Research & Data

At the Diverse BookFinder we’ve collected, coded, and cataloged thousands of trade picture books published since 2002 depicting Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC). Using these data we provide real-time information about who (which BIPOC characters) is depicted in trade picture books, and how (what messages these stories send), to enable deeper conversation and change.

Data shows that books featuring BIPOC groups are consistently lower than books featuring animals or white characters annually

The number of books featuring characters of African descent has increased over the past 15 years, but it’s still sadly low

Our data is available to the public — live and free for your use.

Finding high quality picture books featuring BIPOC characters can be difficult.

Beautiful Black Bird Children’s Book Festival addresses this problem by bringing high quality picture books to you, with engaging activities.

COMBATING CHILDHOOD BIAS

“But, children don’t see race. They’re colorblind, right?”

The truth is that even infants are capable of seeing the physical differences that have been used to create racial categories (e.g. skin tone, eye shape). Infants who come from a place where their race is the majority, for instance, are likely to demonstrate a preference for these faces and become more adept at recognizing them, in part because they learn to scan them more thoroughly.

Balanced exposure to faces of the same and other races can combat this. Babies are not biased, but, in our highly segregated world, the seeds for unconscious bias are planted as babies. One way to address this is by examining images of other-race faces with your infant.

BUILDING INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

Psychological research has well established the pervasiveness of different forms of prejudice in children under the age of ten years.

Picture books have demonstrated an ability to affect attitude development and intentional behaviors in young children as evidenced by our own research using cross-group books, or books featuring characters having friendships across difference.

DEVELOPING LITERACY

Black and Brown children are better able to retain and recall plot and character information after reading books featuring characters who look like them.

Picture books provide a vehicle for parents and children to connect and share when they depict stories to which Black and Brown parents can relatelate or may be written in a language they can best understand.

These shared reading experiences support the development of strong literacy skills and familial closeness; two necessary components of academic success.