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As always at STANDARDS, we review titles
from a variety of sources, ever mindful of what will be most
useful in cultural studies, particularly in the classroom. This
year, what we've found is as exciting as ever.
Best of the Small Presses
Award
New voices and perspectives in feminism,
women's studies, and gender studies are richly textured in the
six titles we've reviewed for our most recent Best
of the Small Presses recipient, New Victoria.
Honorable Mentions:
The Bess Press
The
Bess Press is an independent, family-owned
small publishing house, operating in Honolulu. Specializing in
textbooks on Hawaiian history, language, culture and science;
Pacific history and culture; Asian and Pacific languages; and
reference works, The Bess Press has expanded to over 200 titles,
since their inception in 1979. Their curriculum materials are
primarily designed for the K-12 level, but include some college-level
texts as well. The Bess Press also publishes general interest
titles about Hawai'i: humor, cookbooks, travel, adventure, intermediate
readers and children's books.
Like most small publishing houses, The
Bess Press runs on passion. In this instance, the preservation,
exploration, and celebration of Hawaiian cultures are the guiding
principles of the Bess mission.
For example, in the introduction to one
of our favorite picks from the Bess catalog, the Hawaiian
Values book and tape series for young children, the authors
write:
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Storytelling is one of
our oldest human traditions. Long before the first written language,
elders shared their history, culture, traditions, and values
with their children through stories. The Hawaiian Values series
builds on this tradition by offering teachers and parents an
integrated early childhood curriculum, based on tales from the
Hawaiian islands. ...
Long ago, the Greek philosopher
Plato taught that a society, to flourish, must have ethical citizens.
To achieve this goal, the adults in that society have an obligation
to teach values directly and behave morally themselves. Plato
did not subscribe to the notion that good curriculum for children
is "content neutral." He believed that what
we teach children may, in fact, be the most important element
of their education. For that reason, adults should choose curricula
with care. Stories should be not only entertaining, but should
also communicate a desired message concerning character, desired
behaviors, and guidelines for living in society.
Susan Entz and Sheri
Galarza, authors, The Teacher's Curriculum Guide to Hawaiian
Values
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Lest these statements be perceived as proselytizing
or overly didactic, readers and educators can be assured that
the Hawaiian Values series is nothing short of delightful.
While the introduction speaks strongly to teachers, the resources
prepared for children demonstrate excellence, while entertaining.
The series is comprised of six integrated
units -- each a separate book containing a simple re-telling
of an important Hawaiian legend, along with engaging illustrations
by Bruce Hale, all prime for coloring. The companion Teacher's
Guide shepherds educators and parents through a brief summary
of the tale; the moral of the legend (including translations
of the native Hawaiian terms preserved throughout each story);
suggestions for introductory activities; glossaries and pronunciation
guides; and a treasure trove of additional activities in drama,
music, and art.
Book 1 of the series is "The Mystery
of the Shark and the Poi," a calming tale of four cousins
who each week encounter a shark, and who each week bestow the
gift of food to the creature. One of the boys determines to learn
more about the shark, as the legend teaches the values of lokomaika'i
(sharing), 'ohana (the importance of family), and malama
(caring).
Other legends teach the values of knowledge-seeking,
sharing, helpfulness, and humility ("How the Wind Got Its
Sail); cleverness ("The Clever 'Opihi"); spiritual
family guidance ("The Guardian Owl"); righteousness,
working together, excellence, and good work ("Menehune Mischief");
and, in perhaps the grandest story of this series, "Pele,
The Volcano Goddess," a version of how the Hawaiian Islands
were created through volcanic magma hurled into the sky by a
young goddess -- a story that teaches the virtues of pride, excellence,
and industriousness.
As we endeavor to teach our children respect
for all things, including diversity, the Hawaiian Values
series is very much the type of book we strongly recommend for
K-12 teaching in all types of settings, including home-schooling.
Further Resources from The Bess Press
Lawrence H. Fuch's Hawaii Pono (Hawaii
the Excellent): An Ethnic and Political Perspective, is back
in print after its initial publication 30 years ago, thanks to
The Bess Press. This formidable volume -- by turns informative,
insightful, and at times a bit prolix -- is definitely written
for the advanced reader. As a text for a course on Hawaiian history,
it may be a bit lengthy, but portions of the book could certainly
benefit students.
As a side-note, the recent Red Sun:
The Invasion of Hawai'i After Pearl Harbor, a fictionalized
"what-if" account of Hawaiian history by Richard Ziegler
and Patrick M. Patterson, could make an intriguing companion
to Hawaii Pono. Both titles are available from The
Bess Press.
Hawaii: A Unique Geography, by Joseph R. Morgan, is a definite winner for
reference work at both the high school and undergraduate levels.
Inclusive, well-written, and accessible, this is the volume to
have on hand when studying the diverse impact of the state's
geography on social, economic, cultural, and
political events.
We congratulate The Bess Press on their
fine array of titles, and encourage educators and students interested
in Pacific Rim studies to order from their catalog.
Looking Into Women
On The Row
From Firebrand Books, another small press
well worth noting, we found the intriguing account of Women
on The Row: Revelations from Both Sides of the Bars, by Kathleen
O'Shea. An activist and former nun, O'Shea set out to interview
incarcerated women slated for execution by the state, crafting
a non-fiction book that reads like the best suspense novels,
while imbuing the sense of radical transformation offered in
the finest of poetry and drama. Yet it's all real, all true,
all earnestly engaging. Perhaps most unique to this book is the
author's perspective: O'Shea does not merely drift among the
women sentenced to death, handing out platitudes -- rather,
there is a sense of commonality, even consonance, in the approach
O'Shea brings to this work. "I saw my face on a woman
on death row," O'Shea writes, "and realized that our
similarities were quite substantial, our differences somewhat
circumstantial." For women's studies, feminist theory, or
political science, we recommend Women On Death Row as
excellent teaching material for upper-level high school courses
through college studies.
Further Recommended
Reading
Push,
by Sapphire (NY: Knopf Press, 1996). For readers already familiar
with the poetry of Sapphire, as well as for those who have yet
to experience the delight of this author's linguistic intensity,
we strongly recommend this novel. The protagonist, Precious Jones,
is a young girl with dyslexia, whose story is about learning
to read, gaining self-respect, and never letting up. Precious
begins her narrative with the strong hit that characterizes the
entirety of the work: "I was left back when I was twelve
because I had a baby for my fahver. That was in 1983. I was out
of school for a year. This gonna be my second baby. My daughter
got Down Sinder." Out of incest, brutality, poverty, and
loneliness, Sapphire crafts one of the most marvelous tales of
achievement. If this book isn't in your library or on your classroom
shelves, get it there. No regrets.
Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness,
and Liberation, by Eli Clare (Cambridge,
MA: South End Press, 1999). From another excellent small press,
South End, comes Eli Clare's resounding achievement in cultural
studies, Exile & Pride. A woman living with cerebral
palsy, Clare offers an unflinching analysis of the intersections
of disability, sexuality, gender, region, and economic class.
At one point, she concludes: "Now, with this history in
hand, can I explain why the word freak unsettles me, why
I have not embraced this piece of disability history, this story
of disabled people who earned their livings by flaunting their
disabilities, this heritage of resistance, an in-your-face resistance
similar to 'We're here, we're queer, get used to it'? Why doesn't
the word freak connect me easily and directly to subversion?
The answer I think lies in the transition from freak show to
doctor's office, from curiousity to pity, from entertainment
to pathology." Clare's is a hard-hitting book, and a necessary
one. Read it. Teach it. Understand.
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