Four years into my masters and I am finally completing a subject about children’s literature and I am delighted. The start of  ETL402- Literature Across the Curriculum has involved reading about the changes in both parenting and the experience of childhood and how children’s literature has evolved over time. We have been asked to reflect on our vision for the future of children’s literature and who will be the drivers of change. I have had a lot of thoughts regarding this and my biggest hope is that the lack of diversity in children’s books is addressed.  I also hope that digital technology can continue to enhance the reading experience, without taking over from print and if the last decade is any indication, I believe that is where we are headed.

Short (2018) and Harvey (2015) talk about how there is still strong growth in the print book market, whereas other readerships have stagnated. I also reflected on this in a previous post, Digital and Print books for children where I had discussed how there used to be fear that the demand for print books for children would decrease as digital took over. The children’s book market is one area where this has not occurred and many enjoy the benefits of using both digital and print. In fact, in a recent survey I conducted in my school students indicated a preference for print but an openness to use both. There are many studies to back up this reading preference. We recently changed to a different eBook library at school,  because we wanted a company that also offered audiobooks. We are now using BorrowBox and have discovered so far that students have a preference for audiobooks to eBooks.

Wolf (2014) argues that technology can enhance the world of story and gave examples of beloved books where this has been done. These included Lane Smith’s It’s a Book, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. She discussed how when movement, sound and interactivity enter the scene an enhanced experience can occur. There is no disputing this. In fact, in this subject module, we have been shared these incredible interactive stories, which I will be sharing with staff. My belief is that the concern should not be what content is being used by our children, but whether they have opportunities to discuss and evaluate after consuming the print or digital resource. Are their teachers, parents and friends engaging with them in meaningful literary discussions?

Short (2018) in her study into children’s literature trends expressed concern regarding trends in cultural diversity and also put the responsibility onto teachers to ensure they are “selective in the books shared in classrooms to avoid establishing and reinforcing stereotypes” (p.295). Short was very much looking through the lens of American publishing but from my experience, it is the same globally. My experience is mostly with British and Australian books and the concerns are similar. There are not enough books where the main character is not middle class and white, there are more male characters than females and there are more male authors published than females. The Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls phenomenon started a brilliant movement with creating awareness and promotion of inspiring women in books. I often share this video, The Ugly Truth in Children’s Books with parents, staff and students and it starts some fascinating conversations. In my school, this has led to us changing some of the texts that were studied in English. We reflected on how the majority of them had a male character which related to the mistaken belief that boys will not want to read about female characters, yet girls would be less discerning with regards to the gender of the protagonist. When changing some of our texts though it did prove more challenging to find some middle-grade books with strong female characters that appealed to the masses. We were also looking for cultural diversity and we were trying not to choose realistic fiction because we were already using some excellent examples of that genre. For our new Year 6 text the strong contenders were Rooftoopers by Katherine Rundell, Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi, Thief by Mallory Blackman and The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.

The topic of cultural diversity in all literature, but particularly children’s literature is one that teacher librarians aim to address when developing their library collections. Living in Singapore, which is a melting pot of cultures, allows me to be exposed to a plethora of children’s literature from around the world. One experience that really helps with that is being in the Red Dot Book Award committee, where we longlist and shortlist a selection of books in different age categories. One major criterion is for us to look for Diversity. Diversity in the countries where the books have been published, a range of countries represented in the story and the genders of the protaginists and of the authors is also part of the selection criteria.  More on that in a post to follow. Another committee that I am involved in is the organising committee for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. Our theme for the 2019 festival was Diversity and particularly exploring books published and set in Asia as a focus.  I reflected on this with a Singaporean colleague recently when she connected so deeply with the main character in Kelly Yang’s Front Desk. She mentioned that she had hardly ever read a book as a child with an Asian character. As Short states “the continued lack of diversity in children’s literature is devastating for children as readers, many of whom rarely see their lives and cultural identities within a book” (p.293). Fortunately, I have seen first hand that Asian publishers are growing stronger in the marketplace and my hope is that the future sees more of theses titles included in mainstream publications.

So although, I can not do any crystal ball gazing my hope for the future of children’s publishing are backed on some research and experience. The drivers to this change needs to be the consumers, including educators so that publishers react to this demand of needing more diverse stories. My hope is that every reader can see mirrors as well as doors in their reading experience.

References

Chibana, N. (2015). 10 mind-blowing interactive stories that will change the way you see the world [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://visme.co/blog/ 10-mind-blowing-interactive-stories-that-will-change-the-way-you-see-the-world/

Favilli, E., & Cavallo, F. (2017). Good night stories for rebel girls: 100 tales of extraordinary women. London, U.K.: Particular Books.

Harvey, E. (2015, December 8). Five trends affecting children’s literature. In Book Business.

Potter, B. (2006). The world of Peter Rabbit: Box one. London, UK: Frederick Warne.

Rebel Girls. (2017, March 7). Goodnight stories for rebel girls [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Jbd4-fPOE

Short, K. (2018). What’s trending in children’s literature and why it matters. Language Arts, 95(5), 287-298.

Selznick, B. (2008). The invention of Hugo Cabret. London, UK: Scholastic.

Smith, L. (2011). It’s a book. New York, N.Y.: Roaring Brook Press.

Wolf, S. (2014). Children’s literature on the digital move. Reading Teacher, 67(6), 413-417. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.1002/trtr.1235