Robert thinks Stevie has ruined his life and he doesn’t hesitate to tell him. Robert’s friends call him “Bobby the Babysitter,” which makes Robert even more unhappy with this arrangement. When Robert goes outside to play with friends, his mother insists he take Stevie along. He plays with Robert’s toys, leaves footprints on Robert’s bed. Robert is not happy about Stevie, “his old baby self,” living at his house. Stevie stays at Robert’s house Monday through Friday while his mother works. So, while we agree that Steptoe’s book should be read by Black children who need to see themselves mirrored in the books they read, we also know they should be read by all children who can move through the sliding glass door to the lives of children who are not themselves.iĪnd all children will understand Robert, the narrator of Stevie, who has to deal with the entrance of the younger child Stevie into his life. Now, we have the advantage of time and of a ground-breaking essay by Rudine Sims Bishop about the way literature can serve as a mirror to reflect one’s own self, a window into another culture, or a sliding glass door to allow readers to step into another culture in their imaginations. The book was celebrated as a “new kind of book for black children.” Harper published it when he was 19 years old. He had been thinking about the Stevie story for a couple of years. Steptoe, in an interview in 1987, recalled that when he left high school a teacher suggested he show Ursula Nordstrom his portfolio. His first book, Stevie, was published by Harper & Row in 1969.
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