Kids need Access to Hear My Voice

 

 

17 different Mexican and Mexican-American illustrators contributed to the beautiful artwork in, The Testimonies of Children Detained at the Southern Border of the United States: Hear My Voice compiled by Warren Binford for Project Amplify. After reading this my first thought was if this was a narrative case study dissertation, it would be an incredible one. The words in the text poetic, supporting their illustration like a balanced ecosystem. Weaving several diverse narratives, voices, and styles, offered me a front row seat to children experiencing immigration detention. A tough hard truth through the portal of the picturebook that will make your heart scream and your spine ache. At the same time, a feeling of power comes form knowing what you learn in this picturebook. Looking closer and revisiting is necessary.
 

The double spread full-bleed of the children with a different species of a bird as their head (with the bird represented the Country the "child" was from) had me pause for many long moments. Such strong symbolism how the children within the cages were as diverse as the various Countries they represented. An opportunity to think about what we know, don't know, and how we can do better.

 

After reading Hear My Voice, I thought of the work by Jairo Buitrago and just how powerful children's picturebooks are in terms of current events that are so horrific they feel like they are part of a dark resolved history, not the current unresolved traumas of some humans living in today.  These are the books that must be on every school library shelf. The books our teachers of history, current events, and ethics should share and engage in rigorous discourse about. 

 

The incredible strength in children telling the story of a difficult experience lends itself to children's responses that unearth their perceptions and allow them to better understand issues around migration, human rights, and racism. Readers will appreciate some of the suggested questions in the back, such as, "Can you think of reasons why people might leave their home?" or "Do you know what rights are?" as a way to prompt for children's responses to their transaction with this picturebook.

 

I would recommend building a text set that included Jairo Buitrago #@jjairobuitrago and Rafael Yockteng's books too.

 

 

 

Dreamers by Yurt Morales

The Arrival by Shaun Tan