Diversity in Children’s Literature

Diverse books are important for All children

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Although our books focus on our common humanity, we aim to rebalance the representation in children's books with all of our main characters being from diverse and multicultural backgrounds, representing the reality of the world.

Moreover, diverse children’s books are important for all children. For children of color as they offer them visibility, relatability, and demonstrate that they matter. And for all other children so they have an opportunity to see realities and experiences from a different perspective.

“Reading books with your children that celebrate diversity will help your little ones recognize that what is seen as outwardly different can just be a slight variation in the broad spectrum of humanity—and that different is not bad, but beautiful.”
— Ojus Patel
 
 

Diversity Book Pledge

Created by Wade Hudson (© 2014)

I pledge to:

1. Each year, personally introduce 10 different children’s books that reflect the world’s diversity to educators, librarians, bookstore managers, and parents—anyone who has the influence and/or power to help increase the number of these books within our body of children’s literature.

2. Gift at least 5 of these books to children other than my own—whether they’re neighbors’, friends’ or co-workers’ children; or as donations to other organizations in my community.

3. Try to give at least 2 or 3 of these books to children who might not normally have diverse books in their homes.

4. Make a special effort to buy some of these books from independent publishers, independent bookstores and vendors, including those operated by people of color.

5. Lift up the importance of having books that reflect the world’s diversity at every opportunity—not just within my circle of friends, but among others with whom I don’t normally interact.

6. When visiting a book store, encourage the manager to include a more diverse offering of children’s books. Take the initiative to purchase at least one multicultural title to show my commitment to supporting these books.

7. Encourage educators and school administrators to include multicultural books among their classroom resources.

8. Encourage book reviewers and bloggers to include more multicultural books among the books they review.

9. Publicly celebrate positive multicultural children’s literature, including posting multicultural books and reviews of those books on my personal Facebook page and other social media platforms.

10. Encourage others to take this pledge.

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