Skippyjon Jones

I see this book go out often and this is my first time reading it because I saw it on the banned book list for 2018 for “Reason: challenged for depicting stereotypes of Mexican culture” according to ALA So, not being a part of the Mexican community, I wanted to do some research to get some others perspective on it.

https://soundstudiesblog.com/2014/05/...

This link in particular I thought was insightful.

I did read the book 1st before I was looking online. The book was kinda meh for me. I didn't read it out loud and I think that's the point of the book is that it has fun sounds and imagination adventure in it. There was something I couldn't put my finger on - it is the mock Spanish and the “put on his best Spanish accent” line in the book kinda hit me oddly. I was kinda torn between him, a kid, playing make believe and having limited knowledge has to make assumptions and use stereotypes about the culture to play? OR is this was written by someone who has an fun word play idea, uses stereotypes and mock-spanish because she (the author) may not understand how this could be portrayed as hurtful to a community? To be fair, i don't think there was any ill-will when writing this and I can't speak for her own experiences.

Anyway!

I would love to know what you guys think about this book!
We like to read banned books and celebrate them and check them out here at the library!
~Ashley