Children need mirrors and windows to explore diversity – Meet Lotte Ten Hacken

Lotte Ten Hacken

October 16, 2024

Photo courtesy of Fiona Joy photography.

Lotte Ten Hacken is a teacher librarian in Queensland and is currently completing her PhD at the University of Queensland. She now teaches the teachers and somehow, also has time to be a judge for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year.

And she has her own two children too!

Thank you very much for taking the time to tune in from Brisbane today.

What are you reading right now? And what types of books do you love reading?

I joined a book club specifically to make sure I still read adult books! So I have to read at least one adult book in a month.

At the moment I am reading – well, listening to an audiobook called Still Life by Sarah Winman. I am about halfway through and it’s definitely got its merits. But it’s not the kind of book that captures me. I prefer Young Adult books with faster-moving plots.

Not surprisingly, I mostly love reading children’s books. Just last night, I finished and absolutely loved Scout and the Rescue Dog by Diane Wolfer.

My favourite children’s novels are verse novels. We’re so lucky here in Australia to have so many talented authors. I am just in awe, they use language so beautifully and creatively. I would love to write a verse novel one day.

I especially love picture books that have illustrations and text that combine in a way that makes you think and wonder and question.  They’re truly magical. I love using them as a tool to stimulate dialogue with my own children and with my students, especially where there’s no correct answer, where all thoughts and ideas are welcome and are encouraged.

Looking back, what do you recall about your parents and carers reading to you as a child? How do you think that has shaped your life?

My childhood home was lined with bookshelves. Reading was always highly valued in my household.

Sadly, I don’t have lots of memories of my parents reading to me but I’m sure they did! I do have lots of memories of them giving us access to books. They took us to the library. I have older siblings and they often read to me. Reading to Baby is a new book that shows that beauty of siblings reading together.

I remember when I got my first proper, fancy, hard cover copy of The Wizard of Oz…which I still own! With my little name in my wobbly handwriting in the front.

So books were always highly valued and an important part of my life. I can’t imagine life without them. I’m sure being surrounded by books as a child has influenced me to become a lifelong reader.

You have been doing research about children’s books and their special powers in our diverse community. Can you tell us about that?

The research in my PhD project has really cemented my belief in the power of picture books. I knew it, from my previous teaching experience, and now I have the proof, in a way.

My research has shown how a well-chosen text – and I think that’s the important part – can be the perfect tool for stimulating dialogue about cultural difference.

The research shows that children are able to make really deep connections and lots of what I call ‘disconnections’ in my research, with their own knowledge and experiences. It just helps them to open their minds to others’ experiences and increase their empathy and understanding.

What is the magic of picture books for cross-cultural understanding? How do they help parents?

A well-chosen picture book helps you raise the controversial or sensitive topics in a more natural way.

I guess you could just watch a documentary instead, but a picture book is something you can read all the way through and enjoy the story, and then you can go back and revisit certain pages or certain parts, or you can pore through things.

If you’re just watching a video or listening to a speaker, you really don’t have that opportunity to go deeper. It could be a bit more surface-level. I suppose books can be like that too, but it depends what you do with them.

We shouldn’t force it for every book to be a lesson or a learning opportunity. But if you’re reading a lot or reading regularly, these opportunities are going to present themselves.

Looking closely at the pages and encouraging the sharing of ideas and questions helps children have a dialogue. It allows children to take a discussion where they want to take it. The parents then have an option of guiding the child, like asking ‘hey did you notice this?’ and they might comment on it or say ‘no’, but it doesn’t matter what they answer.

Even teachers can find it difficult to talk about some things – issues like racism – so well-chosen books that are going to touch on those issues without it being forced down your throat can be much more powerful. It becomes a natural dialogue where there is no right or wrong and the teacher is not necessarily the expert – or the parent is not the expert. It’s just a conversation about how things are and how the world is…and also how it could be.

What are your top 3 tips for parents to use picture books to help children learn about cultural diversity?

My number one tip for reading with children is to read the book all the way through and just enjoy the story. Enjoy the artwork. Enjoy the book. Fostering a love of reading is the priority.

If they’re interested in the book and it has captured them, then you can go back and look a bit further. Go back and have a look at the pages, maybe get them to choose a favourite page, or something they thought was unusual or sad or funny or happy or confusing or whatever, and that’s when the really valuable dialogue happens. It’s socialising children, having conversations and talking about their questions.

Secondly, if you want to address cultural diversity, then my tip is to try to cover a range of perspectives and avoid just single books and single stories.

If you want your child to learn more about a particular cultural group, or refugees for example, try to get several books that are about that topic. Preferably written by a member of that cultural group or someone who has had that experience.

It’s amazing to see the connections children make between stories. I found in my research, the kids would say, ‘oh that’s like the other book we read’ and ‘that’s different to the kid in the other book’ and it’s touching on that complexity again. Just because one Indian character, for example, did something or loved something it doesn’t mean your Indian friend in your class does that too.

My final tip is to reach out to the experts. Librarians, independent booksellers, teacher librarians – there’s so many people who love nothing more than recommending high quality children’s literature to anyone who will listen.

Unfortunately there are plenty of books out there that are perpetuating unhelpful stereotypes or full of things like racial colour-blindness, like where differences are ignored and only similarities are highlighted. Not every picture book at the library is going to be helpful.

Luckily there are plenty of high-quality picture books, especially by Australian authors, so checking out the notables list from the CBCA website can give you some good options.

You mentioned that books can open children’s minds to the lives of other people. Can children’s books help children feel strong in their own culture too?

There’s a common metaphor from Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, who’s an African-American scholar in children’s literature. She talks about books being mirrors for the reader, and windows showing alternate realities, and sliding glass doors that prompt active participation beyond the page.

In my research and my teaching, I really try to choose books that do all of those things.

Sometimes you will find a gem of a book that does all three, sometimes a book just does one or two, and of course it depends on who the audience is. If you don’t just rely on a single story then you will have some they relate to, some they don’t relate to and some that make them think, ‘what can I do?’ or ‘how can I help this situation?’.

Having books that do all those things really stretch children’s minds and challenge them to be better people. I think it’s helpful for parents to think about books in that way.

Thank you so much Lotte.

To see Lotte’s best book recommendations, check out this list.

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