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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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 11:08 Alan Bennett, Jilly Cooper and Joanna Trollope are among the authors donating books with personal inscriptions to an auction to raise funds for the National Literacy Trust (NLT). Sixteen authors have donated titles, many from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 11:46 Editors need to have a "vision" of how the content can be used beyond the traditional book, otherwise they risk losing control of the book to the "digital department", Publishers Launch London heard today. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 21/06/2011 - 08:46 Waterstone's has joined forces with Grazia magazine to launch a book club featuring 10 titles. One Grazia Book Club title will feature in the magazine every week from the next issue, allowing readers to claim 50% off the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fiction is the leading sales driver of ebooks, and just how dominant that segment has been is clearly seen in a new market study just released by Bowker. According to "20102011 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics & Buying Behaviors Annual Review," fiction accounted for 61% of unit sales in 2010... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Rachel Bradley Publication Date: Fri, 17/06/2011 - 08:07 A guide to astronomy and a pop-up guide to how the world works are among the shortlisted titles for the first Royal Society Young People's Book Prize in three years. The £10,000 prize was not awarded between 2008 and 2010 due... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 16/06/2011 - 09:10 Goldsboro Books has revealed it is on-track for a record-breaking financial year after moving premises in March. The 12-year-old independent London bookshop, which specialises in first edition signed copies, said May prevailed as its best ever month... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 16/06/2011 - 15:40 Accent Press has bought world rights to a memoir by Hayley Okines, who suffers from a rare genetic condition that means she ages eight times faster than healthy people. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Wed, 15/06/2011 - 07:46 Bertelsmann has disbanded its Direct Group division having all-but completed what it described as the scale-back of its book clubs business. Its remaining book club interests, most notably in Germany and Spain, will now be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Rachel Bradley and Katie Allen Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 17:23 Titles from Cressida Cowell, Sita Brahmachari and Jon Mayhew have been selected for Booktrust"s Booked Up programme, which sees 17 titles on offer to all year seven pupils in England. Over 650,000 free books... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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PCWorld managed to snag previews of some of the pages, although they are a work-in-progress as the pages have not yet been colored or had speech bubbles put in. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 08:27 Pop singer turned TV star Peter Andre is joining the ranks of the champions of children's literacy by fronting the launch of a new London scheme. Andre joins London's mayor Boris Johnson at the Botwell Green library and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 08:50 Intellectual property agency 1454 has developed a new interactive children's adventure series that will be published exclusively on the Kindle worldwide. It is thought to be the first time a children's series has been produced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 14/06/2011 - 09:00 Intellectual property agency 1454 has developed a new interactive children's adventure series that will be published exclusively on the Kindle worldwide. It is thought to be the first time a children's series has been produced... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Mon, 13/06/2011 - 08:55 Emma Henderson's Orange-shortlisted Grace Williams Says It Loud and the latest novel by American thriller writer Dennis Lehane have been picked for the summer season of "The TV Book Club". Returning on Sunday 26th June on More 4, with repeats on Channel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Retailing for $185,000, the Espresso Book Machine, developed by On Demand Books, costs more than the annual revenue of some independent bookstores. But with a new partnership with the American Booksellers Association to help get frontlist and midlist titles from mainstream houses (something that... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:45 Orion Books imprint Swordfish has acquired two books by Guardian columnist and TV presenter Charlie Brooker, signing the titles through Jo Unwin at Conville & Walsh. Publisher Rowland White bought world rights in all... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 10:36 Octopus has acquired a vegetable cookery title by chef, eco-restauranteur and star of "The People's Supermarket" Arthur Potts Dawson. Publishing director Stephanie Jackson acquired world rights to Eat Your Veg from Sophie Laurimore of Factual... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By restricting purchases unnecessarily, ebooks and e-readers are a bad deal, says free software guru Richard Stallman. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 10/06/2011 - 08:14 An up-and-coming children's illustrator has warned that new British talent is being forced to go abroad in search of work as the UK picture book market becomes increasingly conservative. Frann Preston-Gannon, who was recently... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 09/06/2011 - 08:05 Murdoch Books has further restructured its workforce following owner Matt Handbury's move into the role of c.e.o. last week. Christine Jones will become managing director of Murdoch Books UK, which has its UK offices in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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