Seven picture books that heal the diversity gap.

Lee & Low Publishers reports that the “diversity gap” in kids’ books hasn’t changed in the last 18 years – even though 37% of the U.S. population now comprises people of colour (a term I don’t like because it includes purple and cyan, but there you go). 

Pale-skinned people like me are slated to become a minority by 2060, yet up to 91% of kids’ books today are about people roughly the same shade as me & my family. 

This isn’t good for anyone – especially whitish folks like my kids, who look up from their reading to see a nation far more diverse than anything they see in books.

(True, we live in Israel, not the U.S., but yeah, it’s far more ethnically diverse than anything you might picture!)

The solution isn’t stocking up on books about black kids, written by black writers.  Change will only come when our shelves are stocked with TRUE diversity, books that reflect the true cultural context of our lives.  Books by every-colour authors, about every-colour kids. 

Not all-black or all-white, but a rainbow

Here are five “every-colour” books you can keep on your bookshelf and read to your kids to help them understand what a big, wide, wonderful world this is!

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Five quick tips to reach the kids you’re leaving out.

Try to guess which group gets forgotten most often when we write kids’ books.  This infographic will help you figure it out…

(source:  firstbook.org)

You guessed it:  the “have not” kids, the ones who are socioeconomically in that depressed left-hand group.  Not enough books, yes, and when they do open up a book, what do they see?

It’s not written for kids like them.

Chances are, the kids in the books have parents who are around to take care of them, living orderly lives in clean houses in good neighbourhoods (why are the neighbourhoods in kids’ books generally squeaky-clean, anyway???).

There are easy ways to open up your books to include these kids.

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