I’ve been on a bit of a children’s book buying bender lately, and I’ve been making selections from book lists that recommend books with BBIPOC [lead] characters, positive messaging about the value of diversity, and age-appropriate histories of civil rights heroes. We’re really enjoying some beautiful new books. But it got me thinking more carefully about just how many of our books feature predominantly, or exclusively, white characters. Now I’m noticing it every time we read, and I’m chagrined at how long it’s taken me TO notice. I keep thinking about how it would feel to read book after book to your children where the characters don’t look like your kids do, don’t live like your family does. And how do I message to my white sons that they are NOT the center of the universe if everything I read to them shows them that they are? 

So today I decided to assess the state of our children’s book collection.  I reviewed every book and first broke them into two categories: books with human characters, and books that don’t have human characters (mostly anthropomorphic animals or vehicles).

The latter were excluded from my assessment. For the former, I awarded -2 points to books with exclusively white characters, -1 to books with predominantly white characters with one or two token BBIPOC characters, +1 books with a good representation of non-white characters including lead characters and +2 books that have a diverse cast AND also include characters with disabilities, children who live in non-hetero-nuclear family units, families who don’t live in a house with a white picket fence, non-white-american cultural practices, etc.  I also created a special category of -3 points for books that employ racial stereotypes in the guise of diversity.*

The results:

Books with no humans, only anthropomorphic trucks and/or animals: 122. (I know).

Books scoring -3 (negative racial stereotypes): 2 

Books scoring -2 (exclusively white characters): 52

Books scoring -1 (token BBIPOC characters in an otherwise white cast): 13

Books scoring +1 (good diversity of characters): 19

Books scoring +2 (good racial diversity PLUS an effort to promote characters with disabilities, non-hetero-nuclear family structures, etc): 19

In terms of percentages:

54% don’t have humans in them at all

of the remaining 105 books:

63% received a negative score for their racial diversity

37% received a positive score for racial and other forms of diversity

Unfortunately I skewed future calculations by purging about 30 books across all non-human and negatively-scoring categories without really keeping count of what came from what category. I got rid of: 1) books that I really hate, 2) books that are are too old for either kid (buh bye, Pat the Bunny), and 3) books that received a negative score and didn’t have other redeeming qualities, such as 1) messages about the values** I try to promote in our family (Andrea Beaty’s Questioneers series), 2) exceptionally beautiful illustrations/classics (Where the Wild Things Are) or 3) were books my kids FLOVE and won’t go to sleep without multiple recitations nightly (Pout Pout Fish KILL ME NOW)

All in all, I think I have a free pass to buy about… 20 more children’s books that feature good representations of racial and cultural diversity. I’m pretty excited about using this tool to help build our library in a more conscientious way: https://diversebookfinder.org/

* Leif was two when we entered the world of Daniel Tiger; and for a long time I was really on board. The show teaches great lessons on social-emotional behavior and basic life skills for the 2-3 year old set, with catchy little tunes you can sing back to your kid when reinforcing the messages later (“growwwwwn ups come back!” “saying ‘I’m sorry’ is the first step, then ‘how can I help?'”). So I’m embarrassed that I didn’t see just how blatant and vivid the racial stereotypes are until another parent pointed it out to me. The Latino character is the town baker. The doctor is Indian. The Black character runs a music shop and is referred to as “Music Man Stan”, and of course King Friday, Queen Saturday, and their children Prince Tuesday and Prince Wednesday, are white. face-palm.

** A few years ago, Ben and I found ourselves unexpectedly gifted with a couple of hours of uninterrupted time for conversation as we drove from Chicago to Ohio and our offspring snoozed in the backseat. As we made plans for, and worried about, the future, we made a list of the 5 most important values we wished to impart to our sons, which are: (in no particular order): kindness, self-reliance, curiosity, empathy, and resilience.