Diversity in children’s books is going to flourish when we are able to have it just accepted as a normal part of schooling and librarianing if there’s such a word. So, one of the things that I would hope people do is to really integrate diverse literature into whatever it is they’re doing.
So, when you want to read aloud, find a book by an African American, find a book by a Latino, you know, read Pat Moore, read Walter D. Myers, read out loud and read those books. When people are doing their little research projects, I often look at the bibliography.
There’s the study of we use these books to do X. So, I look at the end to see the bibliography. What were the books that they used? And so often there are no books that from underrepresented groups that are a part of that project. I think that’s something. I think you have to also demand, if you will, people, publishers, marketers will respond to a demand.
So, if parents go into Barnes & Noble and say I want to see books about X, Y, and Z or I want to see these specific books, that I think they’ll begin to show up. With the book clubs I think they can certainly be encouraged to include more diversity in the selections that they offer the children.
But basically it’s that business of being diligent about making sure that classroom libraries are diverse and that those books are not just pulled out during February or during whatever month we celebrate American Indians, October, but that it’s a part of all year round, any time. It’s just a natural part of what happens in the classroom.
