Reading Our World: Multicultural books
Ann Lazim, Librarian at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, discusses the current state of multicultural publishing in the UK.
The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education in London recently organised a multicultural book fair and discussion forum about the current state of multicultural publishing in the UK. The holding of such an event brings to the fore some interesting questions.
What do we mean by 'multicultural'? It is often understood to mean any books that feature black and Asian characters - in fact, any culture other than those of people who are white and of European origin. One of the speakers at CLPE’s discussion forum pointed out that the term ‘multicultural’ in relation to books should surely mean literature that reflects the wide cultural diversity within our society.
In the 1970s and 1980s a great deal of concern was expressed about the lack of children’s books featuring non-white European cultures and the negative aspects of some of those that did exist. There were many critical articles and books written, annotated booklists compiled and inservice training courses run for teachers and librarians. The bookclub Letterbox Library was founded, supplying anti-sexist and multicultural/anti-racist books.
During the1990s the whole issue of anti-racism in education seemed to go on the back burner. However, a number of committed individuals and groups kept going and still organised events such as the now late lamented Barnet Multicultural Book Fair.
Many people believe that there are more relevant and culturally diverse books now, but are there? Many ethnic groups within British society are underrepresented or absent, whether as characters in or as writers and illustrators of children's books, for example the Arabs and the Chinese. Using imported American titles can help to fill some gaps but, although valuable, they reflect different cultural experiences.
For example, it is rare to find any British published children's books featuring Chinese people and culture, especially written by authors of Chinese origin. Chinese American author Laurence Yep is fairly prolific. He has written historical fiction about Chinese migration to North America and contemporary novels about living with two cultures in the modern USA. Another US author of Chinese origin is Lensey Namioka. One of her titles Ties That Bind, Ties That Break has been published in the UK by Walker. It is an historical novel about a girl who rebels against having her feet bound. While it is well worth reading, not least for its strong central female character, the fact that this is the only one of Namioka's books to be published in the UK is telling. What about her enjoyable short novels about the Yang family who have moved from China to the USA? We seem only to be interested in books that highlight negative aspects of Chinese culture, such as footbinding, even if they took place well into the past.
A recent example is Sally Grindley's Spilled Water (Bloomsbury), about a girl is sold by her uncle to be a servant and a potential future wife for her employer's son who has learning disabilities. There is no indication of the time period in which the story is set or of the author’s interest in or knowledge of Chinese culture which may have prompted her to write this book. Adeline Yen Mah’s autobiographical Chinese Cinderella (Puffin) makes interesting reading, as does Throwaway Daughter by Ting-Xing Ye (Faber), about a Chinese girl adopted by a Canadian couple who goes in search of her roots. However, they again deal with negative experiences.
One area of multicultural publishing in which there is a comparative wealth of material available is traditional stories, and this is to be welcomed. However, even here there are gaps to be filled. Booktrust's current exhibition collection with its excellent accompanying book guide makes this clear. As a snapshot of what is currently available, it reveals the Eurocentricity of British children's publishing. There are relatively few stories from Africa and the Caribbean featured; this reflects what was submitted by publishers, not Booktrust’s selection policy. (This exhibition is no longer available ed).
The availability of European traditional stories does not extend to contemporary literature. Recently, I’ve been searching in vain for fiction from and about Portugal, as there is a substantial community in the part of London where I work. There are still too few translations and the few that exist are almost exclusively from German, Dutch, French and the Scandinavian languages.
Another issue is that, in this modern business world, children’s books go out of print very quickly if they don’t immediately establish a market. It takes time for teachers and parents to get to know about a book. What is new to teachers is often last year’s news for publishers, with the current strong emphasis on promoting the frontlist to the detriment of some very strong backlists. This applies to most titles, but it often seems to me, as a librarian recommending books to and compiling booklists for teachers and parents, that books by black and ethnic minority authors seem to go out of print disproportionately quickly.
This was brought home to me last year by the following example. (I won't mention the name of the publisher as I don’t want to single them out for criticism. This is a problem shared by all the large corporate publishers.) A book by an African American author was admired by some of the advisory teachers I work with and they wanted to buy several copies to include in a project. We also wanted to add it to the updated edition of our published CLPE Core Booklist. The book had been available in its UK edition for less than a year. When I placed an order, I was astonished to discover that this book was already out of print, having had nowhere near sufficient opportunity to become known among potential readers. I contacted the publisher to express my dismay. They were apologetic but said that the book had not sold well enough. What they did not mention was that another publisher has now produced an educational edition, but perhaps they were not aware of this.
Mainstream publishers say it’s hard to recruit black authors. A recent survey of publishers (see 'Cultural Diversity in Book Publishing Today', a supplement published with The Bookseller, 12 March 2004) revealed that they employ very few people from ethnic minorities in publicity and even less in editorial; this is evident if you attend children’s books conferences and events.
As a librarian working in public and education libraries since the late 1970s, I feel that we have taken some steps forward and other steps back during the last 25 years and would be interested to know whether others share or disagree with my views.
Ann Lazim
Librarian at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education
Chair of the British Section and EC member of IBBY
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