The Language Teacher
02 - 2001

New Images of the Elderly in English-language Picture Books

Gwendolyn Gallagher


We're getting old. A week does not go by without the daily newspaper reminding us that industrialized countries, and Japan in particular, are getting proportionally grayer. It doesn't necessarily follow, however, that children have more contact with the elderly. Increased mobility means that children are less likely to live near their older relatives, and the increase in families with two working parents means that children spend less before-school or after-school time at home, lessening the opportunity to get to know neighbors of any age, including elderly ones. And in Japan, where the idea of ageism hasn't quite caught on, mandatory retirement ensures that children will not be meeting any senior citizens at school either . . . unless perhaps it is in books.

Of course, people you meet in books are not the same as people you meet on the street, nor should they be. Larger-than-life older characters that are unique and interesting can make children more positive toward and receptive to real senior citizens. Are there such elderly characters in children's books? There are now, but this is a big change over just a few decades ago.

In the wake of the great surge in awareness of racial and gender discrimination in the '60s and '70s, concern arose about the marginalization and stereotyping of the elderly. The word "ageism" was coined in 1969. In addition, as with gender and ethnicity, scholars scrutinized children's books to see how the elderly were depicted.

The results were bleak. The elderly were found to be misunderstood and misrepresented when visible at all. Barnum (1977) analyzed a random sampling of books recommended to schools and libraries between 1950-1959 and 1964-1974 by The Children's Catalog. Only 3.3% of the main characters and 5.3% of the people illustrated were elderly. Naturally, children are over-represented in juvenile literature, but even when Barnum focused on adult characters only, she found elderly people appearing in much lower proportions than they do in society. Ansello's in-depth study of 656 picture books and easy readers in one Maryland county library system found only 108 books with any aged characters at all (1977).

Ansello also pointed out that 55% of the elderly characters viewed in his study were men and 41% women (the rest indeterminate), despite a 69:100 male:female ratio in the over-65 group according to the US census. Barnum's study supported this, as did two studies of basal readers (Robin, 1977; Ribovich, 1979). This is perhaps unsurprising considering that females of all ages were shown to be under represented in juvenile literature (Weitzman, et al., 1972; Stahlecker, 1980). Analyzing the characters and activities of older people in his sample, Ansello commented: "One is struck by the repetition of routine and mundane behaviors of older characters, by the absence of the creative spark or the ingenious among them, by the superficial, tangential nature of their involvement with the stories" (1977, p. 255).

He also found them seldom involved in problem solving, not very self-sufficient, and rarely emotional. "The cumulative stereotype . . . non-creative and boring" (p. 270). Barnum also showed that seniors in picture books engage in few social activities (the women even less than the men) and that they "lack a full range of realistic emotions" (1976b, p. 305).

Happily, things do change. Picture books and early readers featuring senior citizens have become much more common. Grandparents, in particular, are "in." From July 1989 to December 1999, 512 hardcover young children's books about grandparents were published in the US alone (Horn Book Guide). Most focused on one grandparent or the other, and now grandmothers are in ascendancy at 55%.

An increase in the non-entities Ansello described would not be a development to celebrate, but the new oldsters have pizzazz. In the decades since Barnum and Anselo's studies, and from all across the English-speaking world, new elderly characters have emerged who are worth knowing and remembering.

New Images

There are many fine books about warm relationships between children and their grandparents. John Burningham's Grandpa (1984), Amy Hest's The crack-of -dawn walkers (1984), Angela Johnson's When I am old with you (1990), and Tomi DePaola's Tom (1993) celebrate the myriad joys of being with grandfather. A Sunday with Grandpa (Dupasquier, 1988) lovingly recounts a day in the country that any child would relish. Moreover, the grandfather is very true to life. Though not quite up to football with the kids, he raises vegetables and rabbits, makes things in his workshop, and is confident in his knowledge of woodland lore. And while he is a bit lonely, he is staunchly independent. In Nigel Gray's A balloon for Grandad (1988), a bicultural boy is comforted that his escaped balloon will cross the mountains and sea to connect him with his grandfather on another continent. The focus is off the older man, but the warmth of the relationship is clearly felt.

