On Wisconsin magazine recently put the spotlight on the importance of multicultural children’s literature and the important work being conducted by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
The report explains that in the year 2000, some 5,000 children’s books were published in the United States — but just 147 of them — less than 3 percent — featured black characters. Similarly, only 151 books combined featured Asian, Latino/Latina, or indigenous characters.
On Wisconsin reports: “Today, more than half of K–12 public school students are children of color, yet less than 15 percent of children’s books over the past two decades have contained multicultural characters or story lines. In 2018, roughly 10 percent of all children’s books featured black characters, 7 percent featured Asian characters, 5 percent featured Latino/Latina characters, and 1 percent featured indigenous characters.”
The article continues: “These troubling numbers come from the UW Cooperative Children’s Book Center, or CCBC, which has become the authoritative source nationally for tracking diversity in children’s and young adult literature. Since 1985, the center’s librarians have indexed every new book, providing data for a long-overdue reevaluation of the publishing industry and promoting a more accurate reflection of a diverse world.”
It adds: “Along the way, their efforts have collided with century-old barriers in children’s literature. And although there’s reason for optimism, their work is far from over.”
The CCBC is housed within UW-Madison’s School of Education. It is a noncirculating library for adults with a professional, career, or academic interest in children’s and young adult literature.
To learn much more about the important work being conducted by the CCBC, check out the in-depth On Wisconsin report headlined, “A New Era for Children’s Literature: The Cooperative Children’s Book Center transforms publishing by championing diversity.”