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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Three weeks shy of a year ago, St. Martin's Press signed up a book by a Navy SEAL Team Six sniper, chronicling how he became an elite warrior and the battle that nearly cost him his life. Today, with news of Osama Bin Laden's death reverberating around the world, SMP is getting ready for a rush... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three weeks shy of a year ago, St. Martin's Press signed up a book by a Navy SEAL Team Six sniper, chronicling how he became an elite warrior and the battle that nearly cost him his life. Today, with news of Osama Bin Laden's death reverberating around the world, SMP is getting ready for a rush... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Push Pop Press, the brainchild of two former Apple engineers, just got a boost from an innovative former U.S. vice president. After having invented the Internet, Al Gore is back to reinvent the book. Push Pop Press is a digital tool taking books to the next level, making them even more... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The author of a forthcoming book about the ever-private Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," insisted on Friday that she had the cooperation of Ms. Lee, two days after Ms. Lee released a statement through her lawyer denying that she had cooperated. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Push Pop Press, a digital book publishing platform, went live with its first title this week, Al Gore's "Our Choice," available as an iOS app for $4.99. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The first time former U.S. vice president Al Gore issued his warning about the dire state of our environment, he used the traditional format of bound paper. To... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 08:00 A large proportion of iPad owners in the US have not used the device to read an ebook, a survey from media and publishing forecast firm Simba Information reveals. A report on the firm's "Trade E-Book Publishing 2011"... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After years of marginal acceptance, ebooks have finally started to eclipse their printed-and-bound ancestors. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones and Jenny Roper Publication Date: Wed, 27/04/2011 - 16:00 Book sales dropped 9% last week as the Easter weekend cut into retail time, but the market was still up on the same week last year with sales up 2.1%, a second consecutive week of year-on-year growth after a... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 27/04/2011 - 09:39 Amazon.com has reported a steep drop in profit despite boosting sales by over a third. Amazon.co.uk also revealed that one print book and four ebooks were among its top 10 bestselling items in the quarter, with the Kindle... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Special K is a $1 billion brand in the U.S., selling an estimated 168 million boxes of cereal a year. This spring, Kellogg's and Weldon Owen are hoping a massive marketing campaign can extend the brand's success into the book world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One of the industry's biggest issues in 2011 is the loss of retail shelf space for print titles. The trend of book retailers devoting less spaceand generating lower salesfrom new books is seen in the recently released 10-k filings from Books-A-Million and Hastings Entertainment. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In deciding to launch the ABC Video Bookstore, Andrew Morse said the giant media company was looking for a product that could reach viewers who are attached to a digital reading device, be it an iPad, Kindle, or cellphone, and decided that an enhanced ebook was the right one. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The nation's largest book publishers are facing increasing pricing pressure on the digital front as the number of cheap, self-published digital titles gain popularity with readers seeking budget-minded entertainment. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 21/04/2011 - 08:20 The new children's laureate, to be announced in June, will be branded the Waterstone's children's laureate for the first time. The chain has been the major sponsor of the laureateship since 2006, and is understood to have... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon said Wednesday that its popular Kindle e-reader will allow customers to borrow Kindle books from more than 11,000 U.S. libraries starting later this year. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the first step of a two-phase launch, the long-awaited Los Angeles Review of Books has debuted its preview site at lareviewofbooks.org with essays and reviews by Ben Ehrenreich, Geoff Nicholson, Jane Smiley, Jefferson Hunter, and Richard Prince. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Here's a clever idea from Chris Dixon: The investor and entrepreneur has turned his well-read blog into an ebook. Dixon, who runs Hunch and helps steer Founder Collective's bets when he's not blogging, has taken a couple years' worth of posts and compiled them into "Startups; Dixon's proceeds... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced on Monday that on May 24, it would publish "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin," an account of Ms. Palin's time as governor and as a vice-presidential candidate, written by Frank Bailey, one of her former aides. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The two reports measure different aspects of the book market and one is far more comprehensive than the other, but figures released last week by Nielsen BookScan and the Association of American Publishers showed a trade market where ebooks are thriving and print books are struggling. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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