Grandparents are shown to impart more than just love. The grandmother in Patricia Polacco's Thundercake (1990) uses the ingenious ruse of an old recipe to help her granddaughter conquer her fear of thunder, and in her The bee tree (1993) a grandfather orchestrates a rollicking cross-country honey hunt to teach the value of working toward a goal. The grandfather in Knots on a counting rope (Martin & Archambault, 1987) teaches his grandson the strength to persevere through a life of blindness. In the beautifully illustrated, Morning on the lake (Waboose, 1997) a boy enjoys perfect communion with his grandfather, and through him, with creatures of the lake, mountain and forest. In the conclusion, complete confidence in his grandfather's wisdom brings him triumphantly through a terrifying night encounter with wolves.

Recent literature offers children grandparents of heroic proportions. The old woman in Halak's A grandmother's story (1992) is a monumental figure of courage and perseverance, with a love as deep and mysterious as the sea. Ignoring her neighbors taunts of madness, she rows out into the open ocean until she comes to the place where her heart tells her she will find her ship-lost grandson. The mystical grandmother of Grandmother's pigeon (1996) exits on page 2­last seen heading for Greenland on the back of a porpoise­leaving her earth-bound family to deal with the hatching of extinct passenger pigeons in her bird nest collection. She never reappears in person, but her presence is felt throughout the book. This story by the renowned adult novelist Louise Erdrich and illustrated with great intimacy by Jim LaMarche, also includes an ornithologist whose gray hair and spectacles do not mask her knowledge and wisdom. In Hurry home Grandma! (Olson, 1984), two children await Christmas and Grandma in their snowbound suburban home. Alternate pages record the preparations of the children and the trepidations of the safari-suited elderly explorer, as she paddles her crocodile-mangled canoe through a herd of hippos, rides an elephant, and finally pilots her own plane home, just in time.

It is interesting that heroes of these fantastic tales are mostly female. Indeed, of those mentioned above, it is Cole's Grandad who is least in control of events, although he responds to them admirably. We may be witnessing the emergence of a new type, the Supergran, whose appeal lies in watching her overturn all expectations of what an old lady ought to be.

However, heroes need not always be outrageous. Elderly people are honored for a lifetime of service in My Great-Aunt Arizona (Houston, 1992), whose 57 years of teaching in a country school inspired generations of children to go where she couldn't, and in Uncle Jed's barbershop (Mitchell, 1993), whose selfless and persevering hero taught his grand-niece to dream. In the latter book, as in Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (1982), older people without descendants are shown to be valued and fulfilled. James Ransome's illustrations depict the 79-year-old Uncle Jed giving the first haircut in his new barbershop surrounded by a happy crowd of young and middle-aged admirers. No one could look at it and imagine him "a lonely old man." Not at all heroic, but certainly not the "lonely old lady" her family considers her is Granny MacGinty (Conlon-McKenna, 1999). The fun is that the reader can see that she really is a happy, contented woman­with a refreshingly loud wardrobe­while her family strives to match her with a serious of unsuitable pets.

The value of the elderly to society is one theme of the ecological folktale The old ladies who liked cats (Greene, 1991). The eponymous old ladies are not personalized, as is often the case in folktales, but they are wise enough to know "how things work together," in a way that the government does not. When the old ladies are heeded, their good sense saves the day.

The "creative spark" is alive and well in many other new books. In Gilman's Something for nothing (1992) a loving grandfather makes and remakes his grandson's favorite blanket into increasingly smaller objects until the last, a button, is lost. But the boy has learned his lesson well, and turns it into a good story. A wonderfully inventive storyteller mesmerizes his grandchildren in The great big especially beautiful Easter egg (1983), one of a delightful series by James Stevenson, whose illustrations of the elderly enhance numerous works by other authors. New ways of looking at things are what creativity is all about, and the grandfather in Grandaddy's stars (Griffith, 1995) has the gift of turning the mundane into the extraordinary.

