It seems to me almost illegal to have quite so many exceptionally gifted authors and illustrators under the one roof. Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books, recently unveiled their list of the 50 best culturally diverse children’s books, celebrating just under 65 years of terrific, representative novels. To honour the list, the Guardian children’s books HQ played host to a party of sorts, attended by a slew of authors, illustrators and general publisher types. The atmosphere was one of friendliness and warmth as the assembled packs of authors and illustrators intermingled; I’ve rarely attended such a welcoming, liberal party of amazing minds.
Seven Stories’ list is, well, a diverse one, with titles from Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, the incredible John Agard (who recently took part in an insightful podcast) and the charming Frank Cottrell Boyce. It would be extremely remiss of me not to credit the superlative illustrators whose drawings always add a splash of colour to the text – like Caroline Binch, David Axtell, Shirin Adl and Karin Littlewood (who couldn’t pick a favourite out of the 50 odd titles, saying, “I’d say you choose one book a week, one book each week for one year”. Sound advice!)
Illustrator Eileen Browne – who wrote and illustrated one of my favourite picture books of all time, Handa’s Surprise – is included on the list of the best culturally diverse books. She told me, “it’s absolutely brilliant to be a part of this list, and it’s great to see so many classic books as well as so many new books on it”. I agree with her entirely; in a list celebrating diversity, there’s a great range of books for different age groups from all decades.
From the mass of talent, one figure reduced the legends in the crowd to mere peasants. The Queen of Teen himself, James Dawson, graced us with his presence and although he wasn’t included in Seven Stories’ list he found time to chat to me about one book in particular.
“Noughts and Crosses [by Malorie Blackman] made me want to write YA,” he said, frankly. “It was an epiphany. I thought, ‘if I wrote a novel, this is what I would want in it’. There’s comedy, drama, horror.” Dawson also cited Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time as another inspirational read.
As the afternoon progressed I was lucky enough to have a moment with John Agard, a man of indomitable spirit and the poet behind ‘Half-Caste’. I asked him how he felt to be on Seven Stories’ list.
“It’s a good feeling... to be in such diverse company,” he said with an infectious laugh. “You can’t deny it because it’s important for children’s books, for young people to be aware. Humanity is made up of many stories.”
The party was halted as speeches were given. Kate Edwards, chief executive of Seven Stories, gave a brilliant opening talk, talking passionately about how children’s literature is, tragically, still not wholly culturally diverse. She was followed by some terrific, individual speeches from the list’s select committee: our very own Book Doctor and the Guardian Children’s Books editor, Julia Eccleshare, Jake Hope (from Youth Libraries Group), library specialist Sarah Smith and the Book Trust’s Katherine Woodfine. It was at this point that the enthusiasm for children’s books and the fight for diversity in kids’ literature nearly overwhelmed me. Everyone in that room was absolutely amazing. If I could bottle that afternoon then I would.
