Why children’s books need black, Asian and minority ethnic characters

I recently visited a library in Kent to meet children from nearby schools, and there was one Indian child in a group of 90 – which is quite normal for most schools I visit across the country. He couldn’t hide his joy when I revealed that my stories are from India.

These moments make author visits worthwhile.

I witness this over and over again during my school visits: children experiencing the joy of finding themselves and their culture represented in books, like discovering an ice cream flavour they’ve never tried before.

Young children don’t consciously know they need representation in books. But if every primary school classroom had a bookshelf full of diversity, and every reading list was inclusive, every child in the class would experience the joy of seeing themselves represented in the books they read.

Growing up in India, I was brought up on a diet of adventure books from the West. I almost treated the Famous Five’s expeditions and Nancy Drew going to Honolulu as fantasies – things that I’d never ever be a part of.

Where I did see Indian characters in books, they were gods and legends, not ordinary kids like me.

If I had read children’s books like the Enid Blyton adventures I loved, but with Indian protagonists, I might have been open to exploring more of life’s adventures, instead of limiting myself to traditional choices. I might have become an author two decades sooner, rather than working for a bank, if I’d had role models to look up to.

Today when I visit schools, I see that children from Asian and Black backgrounds often write stories about white protagonists because, like me, they’ve never seen themselves in books.

When children don’t encounter strong BAME protagonists or only see BAME characters as sidekicks in books, they tend to apply what they see to real life. They assume adventures and saving the world are best left to their white peers.

Right from nursery age, children relate the characters in books to their own situations. So by not creating strong BAME protagonists, we’re denying these children the opportunity to build self-confidence, courage and leadership. They absorb the subconscious message, ‘you don’t belong here.’

White children also suffer when we don’t consciously offer different perspectives of our society through books. Without showing them diversity, we’re in danger of raising a future generation that fears differences and denies their BAME peers an equal place at the table.

From fiction to non-fiction, poetry to fairy tales, if every child read books featuring different ethnicities and cultures, it would open up new paths to walk on, avenues to explore and worlds to discover. And if every primary school teacher consciously looked for inclusive books, they would create classrooms that thrive on differences.

When I do assembly talks, I often make the children pronounce my name and they giggle, because it’s unfamiliar to them. Then I tell them the story of how I’m named after the brightest star of the day I was born, and that my name also means ‘painting,’ and they stop laughing and are eager to share their own stories about names. That is the power of stories: they can transform classrooms into engines of empathy.

Stephen King said, ‘Books are a uniquely portable magic.’ For that magical adventure to be relevant to all children, we need to share books that portray an inclusive cast of protagonists doing ordinary everyday things like celebrating birthdays, having a tantrum, worrying about a new sibling and being superheroes. This demonstrates to every child that we are all similar despite our obvious differences, and any one of us can be a hero in our own story.

Today’s young learners are tomorrow’s teachers, train drivers, doctors, scientists and parliamentarians. Adding a little diversity and empathy into their daily diet of stories will create a society where no one feels disadvantaged or held back by their ethnicity, and where we celebrate differences instead of ignoring or vilifying them.

Chitra’s books are published in the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. She often visits schools and libraries to teach creative writing and tell stories.

Book recommendations supported by BookTrust Represents, a project created to promote children’s authors and illustrators of colour, reflecting the increasing diversity of families in the UK.