Loss of individuality is the harvest of any sort of stereotype. Contrast is one way to demonstrate individual difference, as in Katie Morag and the two grandmothers (Hedderwick, 1985). In this tale set on a Scottish island, Grannie Mainland is a prim and petite coquette, while Grannie Island is a sturdy and resourceful sheep breeder. In Emily Arnold McCully's early readers Grandmas at the lake (1990) and Grandmas at bat (1993), Grandma Sal is white-haired, plump and easy-going while Grandma Nan is brown-haired, mini-skirted and strict. But they are both very active­hiking, swimming, boating, playing baseball, leading cheers­and with Grannie Island present a refreshing contrast to the image of picture book women "significantly more likely to be described as tired or sick than . . . males" (Ansello 1977 p. 269). In Little Cliff and the porch people (Taulbert, 1999) no less than seven elderly characters are distinctly and beautifully portrayed, as a small boy, out on an errand for his great-grandmother, encounters neighbors who each contribute an ingredient for a special dish.

Both Barnum and Ansello commented on the lack of emotional complexity in picture book oldsters. Usually in a traditional tale, the old-couple-who-wanted-a-baby are stock characters without much depth. But in Melmed's magical The rainbabies (1992) Jim La Marche's luminous and entrancing illustrations paint a noble old couple in a rainbow of emotions: boredom, discontent, sorrow, resolution, uneasiness, deep content, desperation, wonder, joy and, of course, love. The emotional complexity of the immigrant experience is explored in Alan Say's Caldecott-winning Grandfather's journey (1993). The continuity of life and the connection between generations are also revealed as Say finds his experience­and his feelings­mirrored in those of his long-dead grandfather. The immigration experience also forms the backdrop of Polacco's The keeping quilt (1988) in which the quilt ties six generations of women to each other, and the old culture to the new.

While there are now many fine books about grandparents and other elderly relatives, there are still few books for young children celebrating relationships between a young person and an unrelated elderly one. Some excellent books on this theme have been published, of which the previously mentioned Chicken Sunday is a shining example. The gentle friendship between two children and an elderly immigrant neighbor seen in Down At Angel's (Chmielarz, 1994) is the kind no childhood should be without. Another elderly neighbor takes a young boy camping and prepares him for encounters with nature in Maggie Stern's Acorn magic (1998). An elderly blind neighbor surprises his young friend by playing "his colors" for her on the saxophone in Rainbow Joe and me (Strom, 1999). James Stevenson places a deliciously nasty old curmudgeon on a collision course for friendship with neighborhood kids in The worst person in the world (1978), whose main character reappears in subsequent books.

It is perhaps natural that most elderly characters in children's books are presented in relationships with children. But it is important for children to understand that the elderly are people in their own right, so books in which interesting old people appear without reference to juvenile characters are very welcome. They are also very rare. Among recent additions to this genre are Cynthia Rylant's early reader series Mr. Putter and Tabby bake the cake (1994).

Elderly characters have not only become more plentiful but are now presenting children with a broader view of old age. Oldsters who were confined to their rockers in the dusty corners of the previous generation's picture books are now leaping into center stage, demanding recognition of their unique individual characteristics and the essential part they play in society. Recent literature offers today's young readers the opportunity to imagine old people as loving companions, inspiring examples, wise teachers, dynamic heroes, links to our past, and most importantly, as people, each as different from the others as is every child.

Gwendolyn Gallagher has been teaching in Hokkaido at the college level for 21 years, and has found that university and adult students of English enjoy and profit by the study of English picture books. She has taught college seminars on the history of English-language picture books and has given community lectures in Japanese on gender in English-language picture books. Her Asahikawa home houses a large collection of children's books for which she has built her own bookshelves. Gallagher is also passionate about books for adults, used book shops, reading to children, chocolate, rose gardening and scuba diving. She is the mother of two apprentice bibliophiles.

References

Ansello, E.F. (1977). Age and ageism in children's first literature. Educational Gerontology, 2, 255-74.

_____. (1978). Ageism­the subtle stereotype. Childhood Education, 54, 118-122.

Barnum, P.W. (1977b) Discrimination against the aged in young children's literature. The Elementary School Journal, 77, 301-306.

_____. (1977a) The aged in young children's literature. Language Arts, 54, 29-32.

The Horn Book Guide. Boston: The Horn Book Inc. Vol. I:1 (1990) through Vol. XI:1 (2000)

Ribovich, J.K. & Ardeth M.D. (1979). Portrayal of the elderly in basal readers. Reading Psychology: 1, 32-40.

