Stories Still Matter: Rethinking the Role of Diverse Children's Literature Today
In February 2015, NCTE members approved a Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children's and Young Adult Books. The official background statement about this resolution reads as follows:In the world of literature for young people, the kinds of print and digital texts that are accessible to youth are determined and authorized by influential individuals and professional organizations: editors/publishers, agents, authors/book creators, illustrators, distributors, booksellers, librarians, educators, parents, and the media. The absence of human, cultural, linguistic, and family diversity in children's and young adult literature attests to the growing disparity and inequity in the publishing history in the United States. Stories matter. Lived experiences across human cultures including realities about appearance, behavior, economic circumstance, gender, national origin, social class, spiritual belief, weight, life, and thought matter. (NCTE, 2015)Although stories matter (Fox Short, 2003) not all stories are equally present in today's literary landscape. Over the past decade, much has been made of the persistence of racial and ethnic achievement gaps in literacy and educational attainment. These conversations have extended from classrooms and communities to the White House, prompting inquiry about other gaps, such as in empathy, opportunities, resources, and technology (Irvine, 2003; Ladson Billings, 2006; Milner, 2013) Building on their work, I have begun to theorize a corresponding imagination gap in children's literature and media (Thomas, 2014) This imagination gap is caused in part by the lack of diversity in childhood and teen life depicted in children's books and media. When children grow up without seeing diverse images in the mirrors, windows, and doors of children's literature (Bishop, 1990) it limits them to single stories about the world around them (Adichie, 2009) and ultimately affects the development of their imaginations.Conversations about diversity in children's literature are not new. New York Times op eds written by the late pioneering Black children's author Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers in the spring of 2014 were among the latest developments in decades long struggles over disparities in children's publishing and media (C. Myers, 2014; W. D. Myers, 2014) Their powerful essays, "Where Are the People of Color in Children's Books?" and "The Apartheid of Children's Literature," referenced their work with children as well as their lifelong commitments as writers to represent diverse kids' lives. Both authors cited statistics collected by the University of Wisconsin's Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) which has analyzed trends in children's publishing on an annual basis for more than two decades. The CCBC has found that every year, over 85% of all children's and young adult books published feature White characters a statistic that has barely moved since the 1960s (CCBC, 2014, 2015).After the Myers father and son editorials appeared, a number of the largest publishers remained silent. In 2014, a bold new campaign and hashtag WeNeedDiverseBooks was launched on social media through the efforts of authors Ellen Oh, Malinda Lo, and Aisha Saeed. These activists were responding to BookCon's choice to feature only White male authors on their Blockbuster Reads children's literature panel. Other prominent voices within the children's publishing industry including Jason Low, founder and CEO of the multicultural publisher Lee and Low Books; publisher and editorial director Stacy Whitman of the diverse science fiction and fantasy imprint Tu Books; and many other authors and advocates helped to push social media conversations around diversifying children's literature into the public discourse about diversity in media. These recent efforts are connected to a protest tradition launched decades ago by children's literature diversity pioneers such as Augusta Baker, Pura Belpre, Nancy Larrick, Jella Lepman, and Rudine Sims Bishop, as well as many other authors, librarians, educators, and community activists who work with some of our world's most vulnerable young people.