Image Credit: yoshimov, via Flickr
This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the need for books that reflect our family’s particular heritages, as well as the role that multicultural books play in teaching children of all backgrounds. As I’ve been looking for books to review for the HapaMama Summer Reading series — and frantically reading them so I can tell you all about them– the thought has crossed my mind:
Really, what’s the big deal? There are plenty of good books for kids, and shouldn’t we be more concerned that our children are reading, and not worry about trying to raise awareness about diversity all the time?
Well, a new report by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation confirms the need for more ethnic diversity in picture books, and gives me hope that all these efforts to raise awareness of my kids’ cultural heritage (as well as other traditions) is a step in the right direction. Read my full piece Why Kids Need Books That Reflect Diversity on BlogHer, and let me know what you think.
I totally agree that we need more multicultural books for kids, and also lots of different kinds of characters and situations within each ethnicity! Sometimes, if there are just a few books about kids of a certain ethnicity, readers of that ethnicity might even be disappointed or upset about the portray of the characters, if those characters don’t exactly reflect the reader’s own experience! For example, when some Indian-American readers read my novel about an Indian-American girl, they were upset because the character did not exactly reflect them! I discuss this in my blog post: http://genderequalbooks.com/arunas-journeys-authentic-or-inaccurate/
Really good point about having different kinds of stories within each ethnicity! After all, there isn’t just one book about the “white American experience”. Oftentimes, I go to the library or store looking for Chinese children’s books, and the stories are about Chinatown, or the Gold Rush days, or the dialect they refer to is not our family’s. Those stories are important to have, but so are newer narratives and less common ones.
I’m glad to see you writing about your own experiences as an Indian-American girl in the Midwest!