Jeanne Pitre Soileau Receives 2022 Iona and Peter Opie Prize

Jeanne Pitre Soileau (teacher) received the 2022 Iona and Peter Opie Prize.

This prize, awarded by the Children’s Folklore section, is awarded approximately every two years to the author of the best recently published scholarly book on children’s folklore.

Jeanne Pitre Soileau is author of What the Children Said: Child Lore of South Louisiana (University Press of Mississippi, 2021). This significant study includes more than six hundred items of children’s folklore, many of which appear in transcripts of the author’s interviews with children. These transcripts help us understand the social context of the era in which they were recorded and the dynamics of the children’s interaction, including perception of racism and sexism. Soileau makes the important point that adults should “listen closely while the children play” (282). We agree!