There has been a lot of attention lately about "white washing" book covers and crazy disproportionate numbers of white protagonists to well, non-white protagonists. And at first, I thought to myself that what did it matter as long as kids were actually reading???
But as I thought about it more and more, I began to wonder what does that say to all those kids out there that might be Asian, African-American, Latino, Native American, etc?? That their race and identity doesn't merit main character status? That something is wrong with the way a non-white character might look that it's just "not good enough" to make the front cover?
This got me thinking about what I incorporate in my own classroom via reading assignments, and what I encourage my kids to pick up and read off my bookshelves. As I looked around my own classroom library, I realized that my own book collection didn't reflect the diversity I want my students exposed to. But beyond just having a more diverse book collection on my shelf, I want to be able to recommend books to any of my students based on their interests.
Long story short, I came across the following articles with some awesome ideas and suggestions for expanding diversity in literature for students in my classroom. So my plans for summer vacation just filled up with some exciting reading lists!
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