What I immediately noticed was the plethora of books and stories about people like me. In other words there wasn't a dearth of books on Hispanic-Americans. I was indeed relieved to see such a sight. It was almost overwhelming to be able to walk into a public library and see a branch embrace diversity such as the Mt. Pleasant library did.
There was a huge section of bilingual books. That is, there were books that were written in both English and Spanish. There was Me llamo Celia / My name is Celia by Monica Brown. This book is a sort of biography of Celia Cruz the "Queen of Salsa." There was also In My Family / En Mi Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza. This book is about a girl growing in a border town in Texas. It shows the various incarnations of what a family is. In this way, the book celebrates the family unit which is very important in Latino culture. I felt the books were culturally appropriate but they were also very fun and interesting to read. Although I would caution to lump all Latinos into one mold because the new generation of American-born children tends to follow a non-Spanish speaking style. In that sense, there wasn't as much diversity. The books assumed that all Latino children can read in Spanish, which is not the case.
There were also books about Asian-Americans spread around. I figured they were gearing up for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month which is in May. I didn't think to ask but it was an assumption I made. I saw one book that really caught my eye, which was " A Kids Guide to Asian American History" by Valerie Petrillo. I thought it was interesting because I think there is an assumption by many children and even some adults that all Asians speak "Chinese." This book cover depicted the beauty of various cultures from Asia. I think in that way, it represented Asian culture as beautiful, multi-faceted and varied. Asian culture is not just about martial arts, karate and "chinese food" from the corner carryout. The books were very accessible to all including young children. The children's area upstairs was also as diverse if not more so.
Overall I was thoroughly impressed by the diversity of the books and the types of books available. There were novels and biographies, fiction, poetry, activity books. The different types of book add to the plethora of subject matter available to students and to parents or evennew people who may live in the community.
The bookstore that I went to research at was a medium-sized bookstore that's not a chain store. It is Kramerbooks in Dupont Circle and the reason I chose this bookstore is because it is widely known around Washington, and in some ways it is a DC institution.
What I first noticed about this bookstore is that they had tons of books available to all walks of life. Dupont Circle is a magnet for different people from different backgrounds and as such this bookstore caters to the people that are in this neighborhood and those who come to visit this neighborhood. All the decisions about book marketing and shelving is made on-site and not in some corporate office.
Like I mentioned earlier the books vary by topic, type, authors, and reader's interest. What I did notice was that most of the books available were catering to young, hip, "cool" educated yuppie-type liberals. There is nothing wrong with that because like I said, the books marketed cater to their surroundings. In that sense there wasn't too much diversity. Also there were tons of non-fiction and memoirs which is very popular especially the political kind. DC is a very political town and it was only appropriate that this bookstore fall into line with what is going on in politics now. Sen. Obama's book was prominently on display and to a lesser degree, Sen. Clinton and former President Clinton's books were also available to browse.
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