Please welcome teacher and author Garrett Carter who is my guest blogger today. He writes about the need for more diversity in chidren’s books.
Planting the Seed Now: A Call for Diverse Children’s Literature from a Teacher and Author
Along with spring and summer flowers, numerous articles concerning the lack of diversity in children’s literature have sprung up as the year has progressed. Not a new phenomenon, there has always been a lack of cultural diversity for children to experience through reading. As the melting pot in America simmers to a boil, so does the demand for an inclusion of diversity in children’s literature. Simply put; stakeholders are asking and demanding change — now! Here, I’ll explain why I feel this is an important message in my eyes as both a teacher and author.
Through a Teacher’s Eyes
I want the best for my students. This desire is at the heart of how I approach teaching. The best includes opening my students’ eyes to the world around them. Not just allowing them to see themselves (mirrors), but allowing them to explore the world of others (windows). I teach middle school language arts, and one novel we read this year was The Circuit by Francisco Jiménez. The story centers on the experiences of a migrant child and my students were enriched by this novel; I was too. They asked thought-provoking questions, made excellent points, debated issues the novel raised, and found they had commonalities with those whose lives are very different than their own. Several of my students commented that it’s not a book they would have read on their own, but that they were glad we read it and felt that they learned more about the world. Emerging readers need to experience this as well. We need to enrich the world of young children by showing them how diverse this world really is; and despite this diversity, how we still share many things in common.
Through an Author’s Eyes
Reading and writing are fundamental and require responsibility. Both can open doors and expand imaginations beyond boundaries. When children read and write about characters and people who only look like them, it’s a disservice because it’s limiting their imaginations and perspectives of the world. Authors and publishers have a responsibility to provide diversity in children’s literature. We have to acknowledge that many of our readers live in homogeneous communities and only experience their single environment in way that carries meaning. Their perceptions of people they don’t see are often limited to what they observe on television, movies, the Internet, etc. We have an obligation to offer readers a peek into the lives of others. By providing quality, culturally diverse literature, we can show young readers the experiences of others in a meaningful, relevant, and responsible way. There are certain feelings in life that are experienced across cultural boundaries: happiness, sadness, hope, love, etc. If we can expose children to this idea at a young age, we can begin to create empathy and, perhaps, a better world.
Maya Angelou once said, “When you learn, teach, when you get, give.” As adults, we’ve hopefully learned the benefits of living in a diverse world; let’s teach this to our children. We’ve hopefully received the gift of mirrors and windows; let’s give them to our children.
Garrett Carter is author of I Want to Be an Athlete and an Entrepreneur (Coby’s Athlete and Career Series, Book 2), a #1 Best Seller in Amazon’s Children’s Multicultural Category. For more information, visit GarrettCarterBooks.com or Garrett Carter on Facebook.
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My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Well said! And those two pie charts speak volumes as well.
Thanks so much Asakiyume. The stats speak for themselves! I hope the awareness that #WeNeedDiverseBooks is raising is helping to change the publishing industry’s point of view bit by bit.
Hard to pick a favorite, but I think I would still choose Peter’s Chair by Ezra Jack Keats.
Hi Barbara,
Oooh! I love Peter’s Chair too and that entire series!!! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Garrett, for this article and the charts.Looking at the pie charts about it’s clear that the big need is for more diversity books with black and latino main characters. These two groups represent about 50% of children from low income families, but have only about 5% of books with kids like them. Hopefully my YA fiction set in Mexico will do its part to close the gap.
The only way to bridge the gap, especially for books with latino and black main characters, is to have some rules requiring libraries, schools and publishers to have more books for these kids.
Best wishes with your books.
Hi Giora,
How wonderful that you have a YA fiction book with a diversity theme! I’m hoping that if we, the public, demand and buy books with diversity theme, the market for books will slowly change in that direction. But we all need to buy those books when we can!
Very thought-provoking article. We are a melting pot and an example to the world. Kids are exposed to diversity in both positive and negative ways through the media. I agree that diversity should be a priority in children’s literature. Great post!
Thanks so much Patricia! I believe in the power of books and in introducing young kids to the idea of diversity from books, I think it does help to make them more accepting of those who might be different from them as they grow older.
“Children of the River” by Linda Crew is a young adult fiction book that really impacted me as a teenager.
Hi MaryAnne,
I don’t know that one but I will seek it out. Thanks so much for sharing!
When the pie chart shows diverse characters, are they counting the times the diverse characters that are just background characters? Somehow I don’t think it should count if the books are about white children with a diverse school classroom shown in the background. Though the chart is drastic enough it doesn’t really matter, but it would be interesting to know their definition of “character.”
Hi Christy,
I’m not sure. I think it’s probably main characters though I would love to see books about white children with a diverse classroom as something that is just typical rather than something to note!
Excellent point! The wide disparity in actual population versus depicted population needs to change. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Jaymie,
I didn’t realize the stats either but I’m glad that the need for more diverse books is permeating the publishing industry! #WeNeedDiverseBooks !
What a thought-provoking piece. Thanks for sharing this with the Kid Lit Blog Hop!
I’m glad you liked it Katie! Hoping to make change bit by bit!