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Re: Multicultural Statistics for 2013
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From: K.T. Horning <horning_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 08:22:21 -0600
I think Ed Sullivan has gotten to the heart of the problem here. The children's book buyers at Barnes & Noble wield incredible power. If they
(and I believe there are about five of them nationwide) think "Black books don't sell," they won't stock them, and they, in turn, tell the publishers they won't, so the publisher is less likely to publish them in great numbers. Then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the books aren't there for people to buy. One answer to this is to continue working to restore funding to school and public libraries so they go back to having a greater share of the market. Teachers and librarians who are serving increasingly diverse populations are demanding books that reflect this diversity in the communities they serve.
I think, though, we are always quick to blame the book stores and the publishers. We consumers and librarians have to take our share of the blame. We've been too quick to accept a mindset that children always have to identify with the race or ethnicity of the character in a book. Surely children of color need to be able to find books that show kids who look like them. They already have access to plenty of books with white kids in them -- 78% of books published in 2013, for example. and they read them. They read Hunger Games and Harry Potter and Divergent and the Percy Jackson series. We expect children of color to read books about white kids all the time, and they do. But what about the white kids? How often are we giving them books, whether as gifts or reading assignments (outside of Black History Month), that feature children of color? Do you ever buy Ten Nine Eight as a baby gift instead of Goodnight Moon?
The poet Alexis DeVeaux once said "Buying a book is a political act." I think of her words often, whenever I am in a bookstore, trying to decide whether or not to buy a book, or which book to buy. If we want to see more multicultural literature, we have to buy the ones the ones that are already out there.
--KT
On 2/4/2014 7:01 AM, sully_at_sully-writer.com wrote:
> I'd argue the bias against multicultural books is intentional,
> Claudia, and that it's driven largely by economics. There's still a
> pervading (and erroneous) belief that multicultural books will not
> sell well because minorities are the only ones who will buy them and
> that minorities do no read. This is not necessarily the belief shared
> among the editors who would want to acquire these books but by the
> accountants they have to answer to in the corporate structure they
> work in who care only about the bottom line. Editors with publishers
> that are corporate-owned cannot publish the books they want if the
> accountants overrule them. Indies obviously want and need to money to
> stay in business, too, but they are more willing to take risks which
> is why I think a disproportionate number of multicultural titles are
> published by indies.
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 08:22:21 -0600
I think Ed Sullivan has gotten to the heart of the problem here. The children's book buyers at Barnes & Noble wield incredible power. If they
(and I believe there are about five of them nationwide) think "Black books don't sell," they won't stock them, and they, in turn, tell the publishers they won't, so the publisher is less likely to publish them in great numbers. Then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because the books aren't there for people to buy. One answer to this is to continue working to restore funding to school and public libraries so they go back to having a greater share of the market. Teachers and librarians who are serving increasingly diverse populations are demanding books that reflect this diversity in the communities they serve.
I think, though, we are always quick to blame the book stores and the publishers. We consumers and librarians have to take our share of the blame. We've been too quick to accept a mindset that children always have to identify with the race or ethnicity of the character in a book. Surely children of color need to be able to find books that show kids who look like them. They already have access to plenty of books with white kids in them -- 78% of books published in 2013, for example. and they read them. They read Hunger Games and Harry Potter and Divergent and the Percy Jackson series. We expect children of color to read books about white kids all the time, and they do. But what about the white kids? How often are we giving them books, whether as gifts or reading assignments (outside of Black History Month), that feature children of color? Do you ever buy Ten Nine Eight as a baby gift instead of Goodnight Moon?
The poet Alexis DeVeaux once said "Buying a book is a political act." I think of her words often, whenever I am in a bookstore, trying to decide whether or not to buy a book, or which book to buy. If we want to see more multicultural literature, we have to buy the ones the ones that are already out there.
--KT
On 2/4/2014 7:01 AM, sully_at_sully-writer.com wrote:
> I'd argue the bias against multicultural books is intentional,
> Claudia, and that it's driven largely by economics. There's still a
> pervading (and erroneous) belief that multicultural books will not
> sell well because minorities are the only ones who will buy them and
> that minorities do no read. This is not necessarily the belief shared
> among the editors who would want to acquire these books but by the
> accountants they have to answer to in the corporate structure they
> work in who care only about the bottom line. Editors with publishers
> that are corporate-owned cannot publish the books they want if the
> accountants overrule them. Indies obviously want and need to money to
> stay in business, too, but they are more willing to take risks which
> is why I think a disproportionate number of multicultural titles are
> published by indies.
-- Kathleen T. Horning Director Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park St Madison, WI 53706 http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc horning_at_education.wisc.edu 608-263-3721 (phone) 608-262-4933 (fax) --- You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a message to... ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu ...and include only this command in the body of the message: set ccbc-net digest CCBC-Net Archives The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net and enter the following: username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Tue 04 Feb 2014 08:22:46 AM CST
