by Deborah Dimmett

Books about Haiti had a slight resurgence in the area of children’s literature after the 2010 earthquake. However, few books have made it in print in the language Haitian children know best – Creole. It has been easy for publishers to overlook this market for many reasons. Among them is that those in Haiti who can afford to purchase books are fluent in French as well as Creole. But Haiti’s population is estimated at nearly 10 million, nearly all of whom speak Creole with approximately 10% who are actually fluent in French. This raises the question as to why books in Creole are not nearly as plentiful as books in French. In a country where adult literacy has been stagnant at 48.7% and unemployment hovering at 40.6%, there does not appear to be much of a market for books printed in Creole. However, there are a few publishers who have been actively providing books for linguistically underrepresented global communities.

ISSA is a nonprofit organization that has developed an on-line bookstore to reach out to the global community in languages that may not be well represented in the publishing world. It does this by enlisting writers and illustrators from the countries where sections have been established with the organization. Presently, there appear to be 17 picture books that have been published for children between the ages of 3 and 10 in up to 15 languages. One of the books, A Mango for Grandpa (2007), was written by a Haitian author and language specialist, Caroline Hudicourt. It is ironic that the book has yet to be translated into Creole. Haiti My Country (2014) is a beautifully illustrated book of poems written by Haitian school children. Yet, again, the book is published in English and French but not in Creole.

Educa Vision, Inc. (EVI) was founded by a Haitian-American, Féquière Vilsaint, whose interest shifted from scientific research to publishing fiction and nonfiction books in Creole to meet the needs of Haitian and Haitian-American children as well as their linguistic community. Vilsaint identified another market that included not only children living in Haiti, but children from Haiti living in the United States and who needed educational resources in Creole so that they could develop fluency and proficiency in a new language – English. Today EVI is not only the single largest publisher for children’s books in Creole, but has also branched out to include other linguistically underrepresented communities.

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• Themes: Deborah Dimmett
• Descriptors: Books & Resources, Debates & Trends, WOW Currents