The Rub Between Fact and Fiction: Ideology in Lois Lenski’s Regional Maps |
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| Authors: | Julia Pond |
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| Institution: | (1) Illinois State University, 908 S. Fell Avenue, Normal, IL 61761, USA |
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| Abstract: | From the early 1940s until the late 1960s, Lois Lenski embarked on an exploration of American regions through children’s books.
This body of work, which has become known as Lenski’s Regional Series, began by exploring the regions Lenski herself experienced
each year as she traveled from Connecticut to Florida for her health. As Lenski realized the importance and success of these
books, demonstrated by a Newberry Medal award for Strawberry Girl in 1946, she broadened her reach to include more geographical
areas of the United States including such states as California and South Dakota. Through her books, Lenski emphasizes the
importance of community and shared nationhood even across regional lines. This paper examines Lenski’s regional series first
from her own purpose in aiming for objectivity and fact that she could communicate to children of other regions, instructing
and exposing them to new ways of life. Second, this paper considers the paratextual elements of the Regional series, the forewords
and the maps that accompany each book, to reveal the ideology that Lenski unconsciously incorporates into her stories. A product
of her time, Lenski may have been influenced by the government’s American Guide Series, created by the Federal Writers’ Project,
which demonstrates the same successes and flaws. Lenski’s maps in particular demonstrate the influence of a particular time,
the layering of fact and fiction, and the reflection of Lenski’s personal values of certain regional characteristics. Recognition
of the ideology incorporated into Lenski’s series remains important as child readers receive not objective fact, but one perspective
of their nation. |
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