The digital magazine is available for free on BSU Now, a student media and immersive learning app for Ball State. Available on the App Store and Google Play.
In 2016, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison received 3,400 children’s books to review. Three percent were written by African Americans, and eight percent focused on African-American characters.
When Ball State English assistant professor Darolyn Jones won the Excellence in Teaching Award, she wanted to create a course that would change those statistics.
“I don’t think that kids are hearing stories that they need to hear,” Jones said. “They’re not hearing about experiences that are like theirs.”
RELATED: Class rethinks literature for young readers
The class has covered multicultural literature, LGBTQ literature and this semester, Black Lives Matter.
This is the third semester Jones taught the class, but since the beginning, she knew the end product couldn’t be limited to campus. That’s where professor of multimedia Jennifer Palilonis and the digital magazine came into play.
“I needed to get this out,” Jones said. "I want teachers, I want librarians, I want parents, I want activists to know about these stories."
The digital magazine is now at 5,000 downloads and has reached a nationwide audience. The class traveled to Kent State for the Virginia Hamilton Conference on April 6 to present its work.
“Seeing it now done, it like feels really good and it feels good when people are so perceptive to it,” said Eileen Porzuczek, a sophomore creative writing major. “Especially when we went to the conference. People were like, ‘This is awesome.’ I had a librarian tell me, ‘I’m gonna make a display for this.’”
Porzuczek, author of “I Vow to Make a Difference,” spent her fall semester interviewing the creators of the “I Vow” movement. The movement, which began in 2015, is a movement encouraging people to show respect toward all, according to its website.
Nailah Johnson, 18, started the Do Something Club in conjunction with I Vow after her father died from a brain aneurysm caused by a car crash.
“He was all about promoting inclusiveness, it was something that was very important to him,” Porzuczek said. “So she decided she wanted to honor her father’s memory … and she actually created a movement called ‘I Vow.’ Which promotes inclusiveness for all people.”
Students have control over what they choose to produce; however, Jones did mention to the class that talking animals are a constant in children’s books. That’s where sopohmore secondary English education major Olivia Hershman's children's story, "Louise and the Brown Faced Girl" came to be.
“It was a good book,” 9-year-old Georgia Berg said.
Along with Porzuczek’s "I Vow to Make a Difference" and Hershman's "Lousie and the Brown Faced Girl," the digital magazine features eight other rewritten stories. The content ranges from children’s stories to young adult’s reader’s theater.
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