Ask Lorna: books for a young girl which feature black characters It's possible to argue that it isn't necessary to read books about characters who look just like you in order to engage with a book. Surely one of the main joys of reading is to be taken to different places, and to different times? And the explosion in popularity of various kinds of children's fantasy would seem to suggest that children themselves are the first to acknowledge this. But it is surely important for non-white children to have the option of reading a story about someone like them. And it would seem that our publishing industry has been slow to recognise this. Before I cast the net wider, I'll gallop though some of the reading scheme options. In terms of traditional stories, I'd recommend How Anansi Got His Stories (by Trish Cooke, illustrated by Anna Violet), from the Oxford Reading Tree Traditional Tales series; or The Baobab Tree (by Louie Stowell, illustrated by Laure Fournier) from the Usborne Reading Programme, both for beginner readers. At the everyday end of the spectrum, it's worth noting two series from Oxford Reading Tree. Some of the books in the Biff, Chip and Kipper series switch the focus to Wilf and Wilma, two black friends of the main trio of children: Creepy-Crawly!, for example, or The Duck Race (both by Roderick Hunt, illustrated by Alex Brychta) are both good. And you might look out for the Project X series, which stars four children, two of whom are not white. But if you're looking more broadly for stories that place characters of different ethnicities centre stage, you should focus your attention on four publishers: Tamarind, Barefoot Books, Frances Lincoln and Walker Books. These books aren't represented very consistently in bookshops, but each of these publishers has a good website. I will pick out a couple of series of books about sassy girls, for six to nine year-olds. Mary Hoffman's Amazing Grace books (Frances Lincoln, illustrated by Caroline Birch), now 20 years old, have stood the test of time well. They are about a girl of African descent who lives in England with her mother and her grandmother. There are two picture books, which your daughter will probably be able to read now for herself, and three chapter books for eight-year-olds and upwards. For readers of seven plus, there is Atinuke's series of chapter books about Anna Hibiscus (Walker Books), a girl in Africa, whose grandmother lives in Canada. And, for girlie girls of eight or nine, what about either Malaika Rose Stanley's Skin Deep (Tamarind), about Destiny, who enters a beauty contest without her mother's knowledge, or Brave New Girl by Catherine Johnson (Frances Lincoln), about Seren's dream to become a film star? Books for a bookish 14 year old