Opinion: We Need More Diverse Children's Books on the Shelves Now

There has been a lot of media coverage of the publishing industry lately, especially as it relates to Amazon.com. But, as a parent and aspiring author, I am much more interested in the topic of multicultural book publishing and what I see as a real problem: children of color are terribly under-represented in children’s literature. 

One of the oft-cited reasons for this is the economic bottom line. As the Amazon controversy reminds us, the book industry is a business. For diverse books to succeed in a tough market, they have to both focus on a character with a multicultural background and integrate universal themes (e.g., family and friendship, anxieties of the first day of school or excitement about a birthday, etc.)

But that’s not enough. To reach a broader audience and sell books adults need to place more diverse books into the hands of children.

The books need to be widely available because they are not for children of color only.  Books with diverse characters serve both as a mirror and as a window for children from different backgrounds. 

Books have always served as a glimpse into what is possible, a way to create the world you want to see and find comfort in one’s self.  This does not exclude diverse books, particularly when they address such topics as racial diversity, family, class, social mobility and culture. 

The issue is a frustrating one for parents with children of color -- and all parents who want their kids to have a multi-cultural perspective.  I have seen adults step up to the plate time and time again, researching online, finding the specialty bookstores like Books of Wonder in Chelsea (New York), La Casa Azul in East Harlem (New York) or ordering directly from independent publishers like Just Us Book (New Jersey), Lee and Low Books (New York) and Vision Works Publishing (New York) in efforts to diversify school and home libraries.

A recent social media campaign highlighted  the lack of diversity in publishing. It was triggered by the dearth of diverse panelists at a major book conference. The list of over 30 speakers was comprised of white men and one “Grumpy Cat.”  This seemed to be the last straw for the literary twitterverse. What followed were articles, blog posts, forums and the aforementioned social media campaign on the topic.  With the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks, the campaign scored over 160 million impressions. 

The campaign’s long-term influence has yet to be determined but at least it  brought attention to something that I know all too well:  we need more diverse books on bookstore shelves, in classrooms and in our homes.