- Helen Bannerman
Helen Bannerman (1862–1946) was the Scottish author of a number of children's books, the most famous being "
Little Black Sambo ". She was born inEdinburgh and, because women were not admitted as students into British Universities, she sat external examinations set by theUniversity of St. Andrews and attained the qualification of LLA. She lived for a good proportion of her life inIndia , where her husband was an officer in the Indian Medical Service.The heroes of many of her books are recognizably south
India n or Tamil children from the illustrations. However, despite the plots having no reallyracist overtones and usually celebrating the intelligence and ingenuity of the children, the name Sambo has become a slur against people of colour and the books have often been banned or censored. As a result of this controversy, apolitically correct version co-authored byFred Marcellino , "The Story of Little Babaji", changed the names of the main characters.Books
* The Story of Little Black Sambo, 1899
* Story of Little Black Mingo, 1901
* Story of little Black Quibba, 1902
* Little Degchie-Head: An Awful Warning to Bad Babas, 1903
* Little Kettle-Head, 1904
* Pat and the Spider, 1905
* The Teasing Monkey, 1907
* Little Black Quasha, 1908
* Story of Little Black Bobtail, 1909
* Sambo and the Twins, 1936
* Little White Squibba, 1965 (a rewrite ofLittle Black Sambo with a white girl as heroine) Elizabeth Hay (1981) wrote that Helen's daughter Day completed the Squibba book from scribbles Helen had written down. (pp.152-153, "Sambo Sahib: The Story of Little Black Sambo and Helen Bannerman")
* The Story of Little Babaji (with Fred Marcellino), 1996 (Little Black Sambo with more politically correct names), ISBN 0-06-205064-8External links
*gutenberg author|id=Helen_Bannerman|name=Helen Bannerman
* [http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/bannerman.htm Helen Bannerman in SterlingTimes]
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