All right, so the question of diversity in children’s books is a long overdue question and I’m so glad that we’re finally addressing the issue. We’re making some progress in the field, not nearly enough and not nearly fast enough so, for instance, the SCBWI has several grants and awards that are given out for people who come from an underrepresented culture or religion.
We support the We Need Diverse Books movement and the organization itself. We Need Diverse Books has created internships for people working in publishing, for diverse people to actually get jobs in publishing because one of the ways it has to change is the power structure inside publishing has to be diverse which it essentially isn’t, so the SCBWI is offering memberships and free conferences and things to all of those people.
So we’re very much at the heart of that and so what we’re supporting is that diversity represents – comes from racial diversity, ethnic diversity, religious diversity, gender diversity and the idea is that every child in America, in the world really but America is our primary concern, needs to find himself or herself in the pages of a book.
You know, as they say, if you don’t see yourself in a book, you’ll go looking for yourself in all the wrong places. So that will only happen if there’s a greater diversity of subject matter and a greater diversity in terms of the authors and illustrators who are creating the books. So we’re all for it. We’re doing everything that we can to support it, offering grants, offering scholarships, going to colleges and universities and trying to seek out people who will enter the field who represent a different point of view.
And now finally the industry has acknowledged that this has been an issue. And the other thing that we’re trying to do that all of us should do is buy books that come out of a diverse experience because in the end, publishing is not a charity, it’s a marketplace, and so when you’re thinking of stocking your classroom with books or buying a birthday present for your child’s best friend, it’s important to look at the books that are around and not just pick a book that looks like your child but expose your children to all kinds of literature and all kinds of tales and all kinds of characters that represent the diverse world that we live in.
So you have to support it with your dollars as well as your heart.