What We Found
After collecting and cataloguing all of the information for each of our 17 novels, we came to a number of realizations regarding diversity and representation in children’s novels. The most pressing being that, while there is some form of diversity in most of the novels, it wasn’t nearly as much as we had hoped to see.
Below, you will find a series of charts illustrating the metadata we catalogued from each book. They show what we found in terms of diversity among the primary characters, authors, illustrators and designers for each literary work.
Out of 17 books, 13 of them had human primary characters and four of them instead had animal primary characters. The charts below demonstrate the percentages of each primary character’s race/ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and disability.
Race/Ethnicity
44% of the primary characters’ races/ethnicities were unspecified. This means that, throughout each novel, the characters’ races and/or ethnicities were not explicitly stated or otherwise presented to the reader.
Out of the specified races, the majority of primary characters were white. In all seventeen books, there were only four Black/African primary characters, one Indigenous primary character and one Asian primary character. We feel this leaves lots of room for more diverse characters, and that featured displays such as this one should put more marginalized groups at the forefront.
Religion
Out of our 17 books, the majority of primary characters had unspecified religious beliefs. Only two books mentioned religion at all, falling under ‘other religion’ in our metadata. Among these other religions were one primary character with Indigenous spiritual beliefs and one Mormon.
This means 88% of primary characters did not specify religious beliefs. While this doesn't necessarily mean there is a lack of diversity in the display when it comes to religious beliefs, it does mean there is a lack of opportunity for readers of specific religious beliefs to feel represented in this display.
Gender
As for gender, we discovered the primary characters within our display novels were much closer in number than any other category. 53% of the characters were female, 41% were male, and 6% having an unspecified gender.
It is important to note that this then shows that, out of all 17 novels, not one had a primary character who outwardly identified as non-binary, transgender, or otherwise. Like we comment on below under primary character sexuality, we feel this could have something to do with the young ages of the primary characters in the majority of the books in the display.
Sexuality
Only 13% of our primary characters had a specified sexuality, while 87% remained unspecified.
Looking at this a little more closely, we believe the large percentage of unspecified sexualities in our characters is due to the target ages of the majority of the books on our shelves. Where there were a few young adult and middle-grade novels, many of them were children's books, and thus featured characters that were likely too young to grasp the full concept of sexuality, and especially too young to fully understand their own.
Disability
Only 12% of primary characters had a known disability. Of that 12%, all of them had cognitive/neurological disabilities/conditions, including amnesia and dyslexia.
The Creators
After researching our primary characters and the diversity represented within the books themselves, we collected data on their creators. We interpreted the creators specifically as the authors, illustrators and designers of each work.
The charts below depict what we found in terms of race and/or ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and disability within our creators.
Race/Ethnicity
Earlier, we mentioned Indigo's vow to make 15% of their displays BIPOC. Out of our catalogued books, 75% of creators were white, 7% were Black/African, 6% were multiracial, and another 6% were Indigenous. While (in this display, at least) Indigo has reached its goal, we still feel it could benefit from more diverse voices represented. There can never be too much diverse representation, but there is often too little.
Despite having Black/African, Indigenous, and Asian illustrators represented on this display, the majority of them, 63%, were white. We concluded that there should be more diversity on the display in order for young readers aspiring to be artists to feel inspired by and see themselves and relate to the illustrators.
Of the four books that had designers, 13% of them were Asian and 6% were white. While we find this a good number in terms of diversity, there could be other races/ethnicities that have a spot on the display.
Religion
There were mostly no known religions mentioned with a large percentage of 81. Only 13% had an author with religious beliefs categorized under ‘other religion.’ 75% of the illustrators had no religious beliefs specified. Only 6% were Christian and 13% fell under the category of ‘other religion.’
Again, the large majority of unspecified religious beliefs doesn't necessarily mean there is a lack of religious diversity in this display. It simply means the creators haven't publicized any religious beliefs.
Gender
We believe that there should be more diversity in the display when it comes to gender among the authors. There were only two genders that were discovered while collecting information about the authors. 31% were female and 57% were male, leaving no spot for other genders.
We discovered that there are only two genders represented on the display when it comes to illustrators. 50% of them were male and 38% were female. Additionally, most of the designers in the books displayed were female, and only 6% were male.
We feel this could definitely be made more diverse in terms of creator genders. There is a definite lack of representation here for authors, illustrators and designers who fall outside of cisgender categories, such as transgender and non-binary individuals.
Sexuality
Only 13% of the authors were represented on the display were part of the LGBTQAI+ community. A large majority (50%) of the authors whose books were displayed were straight with 31% whose sexuality was unspecified.
While still keeping in mind that one book had no illustrator, the majority of the illustrators’ sexuality was unspecified. 37% of the illustrators were straight and 38% were unspecified.
Disability
Out of our 17 books, there were known disabilities amongst any of the authors, illustrators, or designers. This doesn't necessarily mean there weren't any disabilities amongst the authors, just that these creators, if they have any conditions or disabilities, have not made them public.
We concluded that there is not enough diversity represented in the primary characters, authors, illustrators and designers of the Kids' Bestsellers display. While we are happy to have found some diversity, we believe there is still opportunity for more.
We also believe it is important for young readers to be able to find representations of themselves and their communities on bookshelves, both in terms of creators and characters.
While we wish to see equal numbers in terms of diversity on the display, readers of every race/ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and disability should be able to feel seen on bookshelves and to find a reflection of themselves in the books they read. Children, especially, learn from the world and materials they are given, and thus the books they read should accurately reflect the diverse reality of their world. So, as a passionate reader, head on over to your favourite bookstore and seek the diversity in the displays. Pick up the book that speaks to you, and, enjoy. And if the diversity you’re looking for isn’t there, maybe readers should ask why it’s not!