All readers “need to know that they too can be the heroes of a story”, according to the bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars, John Green, who has thrown his weight behind the campaign to increase diversity in children’s books.
“I think we need diverse books because we need to reflect the reality of our communities. and that reality is a very diverse one,” Green has now said in a video made for the We Need Diverse Books campaign. “But also, while it’s important to see yourself in stories – and I think lots of people don’t see themselves in enough stories – it’s also really important to see the other ... And when you don’t see the lives of others in stories, it’s difficult to imagine them complexly and I think that contributes to the essentializing of the Other.”
Green cited two of his own favourite books as a teenager: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon. “To me, diversity in children’s and young-adult literature would mean getting to read stories about all kinds of people and all of those stories having kind of an equal chance to find a broad audience,” he said. “Failing to reflect the diversity in our communities, both in terms of the authors who find a broad audience, and in terms of the stories that find a broad audience, does a disservice to all readers. But especially to those readers who are marginalised. They need to see themselves. They need to know that they too can be the heroes of a story.”
Organised by a group of US-based authors and publishers after Book Expo announced a panel of “Children’s Book Luminaries” who were all both white and male, the campaign began on social media, with a call to “raise our voices into a roar that can’t be ignored”. Organisers have now launched an Indiegogo campaign to bring their message to a wider audience. The fundraiser has raised over half of its $100,000 goal in just a week.
Green, a bestseller in young-adult literature, added his voice to a chorus of supporters that in the UK has included Patrick Ness, who has said that “as a gay kid, I had NO SINGLE BOOK that told me I wasn’t alone. Never again. Not if I’ve got anything to do with it”, and Malorie Blackman, who called on Twitter for “more books featuring kids/YA with disabilities, LGBT, people of colour, travellers, different cultures, religions pls”. A study in March found that just 93 of the 3,200 children’s books published in the US in 2013 were about black people, 69 about Asians and 57 about Latinos.
Blackman, meanwhile, found herself the subject of racist attacks following her plea for diversity in August. She was not swayed, tweeting in response: “hell will freeze over before I let racists and haters silence me. In fact, they just proved to me that I was right to speak out. So thanks so much everyone for your support. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I walk hand in hand with you. #WeNeedDiverseBooksUK.”
Organisers plan to use the money raised to “change the face of children’s literature” through a series of approaches, from bringing diverse books and authors into disadvantaged schools, to launching the inaugural “Kidlit Diversity Festival” in 2016, and recognising “outstanding diverse contributions” by authors through the newly announced Walter Dean Myers award and grant programme.
“Thus far we’ve been a volunteer corps surviving on moxie alone – but we can do so much more with your help,” they say, adding that “though more than half of schoolchildren are minorities – people of colour, LGBTQIA, and/or people with disabilities – the fact remains that too few of these children see reflections of themselves in the books they read. Books are more than mirrors – they’re windows as well. The more kids read, the more they understand not just themselves, but the Story of Us All.”
