The number of children’s books featuring Black main characters fell by almost 8% last year, according to research into diversity in UK publishing.
...not books chosen by committee because they tick a particular box!
Just 47 – or 2.1% – of the 2,189 books published for under-10s in 2025 featured a Black main character, a 7.8% fall from the previous year, according to Inclusive Books for Children (Ed: another fakecharity). Black children make up about 8.5% of that age bracket in England and Wales.
So what? It's utterly ridiculous to reduce reading for pleasure to a numbers game. Great characters are great characters, and can be enjoyed by anyone.
Representation of south Asian main characters fell by 14.3 percentage points to 1.4%, despite children of south Asian heritage making up about 12.4% of the population of under-10s. Just three books featured main characters of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) heritage, down 50% from the previous year. This represented 0.1% of surveyed books, compared with the group’s 2.2% share of the population.
The author Serena Patel said: “At an age when children are figuring out the world around them and where they fit in, it’s vital they have access to funny, inspiring, adventurous books that reflect both the lives they live and the ones they don’t. We must do better.”
You should have stopped that sentence after 'books', what you added after has no bearing on it.
The survey also highlighted what it described as a lack of “incidental representation”: stories in which a main character’s identity does not explicitly drive the plot of the story.
Make up your minds!
Dr Stella Louis, an early years consultant, trainer and author, pointed to this “continued reliance” on books where identity itself was the story. “Why can’t a child simply be south Asian, disabled, neurodivergent or bilingual and also be the hero of an ordinary story about friendship, adventure, loss or joy?” she said.
Apparently it;s both bad to have characters who are refugees and also good to have them, at the same time, which just goes to show how impossible it is to please these people. So why does anyone ever try?
“As an Arab author, it is painful to see the number of children’s fiction books representing our region decline from six to only three in 2025,” said Nadine Kaadan. She said the fact that all three books published were focused on refugee experiences risked reinforcing a “single story” about the region, defining it through “war and displacement rather than our rich cultures and heritage”.
What heritage would you like to see, your heritage of antisemitism and slavery and misogyny?
And if you're an author, isn't the answer in your own hands?
Jake Hope, a children’s book consultant, said: “When children’s enjoyment of reading is at a significant low, it’s more important than ever that the stories children encounter reflect their lives, identities, experiences and emotions.
Why? Isn;t part of thr pleasure of reading based in learning about other lands or world, and other culture? It alway was for me.
“These figures need to be more than mere statistics and a call to action for continued change and improvements.”
And as this is 'The Guardian' it wouldn't be complete without the obligatory 'Ooops':
This article was amended on 5 October 2026. In an earlier version Serena Patel was misidentified as Sheena Patel. This has been corrected, and an image of Sheena Patel removed. The first name of Jake Hope was also corrected.
Why does anyone believe anything they print?
The people behind all of this "equity" are dangerous. They believe a government should tyrannically enforce the beliefs they hold.
ReplyDeleteWhen you ask them, they say "No, no, no, I don't want tyranny". In this case it's "only" books. "Must do better" usually means "We will force the outcome".
But the result of their actions is always the same: they want people to assume their beliefs. To do that it takes force or coercion and the only organisation with the ability to force or coerce are the government.
Ergo: Tyranny.
'that reflect both the lives they live and the ones they don’t'
ReplyDeleteSo one book with a minority character in for each bunch of whingey whiney immigrant bunch. Lets make then villains and job done.
I'd make all the minority characters saints. Ideal fathers, families, model citizens, workers, turning up on time, model employees. But on the flip side we know that there will be someone saying these are white characteristics and it would be racist to assume a minority person could aspire to any of them.
DeleteA female Arab novelist? Surely she would have no trouble being published and getting her books into school libraries. If they were any good that is.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most delightful books I’ve read was A House for Mr Biswas by V S Naipaul. There was barely a white man in the book. It was enchanting because it was darned good writing. If the moaners wrote to that standard they’d be household names.
Steve
ReplyDeleteFirst principles on any matter concerning so-called 'ethnic minorities' is: we neither asked for or voted to change the demographic makeup of our society. It was forced on us. End of.
I have and idea for a children's book about a young Palestinian boy. Tariq The Terrorist. Wonder if that would ever get published.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it ‘important that stories… reflect their lives’? As a child of 8, I voraciously read about hobbits, otters, pirates, prep school boys, medieval knights and triffids (OK, that last one was a mistake - I had nightmares for weeks), none even remotely resembling me or my own experience, which provided a rich source of enjoyment and food for thought and imagination.
ReplyDeleteTelling children that it is important that what they see (or watch) must represent their own ethnic or cultural identity is a cynical ploy by those promoting CRT and division for their own ends and, sadly, has been embedded in our education system for long enough for its effects to be felt in society as a whole.
Sorry - that last one was me, Macheath.
ReplyDelete