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 ]
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As a nonprofit, Restless Books has become a haven for international literature and an advocate for immigrant writers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Lupus Films joint m.d. Camilla Deakin has revealed an increased appetite for hand-drawn animations of children's books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster Children’s and Penguin Random House Children’s picked up two prizes each at this year’s Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pushkin Children’s Books has acquired the second novel by Ele Fountain, the author of Boy 87. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The US-based Chronicle Books has introduced a new partnership with Trustbridge Global Media to translate, publish and distribute up to 20 children's titles into Chinese in the first year. The post New Partnership Announced To Publish Chronicle’s Children’s Books in China appeared first on... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scottish Book Trust has received £40,000 funding for Glasgow Reading Buddies, a project that encourages reading for pleasure in primary schools in Glasgow. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Authors including Jessica Townsend, Matthew Syed and Ed Vere are in the running for this year’s Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards, held in partnership with BookTrust. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For all the excitement, tourism, and politically tinged analysis that FIFA's 21st World Cup brought to Moscow, the books market seems to have come out cheering, too, with international visitors said to be asking for Russian reads. The post Reports Indicate the World Cup Boosted Book Sales for... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Catherine O’Flynn, whose novel What Was Lost won the first novel prize at the Costa Book Awards in 2008, has written a children’s book about two girls who want to be detectives. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Independent publisher The Emma Press has bought the UK English language rights to several Latvian children's books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Presenting our editors’ selections of eagerly awaited children's and YA books for the coming season. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Intended 'to expand the boundaries of well-known series,' a new publishing company called Perilous Worlds heads for Frankfurter Buchmesse with game-designing authors on tap and some high-visibility fantasy brands to work with. The post Publisher Perilous Worlds Created To Advance Sci-Fi and... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hi, I’m Carolyn Kellogg, books editor of the L.A. Times, with the news in books this week. THE BIG STORY Raymond Chandler’s iconic private detective Philip Marlowe has been rebooted before, not particularly successfully, which made Lawrence Osborne reluctant, at first, to take the case. But as... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2018-07-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scholastic will this autumn publish a second children’s book by comedian Dara Ó Briain. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-19 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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Only 4% of all the children’s books published in the UK last year featured a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) character, according to “alarming” new figures from a study into ethnic representation in children’s literature. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-17 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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Wayland Books, part of the Hachette Children’s Group, is publishing a non-fiction title about masculinity by Jeffrey Boakye and Darren Chetty. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Philip Jones calls on the industry to make books part of the national conversation. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Lost Words (Hamish Hamilton) has become the first children’s book to be shortlisted for the £5,000 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-07-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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