantra and Bilingual Baby Company). Others specialize in a language or region (e.g. Cherokee Publications, Kodansha, Pacific Asia Press, and Shen's Books). The enormous range of the field, from print to electronic publication, can be seen by a visit to ACQweb at http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb. The majority of bilingual publishers, however, inevitably address the one child in seven who speaks Spanish, along with the many parents who want their children to learn Spanish (Globo Libros, Cinco Puntos Press, for example). The oldest and largest publisher of Hispanic literature is the award-winning Arte Publico, established in 1979 and renowned for its project "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage." Its series Pinata Books, launched by Dr. Nicolcas Kanellos in 1994, focuses on Hispanic children's and young adult literature and spans bilingual picture books, poetry and novels. MELUS: When you launched Pinata Books, did you expect to publish for different ages, ranging from early language acquisition to young adult? How do you distinguish the coming-of-age books you publish for young adults from those for adults? …