How to Share Diverse Picture Books with Kids
Whether you're a parent, teacher, or educator, you'll probably have read or have a wide selection of kid's books on your bookshelf.
However, how many of them are culturally diverse?
Children learn from the people, experiences, and general world around them. Therefore, using picture books as an interactive tool, to promote diversity, inclusion, and representation helps them learn about the importance of being and feeling included.
I'm passionate about highlighting the importance of representation within diverse children's books in the UK, and beyond.
That's why today, I want to share the importance of cultural diversity and inclusion in children's literature. I offer you 3 ways that you can share diverse picture books to educate, support and celebrate Black authors.
What are the Benefits of Diversity in Children's Books?
Feeling Included
Children can relate to the characters' thoughts, feelings and experiences in stories.
Everyone has a unique experience in the world. When children are from a culturally diverse background they have additional experiences that shape their world. These can often be challenges, discrimination, and racism, as well as many happy moments.
When children read a book and see characters who look like them, or share a relatable experience, they develop a deeper connection to the story.
I didn’t see myself in books as a child.
When I was growing up, I can only remember seeing a Black character in one book (Biff and Chip). If you grew up in the UK, you'll know the books I mean!
When I decided to publish my first book last year, I wanted the characters to be diverse and what I would have loved to see when I was younger.
It wasn't until I spent time reflecting on the lack of diversity within books that I realised that as a child this would have impacted me.
In my picture books, ‘Slow Down Amaya’ and ‘Slow Down Sammy’, Amaya has a different hairstyle in each book.
Afro hair is always a topic of conversation, particularly for Black girls and women. I wanted to celebrate and highlight the diversity of Black hair in my books. I hope that this will spark interesting conversations between children and adults when reading my books.
Learning Opportunities
Not being represented in books affects not only children from culturally diverse backgrounds but other children, too. Excluding culturally diverse characters means that children won't learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion through stories.
For children who aren't from those backgrounds, they will miss out on learning how others are perceived in daily life and the experiences their peers may have.
It could also create unconscious bias and racial prejudice in children from a young age. As it has been found that infants become aware of racial preferences in their early years¹.
Sharing diverse kid's reading books can increase their awareness and help children develop a deeper sense of compassion and empathy towards others. Plus, they’ll learn about other cultures and heritage through engaging stories.
It is important to continuously learn about individual and collective experiences in the world to help increase diversity. equity, and inclusion across different aspects of society.
How to Promote Diversity with Kid’s Books
Research Authors and Illustrators
When you're deciding on a book to buy, or borrow from a library, do a quick Google search to look up the author and/or illustrator.
The Inclusive Books for Children ‘Excluded Voices Report² found that out of 635 children's books in their study:
“Black and ambiguously Black or brown main characters comprised 78.3% (411) of 525 non-white main characters over the 10-year period. However, 53% (218) of those 411 books were written and
illustrated by white authors and illustrators and a further 10.7% (44) came from international Own Voice creators.”
Although there isn't anything wrong with having books with diverse characters written by white authors, it is beneficial to keep in mind who the majority of people writing and illustrating books are.
It is especially important to support authors/Illustrators from diverse backgrounds to increase the number of people finding their books.
One way to support authors from diverse backgrounds is by requesting their book(s) to be added to your local library catalogue and borrowing their books when you see them on library shelves.
You can start diversifying your bookshelf to have a range of stories covering different themes and topics by authors from various backgrounds.
Invite Authors and Illustrators to Education Settings
When children see authors and illustrators who look like them it can help them to feel empowered and create a sense of joy.
I remember during one of my author school visits, at a primary school in Edinburgh, two girls' faces lit up when they saw me walk into their classroom.
They had a smile on their face throughout my visit. I instantly knew that it was because I looked like them (I'm obviously a much older version!).
This is one of my favourite moments from my author journey and a memory that I will hold forever.
Two other memorable moments from a different school visit were when a child asked “why does Amaya look like you?” I explained that there weren't many books with characters who looked like me growing up, so I wanted to create a book with a character who looked like me and other Black children to help them feel more included.
During the same classroom visit after I explained that the characters are neurodivergent, a child told me that he had a friend who is Autistic. When his classmate asked what that was, the child proceeded to explain Autism and things that his friend finds challenging.
This was in a classroom with primary 1 children, aged 4½-6. It was a heartwarming and powerful conversation to be having with such young children.
Inviting authors and illustrators from diverse backgrounds to visit educational settings can help start conversations about diversity and inclusion for the whole class or group.
Actively Search for Culturally Diverse Authors Online
You can curate the content that you see on social media, and when searching on Google/Pinterest, and actively find, follow and engage with authors from diverse backgrounds.
By doing this, you can start learning about Black author's experiences in publishing and their motivation behind writing their books. Hearing from authors who are underrepresented³ in the publishing industry helps increase your awareness of the barriers and challenges that they face.
Author and Founder of EION Books, Paula Banks, has created a great resource called The Diverse Book Hub. You can find a range of diverse books in different categories on the website. I'm delighted that ‘Slow Down Amaya’ and ‘Slow Down Sammy’ are included in the Hub available here.
Sharing Diverse Kid's Picture Books: Next Steps
If you would like to introduce your children to diverse inclusive picture books, you can do so with my books and kid's membership.
Find out more about my books and The Mindfully Slow Down Club by tapping here.
References ¹ Christina Rucinski, ‘They’re Not Too Young to Talk About Race: The Science of Early Racial Learning’, Embrace Race, Available at: https://www.embracerace.org/resources/theyre-
not-too-young-to-talk-about-race-the-science-of-early-racial-learning, n.d [Accessed 30th January 2025]
² Inclusive books for children. (2024). Excluded Voices report. [online] Available at: https://www.inclusivebooksforchildren.org/excluded-voices-report [Accessed 30th January 2025]
³ The Bookseller. (2025). ‘Imbalances still remain’ when it comes to Black authors in the bestsellers’ lists. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/imbalances-still-remain-when-it-comes-to-black-authors-in-the-bestsellers-lists [Accessed 1 Feb. 2025].