Examining Ethnic Diversity in Children’s Books
By Annika Laws-Walsh, Oxford Brookes University
Ultimately, the future aim for books are to unlearn stereotypes, not create them. In 2017, only 4% of books featured; black, asian and minority ethic characters — also known as, ‘BAME character’ (Onwuemezi, 2018). But why is this relevant?
Representing the real world.
Children’s books can act like both mirrors and windows on the world. Mirrors in a sense that they can reflect on their own lives and windows in a way that they can learn about someone else’s life (Rudine Sims Bishop). Nevertheless, this type of ‘self-reflection’ and opportunity to read and appreciate different lives of others.
Despite acknowledging the importance of diversity representation in our day-to-day lives, many children books today are still littered with white, male, able-bodied and heterosexual characters. Epstein’s (2017) research suggests, that over 80% of characters in children’s books are ‘white’, which is clearly not a realistic illustration of our world.
Rochelle Humes, a national sweetheart with 1.5 million followers on Instagram, brings awareness of this issue as she publishes her book ‘Mega Magic Hair Swap’.
The idea came about as her eldest daughter felt insecure about her curly hair because she “didn’t look like a princess” (Telegraph, 2019). Her daughter felt like this because princesses, specifically in Disney, tend to have long straight blonde or brunette hair. From then on, Rochelle vowed to embrace her own curly locks, as she realised her two daughters had only seen her with straight hair. Additionally, Serroukh stated that the impact of children not identifying themselves is “tremendously damaging” and instead reading should be building confidence and self-esteem (Onwuemezi, 2018).
This is only the beginning of stating the list of reasons as to why movements such as We Need Diverse Books , began their plan of action in 2014. Their aim is to encourage, promote and create more diverse books that can then be available to young readers hands.
Children books and the Future.
Nowadays, children and learning doesn’t only revolve around books and colouring paper, instead digital offers a range of resources for users to explore. Parents as well, have the access to share what they believe is good for their children through online networks.
When relating back to Rochelle Humes, she raised awareness through her daytime job on This Morning, as well as sharing her process on her Instagram where parents can follow along the passion she shares about the importance of ethnicity in children’s books. As she understands that, at the end of the day parents will always have an influence on their children’s actions.
Awareness through online networks is a successful way to reach out to a global audience. Without the internet, statistics that show the lack of usage of BAME characters, would not be believed to have the same impact that it did. There is no reason to believe children will turn on paper books to eBooks, especially since David (2013) stated in 2012, 4.5% of children’s books sold were eBooks in comparison to adults with 18%. As parents agree that they can be too distracting. Since children are so used to devices being used for films and games, they expect interactive content when reading through the screen. So, reading at the end of the day, is time that is always spent offline. And this is the reason why it is highly encouraged that children books from now onwards, should include a realistic representation of our world by including BAME characters that all children will be able to identify with.
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David, A. (2013) Should we be worried about the decline of children’s reading? [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/nov/01/decline-childrens-reading-ebooks-publishing [Accessed: 09/09/2019]
Epstein, BJ (2017). The Conversation. Why children’s books that teach diversity are more important than ever. [Online] Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-childrens-books-that-teach-diversity-are-more-important-than-ever-72146 [Accessed: 10/09/2019].
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Lumen (undated) 7. Influence of the Digital Age on Children’s Literature and Its Use in the Classroom [Online] Available at: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/literacypractice/chapter/7-influence-of-the-digital-age-on-childrens-literature-and-its-use-in-the-classroom/ [Accessed: 10/09/2019]
Onwuemezi, N. (2018) ‘Alarming’ study reveals only 4% of childrens books feature a BAME character. [Online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/representation-childrens-literature-827841 [Accessed: 09/09/2019]
Telegraph. (2019) Rochelle Humes: ‘It was crazy when Marvin and I first got together. A lot of girls loved him and I was dating him so I was realling scared to go to show. [Online] Available at: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/rochelle-humes-it-was-crazy-when-marvin-and-i-first-got-together-a-lot-of-girls-loved-him-and-i-was-dating-him-so-i-was-really-scared-to-go-to-shows-38139293.html [Accessed: 10/10/2019]
We Need Diverse Book. 2019 [Online] Available at: https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/ [Accessed: 09/09/2019]
