I stand for diversity in children's and young adult literature. I believe our books should reflect the world around us and everyone should have the opportunity to see characters like them. I believe sometimes we can best learn about different cultures through works of fiction, because novels share truths in more interesting ways than textbooks and and news articles can.
According to the We Need Diverse Books organization, out of 3200 children's books published in 2013, only 97 were about African-Americans. That's only 3%. That doesn't even include books about Asian-Americans, Latin-Americans, and so forth.
Recommended for you
Have you ever thought about the characters and places in the books you've read? Have you ever considered how many characters are white, how many settings are American or British, how many casts lack diversity beyond that token black character or token gay guy?
I'll admit, I never thought about it excessively, not until 2015. I did note that there seems to be a standard description for most young adult (YA) heroines (particularly in contemporary romances) and a standard look for most YA love interests. I don't see myself overthinking my book choices in the future, but I have more of an effort to read books by diverse authors and/or with diverse characters and settings over the last year and a half. I keep a yearly spreadsheet to document all the books I read and reread, and I've added columns to indicate whether a book is by a diverse author or has a diverse main character. Of course, it's hard to tell if an author is diverse (because certain details are personal and are theirs to reveal) and I don't know if I always interpret a character correctly, but the general definitions of diversity include race, religion, sexuality, and mental illnesses.
I'm issuing a challenge to all of you, my family and friends and whoever else reads this article. Read diverse books. Read more of them. Buy them and check them out of the library. Publishers, because they are a business, listen more to money than feelings. If you read a really good diverse book, tell everyone you know about it. Word of mouth is perhaps the most powerful form of marketing for the publishing industry.
What's better than a book that clearly reflects the colorful world around us?
And, because I wouldn't be me if I didn't recommend books, here is a short (and in no way comprehensive) list of some of my favorite books by diverse authors and/or with diverse characters.
~"Like No Other" by Una LaMarche
~"This Side of Home" by Renee Watson
~"Lies We Tell Ourselves" by Robin Talley
~"To All the Boys I've Loved" Before by Jenny Han
~"Don't Touch" by Rachel M. Wilson
~"Girl Against the Universe" by Paula Stokes
~"Written in the Stars" by Aisha Saeed
~"Under a Painted Sky" by Stacey Lee
~"The Wrath and the Dawn" by Renee Ahdieh
~"Endangered" by Lamar Giles
~"Anything Could Happen" by Will Walton
~"The Girl from Everywhere" by Heidi Heilig
~"Every Last Word" by Tamara Ireland Stone
