The poet Antonio Machado says that we make the road by walking. The road to this work has been long and arduous, but I have not walked alone: Great companions walked with me along the way. My two beloved mentors, Sonia Nieto and Masha Kabakow Rudman, accompanied me. Their research and teaching are central to my work. Thank you to Masha for the invitation to co-write this book because it created a space for us to think, learn, and write together, time that I will always cherish. Thank you to Sonia for the many invitations to teach multicultural education, experiences that deepened my understanding of how power works in the United States.
Thank you to Professors Cathy Luna and William Moebius for their thoughtful participation during my doctoral studies, mentoring that greatly contributed to this book project.
Thank you to my dear mentors at the Ontario Institute for Studies of Education at the University of Toronto: Dean Jane Gaskell and Professors Dennis Thiessen, Tara Goldstein, Doug McDougall, and Normand LaBrie. Their inspiration and support over the past several years was instrumental in the completion of this work. What a blessing it is to have my beloved OISE colleagues in my life: David Booth, Linda Cameron, Patricia Chow, Sarah Cohen, Jim Cummins, Mary Kooy, Lisa Leoni, Miriam Patterson, Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, and Padma Sastri. Thank you to Shelley Stagg Peterson, my cherished OISE “buddy,” for her support and interest in this book. Thank you to Eunice Jang and Julie (Jules) Kerekes for their love and understanding. I am so blessed to have them. They will be forever in my heart.
Thank you to my wonderful graduate assistants: Ed Dixon, Agnes Kieltyka, Chyleen Shih, Yamin Qlan, and MinKyeong Suk. Their many contributions enriched this work.
My mother and father nurtured in me a great sense of social responsibility. They taught me about collaborative power through their sharing of resources and social power. Thank you to Annie, Jesse, José, and Conceição, my loving siblings, for being embodiments of our parents’ teachings. Their love sustains me.
My beloved family, Jim and our children Emma and Elihu, has nourished my heart and soul. Jim has been a loving and supportive companion on this road. I hope this book makes a difference in the world because my children are the reason I took this trip in the first place.
This collaborative book project would not have been possible without the financial support from the University of Toronto Connaught Start-Up Grant.
Maria José Botelho
First and foremost I must acknowledge the steady competent support of my assistant, Kathy Boron, without whom I could not have completed my work. She helped me in every phase of the research and writing. She grappled with the foibles of the computers, helped in the editing, and managed the many tasks that I could not tackle.
I owe a debt of gratitude to those scholars and colleagues whose work has informed and guided me over the years. Sonia Nieto has been a friend as well as colleague and has always encouraged me in my work. Debbie Reese, Rudine Sims Bishop, and OYATE have all been gracious in their responses to my queries.
Sara Young has worked by my side in studying children’s literature and the direction we are going in our thinking. We have co-taught, conferred, and bounced ideas back and forth.
My daughter, Reva Rudman, has contributed ideas, opinions, and emotional support to me in ways too numerous to mention, including bringing to my attention authors and titles I might otherwise not have seen.
I am indebted to all of my students, especially those in my Issues in Children’s Literature classes over the years. Their questions and research spurred me to probe more deeply into the numerous texts and reviews that led to several of the chapters in our book. Some of the many names are John Raible, Patty Bode, Martha Morgan, Marisa Campbell, Nia Taylor, Diane Mercomes, Tara Nappi, Eileen Gould, and Tina Bisanti.
I beg forgiveness of those whose names I have not included here. I fear that there are many I have overlooked. Suffice it to say that this has been a collaborative project from the beginning and will continue to be so.
Masha Kabakow Rudman
We are grateful to Naomi Silverman, our wonderful editor, whose belief in this project was unending.
Thank you to Mingshui Cai, Patrick Shannon, and Junko Yokota for their generosity and insightful contributions during our online dialogue.