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| Photo courtesy of Gigi Pagliarulo |
Hello, dear Geisel Guessers, and welcome to Fall 2018, where the issues of representation, equity, and authenticity are more present and more pressing than ever. I’ve been writing this blog yearly since 2016, exploring and working to evolve with these ideas as our understanding of the need for more diverse representation in literature grows. In prior years I’ve discussed the #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #EverydayDiversity movements, and how they relate to beginning readers. Today I’d like to discuss another crucial step forward in the drive towards equality, the #OwnVoices movement.
In 2015, young adult author Corinne Duyvis created the hashtag #OwnVoices on Twitter to highlight children’s and young adult literature where the main character(s) and creators share the same diverse/marginalized identity, as defined by #WNDB. In addition, portrayals of marginalized experiences are also essential for furthering authenticity and equity.
The need for the movement is twofold: first, stories of marginalized groups by majority-group authors have frequently been, as Kayla Whaley writes for Brightly, “rife with stereotypes, tropes, and harmful portrayals”, and even when they are stereotype-free, can never reach the true “nuance and authority that comes with writing from lived experience.” In addition, authors and illustrators from marginalized communities have been deeply oppressed by persistent institutional bias in the publishing industry, struggling to get their voices heard while their own stories are co-opted, inauthentically portrayed, and turned into damaging stereotypes. Year after year, research has found that the numbers of diverse characters, creators, and members of the publishing industry are inequitable.
While the genre of beginning readers is one known more for Everyday Diversity than specific portrayals of marginalized experiences, and yet the need for a multitude of diverse stories to be told and characters portrayed authentically, free from harmful representations and with appropriate nuance is something that children learning to read need as desperately as the rest of the reading (and pre-reading!) population. It can never be said enough: all people, particularly children and particularly children from marginalized groups, need to see themselves accurately portrayed in books, and creatorship has a vital role to play.
Librarian Amy Forrester, one of the excellent editors of this blog, performed a diversity audit of the early books and transitional readers in her large public library system’s collection. The results are more than sobering, and #OwnVoices author and illustratorship are among the lowest representation out there: “a scant 1% of Early Books authors and illustrators (that's combining them together) are OwnVoices.”
Publishers need to know that we—parents, librarians, teachers, and most importantly, kids, want to read more #OwnVoices stories across all genres. Consider letting some of the major publishers of beginning readers know how you feel! Here are three ways to take action to let publishers know you want more #OwnVoices titles:
- Going to a library conference? Stop by publisher booths and ask a rep for their favorite upcoming #OwnVoices titles.
- If you do any purchasing at your library, contact your vendor and publisher reps and ask specifically for #OwnVoices.
- Use social media to cheer on publishers who put out #OwnVoices titles, and let them you know want more.
In the meantime, please seek out some of the few #OwnVoices beginning reader titles that Amy and her team identified.
Tony Dungy and Lauren Dungy Ready-to-Reads, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton
Find the Cat and The Cat Food Mystery by Gwendolyn Hooks, illustrated by Mike Byrne
Moving Day by Anthony C. Brandon, illustrated by Wong Herbert Yee
My Favorite Foods by Dana Meachen Rau, illustrated by Grace Lin
Ready? Set. Raymond! By Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by Derek Anderson
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