There Are More Children’s Books About Animals Than People of Colour | by Sol
Growing up, I was the quintessential bookworm. There was nothing I loved more than curling up on the living room couch with a thick book, a soft blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. Some of my favourite series included Judy Moody, Dear Dumb Diary and, as I got older, Harry Potter. What do these books have in common? They all in some way follow the struggles of school-aged, sarcastic, ambitious girls— Judy, Jaime and Hermione—much like I was at the time.
Still, there was a part of me that struggled to identify with said stories. Years later I finally understand why— the characters are almost exclusively white.
In the USA, publishing data by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center shows that in 2018 there were more children’s books about animals and other non-human characters than all people of colour (POC) combined (27% vs. 23%). In contrast, over half of all books included in the study featured white characters.
Some minorities are at an even greater disadvantage. The Center found that only 1% of books featured Indigenous characters, 5% LatinX characters, and 7% Asian-Pacific Islanders.
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