Kid's Bestsellers Display
The Display
The book display, located in the children’s section near the back of Indigo’s Barrhaven location, displayed a variety of current kids' bestsellers. The display itself didn’t seem to be limited to any specific age group and instead featured novels that catered to a variety of young ages.
The display itself was located at the entrance of the children’s area and as it was also much taller than most of its surrounding displays was likely one of the first things shoppers would see. It exhibited a variety of novel formats, including graphic novels, picture books, and slightly longer, middle-grade reads.
The Books
We divided the display, and the books we catalogued, in order to ensure we were including examples from each medium and target audience. Between the four of us, we were able to include the majority of novels presented within the display, giving us a sample of information and data pertaining to popular children’s novels and the diversity reflected within them.
Our Goals
In its mission statement, Indigo claims to be diverse and to reflect on its community by presenting a multitude of voices. We wanted to challenge this by looking at the books that were most centrally promoted in the children’s section of the store and examining how many of those books actually amplified and drew attention to diverse voices.
Throughout our cataloguing, we looked at both the characters present in the works themselves, and the book’s creators, including authors, illustrators, and designers.
Ponder Session…Why It’s Important
Books help develop a child’s understanding of society and culture. Stories, while entertaining, usually serve a deeper purpose, often encouraging positive morals. As their media helps shape children's understanding of the world, it must accurately reflect the diversity experienced in everyday life, and popularizing books created by a variety of voices and that feature diverse characters makes this more achievable. The Indigo website features a promise of amplifying multicultural voices, vowing to make 15% of its displays BIPOC and promising to achieve this goal by June 2021. In our data collection, we challenged their statement by focusing on current Kid's bestsellers to see if the Indigo brand was upholding its promise.
Above, you'll find an interactive photo of the display. Each book with a coloured circle has been researched and catalogued by our team, and you can find out more about characters, authors and the diversity within the books by clicking the circles directly.
Additionally, each of the items with a rectangle over it is a book a member of our team has chosen to pitch as a diverse book with excellent examples of windows and mirrors for young readers. More information can be found by clicking the squares, or by visiting the pitch pages from the menu.