Robin, E.P. (1977). Old age in elementary school readers. Educational Gerontology, 2, 275-292.

Stahlecker, J. E. (1980). Parental and literature stereotype modeling: an investigation of their influences on second grade children. In C. Berryman, et al, Communication, Language & Sex (pp.10-26). Rowley, MA: Newberry House.

Weitzman, L.J., Eifler, D., Hokada E., & Ross, C. (1972). Sex-role socialization in picture books for preschool children. Sociology, 77(6), 1125-1149.

Children's Books

Burningham, J. (1984). Grandpa. London: Jonathan Cape.

Chmielarz, S. (1994). Down at Angel's. Illustrated by Jill Kastner. New York: Ticknor & Fields.

Conlon-McKenna, M. (1999). Granny MacGinty. Illustrated by Leonie Shearing. Dublin: O'Brien Press.

Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius. New York: Viking.

Dupasquier, P. (1998). A Sunday with Grandpa. Australia: Random House / UK: Andersen.

Gilman, P. (1992). Something for nothing. Ontario: North Winds Press.

Gray, N. (1988). A balloon for Grandad. Illustrated by Jane Ray. London: Orchard.

Greene, C. (1991). The old ladies who liked cats. Illustrated by Loretta Krupinski. New York: Harper Trophy.

Griffith, H.V. (1995). Grandaddy's stars. Illustrated by James Stevenson. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Halak, Glenn. (1992). A grandmother's story. San Diego: Green Tiger Press.

Hedderwick, M. (1985). Katie Morag and the two grandmothers. London: Bodley Head.

Hest, A. (1984). The crack-of-dawn walkers. Illustrated by Amy Schwartz. New York: Macmillan.

Houston, G. (1992). My Great-Aunt Arizona. Illustrated by Susan Condie Lamb. New York: HarperCollins.

Johnson, A. (1990). When I am old with you. Illustrated by David Soman. New York: Orchard Books.

Martin, B. & Archambault, J. (1987). Knots on a counting rope. Illustrated by Ted Rand. New York: Henry Holt

McCully, E.A. (1993). Grandmas at bat. New York: Harper Collins.

_____. (1990). Grandmas at the lake. New York: Harper and Row.

Melmed, L. (1992). The rainbabies. Illustrated by Jim LaMarche. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.

Mitchell, M.K. (1993). Uncle Jed's barbershop. Illustrated by James Ransome. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Olson, A. (1984). Hurry home Grandma! Illustrated by Lydia Dabcovich. New York: Dutton.

Polacco, P. (1993). The bee tree. New York: Philomel.

_____. (1992). Chicken Sunday. New York: Philomel.

_____. (1993). The keeping quilt. New York: Simon and Schuster.

_____. (1990). Thunder cake. New York: Philomel.

Rylant, C. (1994). Mr. Putter and Tabby bake the cake. All illus. by Arthur Howard. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1997). Mr. Putter and Tabby fly the plane. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1995). Mr. Putter and Tabby pick the pears. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1994). Mr. Putter and Tabby pour the tea. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1997). Mr. Putter and Tabby row the boat. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1998). Mr. Putter and Tabby take the train. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1998). Mr. Putter and Tabby toot the horn. New York: Harcourt Brace.

_____. (1994). Mr. Putter and Tabby walk the dog. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Say, A. (1993). Grandfather's journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Stern, M. (1998). Acorn magic. Illustrated by Donna Ruff. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Stevenson, J. (1983). The great big especially beautiful Easter egg. New York: William Morrow.

_____. (1978). The worst person in the world. New York: Greenwillow.

Strom, M D. (1999). Rainbow Joe and me. New York: Lee & Low Books.

Taulbert, C. (1999). Little Cliff and the porch people. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis New York: Dial Books.

Waboose, J (1997). Morning on the lake. Illustrated by Karen Reczuch. Toronto: Kids Can Press.

Notes

1. Many of these books can be found at <powells.com> a bookstore selling used and new books.

2. There are many worldwide networks of smaller bookshops that can fulfill almost all your biblio-desires. The ones I have found most useful are Bibliofind <Bibliofind.com> and Alibris <alibris.com>.



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