European
Picture 
Book
Collection

Country: France
Language: French
Title: Peau noire Peau blanche (Black skin White skin)
Author: Yves Bichet
Illustrator: Mireille Vautier
Publisher: Gallimard Jeunesse
ISBN: 2-07-054335-8
Chosen by: Monique Hennequin, CRILJ - Centre de recherche et d'information sur la littérature pour la jeunesse, Paris, France.

Rationale for Choice:
This book was chosen for the BARFIE collection because it demonstrates an understanding of what it is like to an‘outsider' in a strange community.

Re-telling
A family in which the father is of Senegalese origin and the mother from a white French family live in Marseille. They are forced by unemployment to move house and leave the town where they felt at home. The youngest in the family, Issam, finds it very difficult to accept all the changes that turn his world up-side-down. Once they have moved, Issam has to face up to the violent reactions of young people and the daily difficulty of not being the same colour as them. Time passes, and the decision is made to return to Senegal. Here, the situation for Issam becomes easier, but now it is the mother's turn to try to integrate into a country where white skin is not easily accepted.

Translation:

Far away you can see blue but here it is grey, dusty concrete. With me it's simple, I'm all black.   My name is Issam and I am the youngest of the family.

My father is tall and from Senegal.   He is a crane-driver on the dole… There are no longer any cranes in north Marseille but the Senegalese are still here… as well as my mother.   Mum is too beautiful, too white.   And I love our cuddles.

That's it, Dad has found work.   We have moved.   All the same Marseille was nice and I miss my friends Kevin, Tarek, Laura…It's different here, it often rains.   The mountains can never be seen from my new school.   And the others are not too keen on arabs or black kids.

They are nasty at school, I don't know why.   I asked Mum, she replied ‘because' looking me in the eye.   At Marseille that was our private game.   Afterwards I said ‘because what?'…and she replied ‘it's because'…I like it when she says ‘it's because' opening her eyes wide.

There is a good view of the mountains today.   They are like Dad's cranes, they seem to be shining.

We are leaving again.   We move around a lot with my Dad's job because of the cranes.   We have to follow them.   But this time it is different, we are going to Paris!  

Paris is too big and too tough!   At school today someone wanted to steal my jacket.   I clenched my fists in my pockets.   My big brothers arrived, I was scared!

That evening I cried, I was still thinking about it.   Mum and I played ‘why, because, because why, it's because' but even that didn't work.   Then Dad came home.   He promised to take me up his tall crane.   The highest one, which reaches the sky.

The sky is big!   Really empty…and nothing below; even the people cannot be seen.   I am slightly scared but I like it when I am scared, and it is beautiful being so high up.

We are moving again.   Back home, in Senegal, people never move house…My big brother says that our home is in France not Senegal.   I do not know but it seems that over there things are yellow, green and red.

We have decided to return to Senegal.   Apparently there is work over there.   Our days of moving house are over!   My Dad will be his own boss and wear a suit.

Last night I spoke to Mum:

‘Are you happy to be leaving?'

‘Yes my Issam.'  

I like it when she calls me ‘my Issam'.   I saw myself small and black reflected in hereyes.   Really proud.

It's great here, no one annoys me.   I play how I want and I have lots of friends.   Everything is different: the sky, the trees, the sun and even the dust.   But my mother stays indoors.

Mum is crying.   Dad comforts her.   He always explains things.   This time it is because of her white skin.   That makes me sad but I know what it's like…

‘I know I am different but that is no reason.   So why?'  

‘Why Mum?   But because…'.

'Because what, my Issam?'.

My mother is almost no longer crying.

‘It's because…and things change, Mum'.

We are both laughing.   And I see myself small and black reflected in her tears.   Really proud.

NB Working translation, by Philippe Carter, for educational purpose only.

Activities for use in school: 

•  Read the visual story with your class and discuss how the illustrator has helped us to understand the little boy in the story: ie use of colour, shape, movement, facial expressions etc. + icons such as the one to tell us that Issam has visited Paris.

•  Jot these down on a board/flipchart, together with adjectives that describe each of the characters in the story; particularly Issam, his mother and his father.

•  Discuss which visual clues/adjectives your pupils might use to express their school/home environments.

•  Now read the translation to your class or give them the translation to read themselves.

•  In pairs ask the children to discuss or jot down the differences between their readings of the visual narrative and the translation. Does the text add much more to the story?

•  You might like to discuss: How do we know that Issam is not very happy when he moves from town to town? or

•  Why does he understand how his mother feels when they go to Senegal. Do you think that he might be able to help her in some way?

•  Get your pupils to think about a time/situation when they have felt on the outside of a group. How did they mange to integrate. Were they helped by others or left to their own devices?

•  Ask them to write down their thoughts as if they were writing a diary over a period of about a week.

•  If they are in agreement, include extracts from these in a class scrapbook.

Reflection: How might we help those who are different from us to integrate into our culture?

NB Further literature and language-based activities can be found in
Picture Books sans Frontières available from tb@trentham-books.co.uk
or www.amazon.co.uk