Since we’re talking more than usual about books this week (it being Banned Books Week), I wanted to expand the conversation beyond just LGBT-inclusive children’s books, and point out some very good posts about racial and ethnic diversity in children’s books—specifically related to the covers of such books. It’s easy to quote the proverbial lesson about books and covers, but the reality is a bit more complex.
The posts were prelude to a recent panel discussion by members of the Diversity Committee of the Children’s Book Council, a national nonprofit trade association for children’s book publishers. The posts focus on race and ethnicity, but a few also discuss LGBT representation. All are worth a read.
- Elizabeth Bluemle, owner of Flying Pig Bookstore, “Who Will Create the New Normal?” — Not, in fact, a reference to the new NBC show about gay dads, but a hope that people will stop assuming that books with people of color on the cover are about issues like civil rights, slavery, and urban plight. Worthy as those topics are, they are not the whole picture. Bluemle hopes people will come to ask, in any genre, “Is there a reason for the main character to be white? If not, let’s branch out.”
- Coe Booth, author, “Separate, Not Equal” — Booth also speaks out against the segregation of books by people of color into categories like “Street Lit” or “Urban Fiction,” arguing that doing so limits potential readership.
- Joseph Monti, agent at Barry Goldblatt Literary, “Creating a New Narrative” — Monti takes a positive approach, and gives examples of how good covers matched to good books can boost sales, even when the cover choices go against conventional wisdom.
- Laurent Linn, art director at Simon & Schuster Children’s, “Creating Book Covers As Both Mirror and Window” — Linn writes (as Bluemle also does) about the need to appeal both to adult “gatekeepers” and to children, whether the book is a mirror of their own identity or a window onto someone else’s.
- Felicia Frazier, senior VP and director of sales at Penguin Young Readers Group, “Changing the Conversation Around Diverse Publishing” — Frazier discusses the role of a sales team in selling “diverse” books.