Cornelia
While literature represents one means of enculturation experienced by children, Reynolds (2004) reminds us that place and the lived, local experience from which this literature comes plays a large role as well. In contrast to Debleena’s narrative, where the vibrant and diverse space of Calcutta and her family’s home assumes a large role in her literacy development, place in Cornelia’s narrative instead operates as an absence. Stuck in her suburban house, which represents a thirdspace between the American culture represented by school and the Croatian experiences depicted in her books, Cornelia straddles both worlds and languages, one which she hears but cannot read. She holds up the Encyclopedia for Girls as an ideal for herself, yet she could not read the book to complete the activities the text describes, cultural activities that may not be a part of her and her American neighbors’ everyday experiences. Yet literacy practices, through Cornelia’s interpretation of these images, if not written language, also represented her way into a culture that she could not experience for herself. Literacy was a means of bridging this gap and learning something about the place and cultural values in which she and her family were at times still immersed. At the very least, the pictures in the stories represented a cultural heritage that she yearned to know more about.