Representation of BAME children

Imagine as a child you did not see yourself reflected in a children’s book. However,

that is the reality for many BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) children. Hardly

any books include them as a background character and even less feature an ethnic

minority person as a protagonist. You may be wondering, why does this even

matter? Reading books are incredibly important for the formation of a children’s

character and understanding the world around them—and that’s just the beginning of

the reasons why reading and seeing themselves reflected in a book is so pertinent

for children.

A 2019 study conducted by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education

shockingly found that there are more books featuring animals and inanimate objects

than characters from BAME backgrounds. In other words, a BAME child is more

likely to encounter books that have inanimate objects and animals as their

protagonist than see themselves represented in a book. Of course, the same cannot

be said for white children—who regularly see themselves represented in children’s

books. One child, who belongs to an ethnic minority background, stated that ‘Most of

the people I pictured were white because in most stories I read there were no black

people.’ The problem also lies with how BAME children are represented, too. The

above report found that even when BAME children were included in books, they

were illustrated with exaggerated features. As such, the report concludes that that

this meant the characters were reduced to caricatures.

Whilst there is a slow improvement in the representation of black, Asian and

ethnic minority characters, there is still a lot of work to be done. In 2017 just 1% of

books had an ethnic minority main character, rising to 4% in 2018. When BookTrust

releases its next report in 2022, the company has challenged publishing houses to

increase this number to 13%.

If you are interested in reading children’s books that feature black characters,

see Penguin’s post. Also, here at Greenwich Exchange, author Stuart Fryd’s Scarlett

in Knoware features an ethnic minority character as its protagonist,

and also in the book’s marketing film. You can watch it here.