The annual Reflecting Realities report produced by CLPE has been tracking the extent and quality of Ethnic Minority representation in children’s literature for primary-aged children for six years now.

A Sustained Upward Trend

This year’s report found that 30% of children’s books published in 2022 featured racially minoritised characters, a significant increase from the 4% first reported in 2018. The report’s authors welcomed this “sustained upward trend in the volume of inclusive and representative literature”. However, as the report has consistently highlighted over its six year history, quantity is only part of the story. Equally important is the quality of representation:

“As we have discussed in previous reports, increased volume of representative literature must go hand in hand with increased opportunity to encounter high quality and considered representations of racially minoritised characters and casts, as this is what these surveys seek to encourage.” 

What Does Meaningful Representation Look Like?

While this year’s report found that there were still too many instances where the portrayal of racially minoritised characters was vague, tokenistic or formulaic, it also highlighted the growing number of authors and illustrators whose work features authentic, sensitive and nuanced portrayals of racially minoritised individuals, their families and communities.

“What they all have in common is their ability to draw on their intimate knowledge of the realities, communities and cultures they seek to represent and a real dedication to carefully considered research. They in turn use this knowledge and research to shape well-crafted multi-dimensional characters with subtle details that provide enough insight to develop understanding, invite connection and paint a picture in the reader’s mind.”

For minoritised characters to become a meaningful part of the literary mainstream it is also important that they are represented across a range of different genres. The report was therefore encouraged by the breadth of subject matter, themes and narratives in this year’s survey, highlighting exemplary texts across a wide range of genres from fantasy and adventure stories to historical fiction and comedy.

Building an inclusive school library

While the Reflecting Realities report was originally conceived to encourage publishers to produce high-quality, ethnically representative literature to enrich the reading diets of all children, the report is an invaluable guide for teachers and librarians looking to build an inclusive school library and includes a checklist of questions to keep in mind when selecting books.

Determining Meaningful Presence

• Do the characters of colour featured in the books we stock reflect the UK population and the world at large, not as a tick box exercise but as a meaningful and accurate representation of the interconnected, diverse society within which our children are growing up?
• Are characters of colour central to a broad range of narratives?
• Do characters of colour exist across a range of genres and within both fiction and non-fiction?
• Are there a variation and balance of themes explored in the titles in which characters of colour feature?
• Have we been attentive to the position that a character of colour holds in the narrative? What position does the character hold? What is the dynamic within the cast? What is the extent of their agency and contribution to the plot?
• Have careful research and consideration been exercised to ensure respectful, nuanced and layered portrayals of characters of colour?
• Are characters of colour well developed and authentically portrayed? How effectively are their being and personality conveyed?

Ensuring Breadth and Balance

• Are readers able to encounter varied portrayals of characters of colour, depicted with a range of personalities and represented as experiencing a full spectrum of emotions in the books we stock?
• Is the content of our titles balanced, allowing for cultural specificity without reducing characterisations to derogatory stereotypes or one-dimensional shorthand?
• Have we assessed the balance of our stock to ensure that characters of colour are not predominantly defined by their struggle, suffering, exceptionalism or ‘otherness’?

Valuing the Creatives

• Does our stock reflect the diversity of creative talent available? Do we feature established and new authors from a range of backgrounds who are able to paint characters and worlds with the integrity that the subject matter deserves?

Exemplary Titles

This year’s report highlights a number of exemplary texts across all three of the categories covered by the survey – picture books, non-fiction and fiction. You can find many of them in this list compiled by Books for Topics.