Current work-in-progress July 2019
According to “The Guardian”* in 2018 out of 100 children’s bestselling books only 5 portrayed BAME (black, Asian or minority ethnic) children in a central role.
Out of those 5, in 3 the BAME character was the bad guy. A quarter of bestsellers featured only white people, and in almost 70% of books BAME characters have only non-speaking roles.* I’ll paste the link to “The Guardian”‘s article in comments. Which is why this book will be so important, there will be all kinds of kids, not only in terms of ethnicity, but also body shape, religion, with disabilities. I’m super proud to be working on this:)
*Link to the source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/13/highly-concerning-picture-books-bias-worsens-as-female-characters-stay-silent