Children’s literature is incredibly important to their understanding of the world and how they relate to it. It follows, therefore, that equal and fair representation of everyone is important to inform these relationships—with themselves and those around them. This article looks at the importance of representation in children’s literature, and whether enough is being done to ensure there is adequate representation in the books we give to our children.
The importance of reading to children has long been emphasised. Children’s books are often embedded with values that are ingrained firmly into them at an early age. These values and ideas are often crucial in the formation of their character and how they learn to treat themselves and those around them. Rudine Sims Bishop, hailed as the “mother of multicultural literature,” argues that books are both windows and mirrors—windows into other worlds, mirrors into ourselves. Reading allows us to see how others live, which in turn helps to promote compassion for those who do not look or behave exactly as we do. According to Bishop, it also informs how we view ourselves, becoming “a means of self-affirmation”. Allowing children to see themselves and their families represented in the books they read can be influential in self-acceptance and reducing feelings of detachment in children who perceive themselves as “other”. Allowing them to see their peers reflected—or those they haven’t encountered yet—can help to reduce stigmatisation and bullying. Bullying is often a response to children not understanding their surroundings. The best way to aid them in this understanding is to introduce diverse and well-rounded characters, stories, and situations.
IS THERE A GAP IN REPRESENTATION?
A survey of ethnic representation by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) suggests that there is a gap in representation. The survey looked at picture books, fiction, and non-fiction published in 2019, for children aged between 3-11. It found that characters from ethnic minority backgrounds remain “significantly underrepresented” in comparison to the UK primary school population. Children from ethnic minority backgrounds account for approximately 33.5 percent of children in primary schools, however, the 2020 report indicates that only ten percent of children’s books published in 2019 featured characters from ethnic minority backgrounds. According to the same report, a child with an ethnic minority background is more likely to encounter a book with an inanimate object or an animal as the protagonist than someone who looks like them. For children with other protected characteristics, the representation is scarcely any better. Only 3.4 percent of books published in the US in 2019 featured a disabled main character; 3.1 percent featured an LGBTQ+ protagonist.
Even where marginalised groups are depicted, they are not depicted favourably or even realistically. Representation of disabilities, BookTrust reports, has been “hardly positive”. Characters with missing limbs, scars, and deformities are often portrayed as villains, rather than heroic, or even neutral. Representation for disabled people is rarely neutral—it is argued they are either toxically positive or negative. “There is an assumption that having an impairment is something negative, or that you have to be extremely brave and heroic to live a happy life if you’re disabled.” Alaina Leary rightly argues that disabled children deserve better than being treated as a “feel-good story,” to help readers—particularly non-disabled readers—feel empowered. Similarly, CLPE found similar worrying trends for characters from ethnic minority backgrounds. Their survey found a correlation between virtue and skin tone. “The more virtuous the character, the lighter their complexion.” They also found that ethnic minority characters often fall victim to tokenism and typecasting; characters are often not as well drawn as their white counterparts and are drawn using exaggerated features.
IMPACT OF THE GAP
Books play an important role in shaping children’s lives—their mindset, how they see themselves and others, their aspirations and motivations. There is a current lack of representation in publishing. Only 5.58 percent of children’s book creators came from an ethnic minority background in 2017, accounting for only four percent of unique titles. This results in a lack of representation in books, which then reduces the number of children of colour—or disabled children, or LGBTQ+ children—who view children’s books as a viable career. This compounds pre-existing barriers, like financial insecurity and class disadvantage and makes it even more difficult to gain better representation in the future.
Moreover, for LGBTQ+ children or children from LGBTQ+ families who are struggling with their identity, having LGBTQ+ books treated as specialty items can inspire shame. Increasing their representation can help readers to acknowledge the normalcy of these stories, which decreases the sense of “otherness” that these children may feel in comparison to their peers. It can also help to educate youth about acceptance and diversity. Many children do not know about LGBTQ+ families, and so introducing them in stories is a good way to introduce new norms and encourage them to ask the right questions—a principle applicable to other protected characteristics, too.
PROGRESS MADE
There has been some progress made in this area. The number of children’s books that feature characters from ethnic minority backgrounds in 2017 was a mere four percent, increasing to ten percent in 2019. While still meagre, this increased to over double of what it had been only two years before. Moreover, CLPE argues that “positive things are happening to support creators of colour”. There has been increased support through various avenues, including other creators of colour and small organisations, alternative routes into publishing, and financial support. There are moves being made in order to promote representation in publishing and in books, but it is a question of whether this is happening quickly enough.
There are still opportunities to enhance compassion that are not being taken—and in some cases, the opposite is happening. This is informing children’s attitudes going forward. As opportunities to educate are missed, this will impact how children relate to people and how they treat people in their formative years. As argued by Darren Shetty, an educator in inner-London primary schools for almost 20 years, “if children do not encounter a rich diet of literature at school, they are being denied key knowledge about themselves and the world”. Children are currently being robbed of the opportunity to learn about the world around them, and it is time for us to try harder to teach them.
Natalya is a third year Law student at the University of Manchester. Her goal after university is to become a solicitor, where she hopes to continue helping to bring human rights issues to light. While at university, she is working with the Innocence Project to appeal miscarriages of justice and will be working with the Legal Advice Centre in the coming year.