Diversity in children's books: colouring in required

There are growing calls for young people's reading to broaden its picture of society from what is currently a depressingly monochrome viewRead Tanya Byrne's top 10 black characters in children's booksAfter a study in the US showed that of 3,200 children's books published in 2013, just 93 were about black people, experts have said that the issue is a "huge problem" in the UK as well.The acclaimed American children's author Walter Dean Myers, who was until recently the US's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, highlighted the statistic that less than 3% of children's books last year featured black people in an article for the New York Times at the weekend. "Books transmit values. They explore our common humanity. What is the message when some children are not represented in those books?" he asked. "Where are black children going to get a sense of who they are and what they can be? … I'm told that black children, and boys in particular, don't read. Small wonder. There is work to be done."Myers was pointing to research done by the Cooperative Children's Book Centre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which has counted the number of children's books featuring people of colour since 1985. Ten years ago, of 3,200 books received by the centre, 171 were about black people, 95 about American Indians, 78 about Asians and 63 about Latinos. Last year, these numbers had fallen, with 93 of 3,200 books about black people, 34 about American Indians, 69 about Asians and... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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