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Last summer the #weneeddiversebooks became an eye opener to a lot of people about the lack of diversity in children's literature. Twitter and tumblr were filled with people posting pictures and tweets about why we need diverse books. I even joined the bandwagon on tumblr, and I know it's not the best picture. I was in a rush before work but I wanted to participate because I felt it was extremely important.
Being a Latina woman I definitely notice the lack of diversity in children's & adult literature. I rarely could find a character that had a similar background as me and I really did try. I use to go to the book store and look through the shelves looking for authors with Hispanic last names (Garcia, Martinez, Sanchez, etc..) in hopes they wrote a book with main characters who were like me. I was rarely successful but did find a few books to read. Even though Hispanics represent 17% of the the US population we do not represent 17% of books being published. We actually are just represented by only 3% which is crazy because our group continues to grow. A quarter of the kids entering public schools are of Hispanic origins. HINT HINT to publishers, do you not see a growing untapped market! Now that all being said. I do have hope for the future. I think the demand is there and I can't wait for it all to happen. |
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