Because Children Should See Themselves on the Pages of a Book
Citation: Huyck, David and Sarah Park Dahlen. (2019 June 19). Diversity in Children’s Books 2018. sarahpark.com blog. Created in consultation with Edith Campbell, Molly Beth Griffin, K. T. Horning, Debbie Reese, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and Madeline Tyner, with statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp. Retrieved from https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic/.
Why Diverse Books Matter to Our Students More Than Ever
According to the Cooperative Children's Book Center, in 2018, only 23% of books written depicted characters from diverse backgrounds. Of this 23%, only 10% of these characters were African/African-American.
According to the 2017-18 Hamden Public Schools' District Profile and Performance Report as submitted to EdSight, 62.4% of Hamden Public Schools' students were from diverse backgrounds.