Diverse Books for Diverse Learners

               With the amount of diversity in the world today you would figure that there are a lot of different, multicultural books available for children to read.  However there are not as many as you would think.  In reality only about 10% of children’s books that feature diverse families and have multicultural elements.  What’s even more surprising than that number is that according to the We Need Diverse Books organization the 10% of children’s literature that is diverse has stayed the same since 1965.  The children’s literature of today is still predominantly about white nuclear families.

              One of the main ways that children learn about and process the world around them is by reading about different situations.  The lack of range in books complicates this learning process for all children of the world.  For example, the children who are from different cultures or are from diverse families never see themselves in books, instead they are looking through a window into a nuclear families lifestyle.  The lack of diversity in books also affects the white 'majority' children because they are not being exposed to the diversity that is going on around them.  The diverse book movement is not just about books containing different races of children.  It’s much bigger than that; it’s the movement that is trying to get more of children’s literature to feature the new ideals that were not as pronounced in 1965 like, multiculturalism, gender diversity, LGBTQIA, and religious minorities. 

              Children need these books to understand the world around them and how the world is changing.  Most of the books that are diverse are often showcasing the minority that they are about.  These books show off what by saying this is what I am, this is what I do, and this is what it is like.  This type of books are not authentic and do not show the actually variations in the world.  The diverse books in the world should tell a story about a certain culture, ethnicity, or way of life that is real and believable, not just informational.  We need make books that are authentic available for children so that they can process and interact with the world around them.

Big Books for Big Learning!

In Early Childhood Education many students come into preschool, kindergarten and sometimes first grade without being able to read. One of the ways as teachers to help children read is by the use of Big Books. Big books are children’s literature books on a larger scale for children to follow the teacher more easily read along. Teachers can use Big Books to model reading, help children connect the sound of words with the words on the page and help children engage in the text. Teachers using the big books should point to each word while saying them and model reading from left to right. This shows children how to correctly read the book from left to right and that the words on the page actually have meaning. According to  "Reading-Like Behavior" by Doake big books help children portray reading like behavior, which is rehearsing the reading that was shown for them. Also big books help draw children into the book by the engaging them in the reading and being able to see the pictures. Teachers should use these big books to engage children in the lesson being taught and how to begin the stages of reading.