Why the books on our shelves should be as diverse as our society

When Lynsey Pollard became a mother ten years ago, she realised it wasn’t just single mothers who were lacking representation in children’s books – the issue extended to race, disability, family set-ups, gender, culture, class and basically anything that fell outside of a middle class, white, nuclear family.

As a consequence, Lynsey set up The Little Box of Books – a book subscription service which aims to diversify children’s bookshelves in order to reflect the society around us, because every child deserves to see themselves represented in the books they read.

Lynsey, 44, said: “When I became a single mum nearly ten years ago, I looked back at children’s stories and discovered that while society had moved on, books hadn’t. So there I was, a single parent, not seeing myself and my son represented in stories at all.

“Stories also didn’t have representations for people of other ethnicities, or sexualities. It was very much stuck in 1950, presenting tropes to the world about what life looks like, that weren’t true.”

According to a report by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education only 5% of children’s books released in 2019 had a main character from an ethnic minority.

Whilst it’s a stark improvement from 1% in 2017 – it still doesn’t compare to the 38% of children’s books which feature animals as main characters, leaving 33.5% of the UK school population, who are from minority ethnic backgrounds, underrepresented.

So, why is it important our bookshelves represent how diverse society is? 

Above: Lynsey Pollard, co-founder of Little Box of Books

When Lynsey Pollard became a mother ten years ago, she realised it wasn’t just single mothers who were lacking representation in children’s books – the issue extended to race, disability, family set-ups, gender, culture, class and basically anything that fell outside of a middle class, white, nuclear family.

As a consequence, Lynsey set up The Little Box of Books – a book subscription service which aims to diversify children’s bookshelves in order to reflect the society around us, because every child deserves to see themselves represented in the books they read.

 Lynsey, 44, said: “When I became a single mum nearly ten years ago, I looked back at children’s stories and discovered that while society had moved on, books hadn’t. So there I was, a single parent, not seeing myself and my son represented in stories at all.

“Stories also didn’t have representations for people of other ethnicities, or sexualities. It was very much stuck in 1950, presenting tropes to the world about what life looks like, that weren’t true.”

According to a report by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education only 5% of children’s books released in 2019 had a main character from an ethnic minority.

Whilst it’s a stark improvement from 1% in 2017 – it still doesn’t compare to the 38% of children’s books which feature animals as main characters, leaving 33.5% of the UK school population, who are from minority ethnic backgrounds, underrepresented.

 So, why is it important our bookshelves represent how diverse society is? 

Lynsey, from Gloucestershire, explained: “Children deserve to see themselves represented in stories and see they’re worthy of being included, and that people like them can achieve brilliant things.

“If you see it, you can do it. It gives children something to aspire to when they’re able to see that other people like them have paved the way.”

And it’s not only important for children who find themselves underrepresented, but those who are overrepresented too.

“For kids who are overrepresented, it helps them to see that everyone is worthy of a story.

“While they often dominate the narratives, it’s actually really important for my white middle class son to see stories about disabled people, people with two mums, or two dads – so he can understand what an equal society looks like.”

According to Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s 2019 study, only 3.4% of children’s books have disabled main characters, compared to a statistic from Scope that 9% of children in the UK have a disability.

“In this country, racially and culturally, we’re very diverse and our books need to reflect that in order to keep children understanding what society looks like.

“If your bookshelves don’t reflect everyone, then you’re not going to have an equal society,” Lynsey added.

Realising that diversity in children’s books was lacking, Lynsey curated a bookshelf for her own son which included a diverse representation of people from all parts of society.

“Lots of people started asking me about it and from there, I realised I could make a business out of it.

“We created the Little Box of Books subscription service in 2018 and started selling inclusive books to schools and homes.”

She explained that it’s important for children to be able to see that their normal isn’t the only normal. “To bring up children to be understanding and respectful, they need to understand that everyone is equal and everyone matters.

“That begins with understanding that no one family is ‘normal.’”

“Some people will get up in the morning and their mum will put on jeans and make them breakfast, in other families mum will put on her hijab and go out to work. But if we constantly tell children there’s one way to be normal, it becomes aspirational for kids who are outside of that norm. 

“But there is no such thing as normal – so the sooner we can break that down, the better.”

The issue of diversity also extends to gender, as many children’s books still feature traditionally stereotyped families where the mother is given the care responsibilities, while the father goes to work. 

Lynsey said: “When I go to pick my children up from school, you see dads doing the school run with baby carriers on. 

 “They’re very involved in childcare but in children’s books, you generally only see the mum picking the kids up from school.

“Being a mum is also often the character’s only identity, so there’s a lot of work to be done to create equality in children’s books that shows men and women are equal. They can both work and manage families.”

