Rowena Teena Tot and the Runaway Turkey
Chicago: Albert Whitman & Co., Junior Press Books, 1941. Mary GROSJEAN. Cloth. [JUVENILE] [WOMAN AUTHOR] [WOMAN ILLUSTRATOR] [STIGMATIZING LANGUAGE]. Mary GROSJEAN, illustrator.
First edition, fourth printing, April 1941. Small 4to; 30, [2]pp; dark maroon cloth over board, color pictorial onlay to front board showing three young Black girls looking at a turkey through a poultry netting; color pictorial patterned eps; color pictorial half-title, title page and copyright page; color illustrations every page; unclipped color pictorial dust jacket, 1” closed tear to top edge and small chip; fine in near fine dj. Not in Baumgarten. Fine / near fine. Item #1912
The story of three children and the turkey that ran away just before Thanksgiving. The author, Fannie Burgheim Blumberg (1894-1964), and the illustrator, Mary Grosjean, were white women writing a story about three Black children and their grandparents. While the story is entertaining and interesting, both the illustrations and character dialect are stigmatizing in perpetuating negative stereotypes.
Price: $175.00