I posted about trying to find Anti-Bias Children's Lit during my Diversity & Children class last semester. You can read about it Here, Here, and Here. I posted about the struggles I was coming up against in finding age and developmentally appropriate as well as current anti-bias books in my area of Southern California and online.

While I still cannot find a ton of books for ages 3 to 5 in my area, with book sections regarding anti-bias lit either non-existent (Barnes & Noble) or slim to none (C&M School Supply), and most anti-bias lists being outdated or having slim pickings online, I keep my eyes out for news regarding anti-bias children's lit.

This has led me to reading about Marley Dias, the young activist on a mission to collect 1000 books featuring black girls. Tired of reading about "white boys and dogs" (aren't we all), she started this campaign to show that there's more to reading than reading about white people. But she says it better than I can:

"I believe black girl books are really important because when you are young you want to read lots of books, but you especially like to read books with people that look like you. While I have books at home about black girls, the books at school were not diverse. Children do most of their reading in schools or because of schools. Teachers assign books that you must read. If those books are not diverse and do not show different people’s experiences then kids are going to believe that there is only one type of experience that matters. Also, if books are not diverse then kids will not learn about the experiences of other members in their community." (Grassroots Community Foundation)

It reminds me of all the assigned reading featuring troubled white boys and men trying to find their ways, like The Outsiders, Flowers for Algernon, and The Call of the Wild. Even the stories in the special English classes I took (Creative Reading and Writing) had white male protagonists. There was a smattering of female characters in there...but they were usually white, too. If you look at this Goodreads list of required reading, you can mentally check off as you go: white protagonist, white protagonist, white protagonist - with few exceptions to provide hiccups to the monotony.

Some teachers, of course, would have bookshelves with other books in them.These were the shelves that housed Maus and other holocaust books, and whatever was donated to that particular teacher, usually in the form of drug store novels by Koontz and Crichton. I think I and maybe two other kids actually read from those shelves, which were often just provided for extra credit book report reasons anyway. Required reading was boring, and often taught kids that reading was not worth exploring.

I do remember one book that was required reading about a black female protagonist: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

One!


I was a rather prolific reader in school, and to be honest, I can't remember many non-white protagonists in children's books. Maybe Claudia in The Babysitter's Club and Julie from Julie of the Wolves. I don't remember one Mexican-American mixed race girl protagonist...someone like me. I think there was one in the book with a Hispanic protagonist: And Now, Miguel. It's very hard for me to remember much more than that.

That's a problem for someone who graduated high school in 2000. That's a continued problem if this is still how it is for kids in school today. We cannot change narrative to include other perspectives if we don't actually provide diverse narrative!

I still love this book! I think it definitely deserves to be read by children everywhere.

I am definitely interested in changing the required reading lists kids and teens will face in schools. I love that Marley Dias is taking a step forward and inspiring so many. I even sent Grassroots a suggested for a book that I didn't see on the list, Ada Twist, Scientist, which I reviewed in my previous posts. I'll continue posting about this subject as more opportunities and campaigns like this become available and they pass my feed.


If you'd like to read some of Marley's favorites, check them out here.