Diversity Among Children's Books

** As I looked up images for the title page "Children's books" - all the results that came back were of white children or depicted white children **

"The 2020 study 'Rethinking 'Diversity' in Publishing' found that writers of color are not afforded the same industry access, creative freedoms, or economic value as their white counterparts, and each stage of the publishing process was generally set up to amplify the voices of white and middle-class people." (How to Disrupt the Publishing Industry and Do Better, Forbes 2021)

Roughly 80 percent of the

children’s book world—

authors and illustrators,

editors, execs, marketers, and

reviewers—is white.

(The Uncomfortable Truth About Children’s Books, Slater)

Many publishing companies only produce books of diverse authors and characters that deal with historical content in some respect or an iconic figure. Due to the disproportionate amount of white publishers, they do not heavily relate to content that depicts other ethnicities and cultures.

Over the years, many authors have been working with their publishing companies to help promote more diversity among the collections. Rick Riordan, best-selling author of the Percy Jackson Series, worked with Hyperion Publishing to help new authors to create mythology lines from their culture.

There still remains a large gap in publishing for children's literature, but the gap slowly decreases with each passing year. Many authors are now able to write in genuine experience and not only in historical settings.

With the introduction of many multicultural awards, such as the American Indian Youth Literature Award and the Coretta Scott King Award, authors are being asked to write about their cultural experiences and promote themselves to gives readers a chance to view the world from another point of view.