And seeing representation helps things to feel more normal when we do come across them, Lynsey added: “Our society is made up of very diverse family set-ups, but books still don’t reflect that.

 “My son gets picked up from school by his step-dad (he doesn’t call him that) but you won’t find a positive representation of a step-parent in many children’s books.

 “That’s got to change in order for us to recognise that families look different, and to stop perpetuating stereotypes.”

 Lynsey explained part of the problem lies with parents encouraging children to read books from their own childhood. And whilst this is great for giving parents the chance to reminisce and a good dose of nostalgia, it also promotes stereotypes from a time when society wasn’t as inclusive as it is now. 

 “There was recently a conversation about Roald Dahl and whether his books should be rewritten but the fact is, there are millions of brilliant books and authors that represent all kinds of different people that also don’t cement damaging stereotypes we’ve lived with for years, but that challenge them.

 “Yet we end up in schools telling children, through the stories that are available to them, what a woman’s role is and what men are supposed to do. 

 “Parents and teachers have this nostalgia when it comes to children’s books. We tell them to read Roald Dahl because we read it, but there’s so many damaging stereotypes included in his books – so why can’t we just move away?”

 “David Walliams is an absolute classic example. He’s in every supermarket or bookshop and he’s championed in schools, yet his books are full of really damaging stereotypes. 

 “I had to answer a question from my eight-year-old son about what page three was. It doesn’t exist anymore but it’s in a David Walliams book – why is the main character finding rude magazines under his dad’s bed? 

 “Why is this the standard for children when what we could be doing is pointing them in the direction of incredible authors such as Nadia Shireen and Ross Montgomery. 

“Instead we’ve got this reductive nostalgia ridden stuff that is telling kids that there’s a normal way to be that anything outside of that is ‘woke nonsense.’”

Lynsey explained that children need to be aware of social injustices and have the ability to create new, cohesive communities where other children aren’t bullied because of where they’re from. or the colour of their skin. 

“We need children to be reading books that teach them that no matter our differences, we are all one society and they themselves are an integral part of creating communities where everyone is welcome. 

“But we’re not doing that with children’s books – can you imagine most schools don’t even have a library anymore? It’s a really vital part of society crumbling.”

For children growing-up in certain areas, books are the only way they are able to see a truly diverse representation of society. 

 Lynsey explained: “If you’re in a school in Gloucestershire, like my son who’s nine years old is, then you’re not going to hear about racism unless there’s a black kid in your class.

“So those kids go all the way through primary school without hearing about racism, and then suddenly they’re introduced to it in secondary school.

“By then we’ve missed an opportunity to start educating our children about these topics before it becomes a problem.

“I’m coming at this as a middle class white parent, with a white son, who’s able bodied, but who knows what his sexuality will be? It’s really important for him to understand he is part of a very diverse population – even if he doesn’t see it around him everyday.”

Whilst the issue of diversifying children’s bookshelves is clearly a work in progress, there are some authors who are already leading the way.

“A great example is What Happened To You by James Catchpole,” Lynsey said. “The protagonist is a young boy who has limb differences and all he wants to do is play in the play park but everytime he goes, kids come up to him and ask him ‘what happened to you?’ 

“He spends his whole time coming up with all these fantastical reasons why he has this limb difference – but all he wants to do is just play and get on with it.

“It teaches kids that curiosity is brilliant, but people don’t owe you their medical history. You have to be able to see beyond disability. 

“All that kid wanted to do was play, so it’s encouraging children not to ask all of those questions and just accept people as they are.”

Lynsey all suggested Race Cars by Jenny Devenny, a book about white privilege, and The Queen Engineer by Susan Hemming.

“It’s a brilliant book about gender,” said Lynsey. “Another thing we don’t see enough in children’s books is gender equality. 

“Try and find a single working woman in a children’s book, who’s not a hag or a beautiful princess. You won’t find them. Representations of women are poor in children’s books.”

And it’s not just about diversity for characters in the book, but also the authors behind them. Lynsey explained: “Historically, publishing has been an extremely white, middle class industry. 

“Therefore the stories that have been written have been from their nostalgia, or their ‘normal’, so they represent a very narrow part of society.

“It’s really important that characters have been created by people who have that lived experience and therefore show authentic representation”

Whether it’s their gender, race, culture, disability, class, or family – children deserve to see diverse representations of themselves in the books they read.

Because if they can see it, then they can be it. How else are children supposed to achieve their dreams, if they can’t see someone else who has achieved the same in the stories they read?

Lynsey Pollard

Lynsey is the co-founder and director of Little Box of Books, helping primary schools diversify library and classroom bookshelves. She is an avid book reader and buyer who has worked a lot in TV and later as a humanitarian and charity communicator.