Almost a third of school-age children are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. But they will still struggle to find characters who resemble themselvesBooks can show us the world both as it is, and as it could be – “mirrors and windows”, as the author Malorie Blackman notes. For children, they are currently falling short on both counts. In the pages of a picture or chapter book, readers have their experience affirmed or glimpse exciting new possibilities: mastering a fear of the dark, or travelling through space. Yet a young black or Asian child picking up a book today is more likely to encounter a rabbit than a protagonist who looks like them, says the expert who has led a new review of representation, Reflecting Realities. This is astonishing in an age when 32% of school-age children are from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds; and is bad news not only for them but for all young readers. Publishers are offering a dated, narrow and skewed picture of the complex, diverse, interconnected world around them.Don’t blame Beatrix Potter. This is not a historic, cumulative problem; the new research covers only books published in 2017. The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education asked publishers to submit titles with BAME characters and received fewer than 400, set against the roughly 9,000 books published for children aged three to 11. Quality and sheer variety are as important as quantity. Only 1% of titles featured a BAME lead character; in a quarter of... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
Publisher Knights Of has reached its £30,000 crowdfunding target to fund a bookshop selling children’s books with BAME characters. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This 11-year old girl demands more diversity for children’s books, which are overwhelmingly about “white boys and their dogs.” The lessons of Fenty Beauty and Black Panther have not yet trickled down to the world of children’s books. Apparently, the publishing industry has not yet realized that... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2018-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hiring more employees of colour and seeing stories with BAME characters as normal, not niche, are just some ideas suggested by the book industry following a damning report which revealed that only 4% of all the children’s books published in the UK last year featured a black, Asian or minority... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ethnic minority characters should feature in more books and not be defined by their "otherness". Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2018-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Almost a third of school-age children are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. But they will still struggle to find characters who resemble themselvesBooks can show us the world both as it is, and as it could be – “mirrors and windows”, as the author Malorie Blackman notes. For... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-07-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#1000BlackGirlBooks is a project headed by an 11-year-old in Philadelphia who wants to promote diversity in children's books. The post ‘Sick of Reading about White Boys and Dogs,’ 11-Year-Old Launches #1000BlackGirlBooks appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2016-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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