By Paul
Harfleet
(Barbican
Press, 2017)
I
stumbled upon this picture book at the library today. It looked like
someone had propped it up as a display on a lower shelf, only to be
knocked over by someone else. But maybe just seeing the title made me
assume the worst.
The
dedication page simply says, “For my seven year old self”. So
many of us already know what author/illustrator Paul Harfleet means.
The story introduces us to a boy “from an average town” who loves
drawing, writing and marveling at the birds overhead. Alas, joy and
freedom do not last. “Holidays passed in reverie but school was
filled with jeopardy.”
His
stance and demeanour may have been fey
His
nature girlish and potentially gay…
Fairy,
pansy or just queer
Were
the words he came to fear
Somehow
this boy had to find a way to
withstand the bullying. He
needed “a simple plan to tackle the hate”. Inspired
by flowers that
marked
graves and invited reflection
at a local cemetery, he began
planting pansies in places where he was bullied. At first, no one
understood why the flowers popped up in so many places on school
grounds. When he finally explained to teachers, they took action and
the bullying ended. Consider it as fanciful a happily-ever-after as
there ever was.
The
story is “a fictionalized origin story” of The Pansy Project, an
idea that germinated in the mind of Harfleet back in 2005. He’s
been planting pansies ever since.
Everything
about the look of this book feels special, from the gorgeous,
colorful flowers on the cover to the charcoal gray pages to the words
that appear in white font and form curved passages of text. Today is
Pink Shirt Day (aka Anti-Bullying Day) in British Columbia where I
live and it saddens me that this book should be flattened on a bottom
shelf instead of being in a classroom for teachers to elicit
discussion from students.
This is
a book worth tracking down and sharing with others. It’s beautiful
enough to be prominently displayed on a coffee table or mantel,
perhaps with some fresh flowers nearby. Track it down. The publisher
is from Great Britain (www.barbicanpress.com).
Maybe you’ll be inspired to plant a few pansies of your own as you
reflect on your past.
2 comments:
Teaching literature enables me to present students with a variety of types of books with different topics. In my 14 year career as a teacher, I've been told off by colleagues, administration, and parents about my choices for books to study. It's a touch of class, with a twist of the modern. They can all bite me, because I attack every angle, every topic, no matter how scandalous it could be.
Sounds like a dream job if you ask me, oskyldig! Literature is a great way to open up discussion on touchy topics. It seems safer when there are characters that people can refer to as they make their own points and consider the viewpoints of others.
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